Exploring the links between talent philosophies and talent management in service organizations

Purpose In line with recent trends in the human resource management literature that address talented employees and their management, the purpose of this paper is to examine the associations between talent philosophies (innate/developable and exclusive/inclusive) and the way talent is identified and assessed in the context of service organisations. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was administered in shipping companies located in Greece and 125 questionnaires suitable for further use were collected. Moreover, the measurement instruments of the constructs under examination were adopted from relevant studies in the literature. Finally, the data were analysed through exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Findings The findings showed that the different talent philosophies impact upon the way talent is managed (i.e. identified and assessed). Specifically it was found that managers who adopt mainly innate and exclusive talent philosophies tend to rely more on their first impressions in the identification of talent and to focus in a greater extent on their personal judgment rather than standardized procedures in talent assessment. Originality/value Despite the increased academic voices on exploring the concepts of talent and talent management in the context of business organisations, the field is still lacking empirical evidence. Therefore, this study contributes to the limited empirical studies on talent issues and provides evidence on the links between the dominant talent philosophies and the way talent is identified and assessed in organisations.