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Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

Table of Contents

Chapter Summary

Learning Objectives

Lecture Outline

Critical Thinking Challenges

Case: Western Union Program Guides Team Development

Supplemental Cases

Extra Teaching Video

Chapter Summary

Chapter 9 focuses on talent management as a strategy to enhance company performance. The

chapter begins by explaining that successful talent management is strategic because employee

development should be linked to the organization’s objectives. Next, talent management itself is

viewed as a source of competitive advantage. Succession planning helps a company keep its

Learning Objectives

After students have read this chapter, they should be able to accomplish the following objectives:

• Identify the importance of talent management and discuss two reasons it may be difficult.

• Explain the importance of succession planning and the steps involved in the process.

• Differentiate between organization-centered and individual-centered career planning.

Lecture Outline

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

HR Headline: Talent Development Leads to Success at Hilton Worldwide

A significant portion of the hospitality industry’s expansion is occurring in areas that represent

desirable destination locations, which currently include regions such as Asia, Africa, and India.

These realities have affected the talent development strategies used by Hilton Worldwide—the

company must adequately prepare its workforce for employment in properties located around the

globe. Hilton organizes its talent and learning efforts and is innovative in the face of

technological changes that shape customer expectations and industry standards.

9-1. Talent Management as Strategy

• Successful talent management is strategic because employee development should be linked

to the organization’s objectives.

• Strategic talent management is the process of identifying the most important jobs in a

company that provide a long-term competitive advantage and then creating appropriate HR

policies to develop employees so that they can effectively work in these jobs.

9-2. Talent Management in Perspective

• Human capital can be a source of competitive advantage for organizations.

HR Competencies & Applications: Managing Talent for Success

Key Competencies: Leadership & Navigation, Critical Evaluation, Consultation, Business

Acumen; HR Expertise: Organization/Technology & Data, Organization/Workforce

Management

The following six pathways can be adopted in whole or in part to achieve success through

managing talent:

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

• Encourage informal learning.

• Revolutionize stale processes.

• Relinquish some control.

• Align strategy, structure, and talent.

• Establish a meaningful, enduring culture.

1. What evidence would you use to convince top leaders that investing in talent can reap great

rewards for the organization?

Students’ answers will vary. They should consider gathering results from other similar

firms.

2. How would you prioritize among the six strategies offered in the text above? Which would

you implement first, second, and so on?

Students’ answers will vary. They should consider prioritizing the items the company is

missing.

9-2a. Talent Management Information Systems and Technology

9-2b. Scope of Talent Management

• The first issue is to identify the types of jobs that will be the focus of talent management

efforts.

o In some organizations, talent management focuses on the CEO and other

executive jobs, rather than more broadly.

choose to leave with the valuable skills gained.

9-2c. High-Potential Individuals

• Some organizations focus talent management efforts primarily on “high–potential”

individuals, often referred to as HiPos, who are individuals who show high promise for

advancement in the organization.

Discussion Starter: Ask students to evaluate the attributes of HiPos shown in Figure 9-2,

and ask students to suggest other characteristics that they think are important for HiPos to

have.

HR Ethics: HiPo or Non-HiPo?

Disclosure of names of HiPos in a company is controversial. Most companies that select HiPos

do not publicly identify them, but they often become known anyway because they receive special

development and training opportunities.

1. How would you suggest communicating the names of those selected for HiPo programs?

Should it be widely known in the organization, or should the list be kept “under wraps”?

Students’ answers will vary. They who choose to release the names should also release the

selection criteria.

2. How can managers deal with expectations HiPos might have regarding their career

trajectory? What can be done to keep those expectations in check?

Students’ answers will vary. They should consider meeting with the HiPos to set career

goals together.

9-3. Succession Planning

9-3a. Succession Planning Process

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

• Succession planning follows logical steps (see Figure 9-3) that are as follows:

o Integrate with strategy

o Involve top management

9-3b. Succession Planning Decisions

• Nine-Box Talent Grid is a matrix showing past performance and future potential of all

employees.

9-3c. Benefits of Succession Planning

• Succession planning is a business imperative that provides for the organization’s

sustainability and success.

• CEO succession should be primarily the responsibility of governing boards and top–

HR Competencies & Applications: Do’s and Don’ts of Succession Planning

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

Key Competencies: Leadership & Navigation, Consultation; HR Expertise: People/Talent

Acquisition & Retention, Strategy/Business & HR Strategy, Organization/Workforce

Management

Many leaders readily acknowledge the importance of succession planning in companies.

However, they often don’t follow that philosophy with action. Research shows that less than half

of executives believe that their organizations do an adequate job of grooming successors.

Unplanned vacancies take about three months to fill, leaving a significant gap in the

organization’s leadership team.

1. What are some possible reasons top leaders fail to create succession plans?

Students’ answers will vary. They should consider that many companies handle their day-

to–day business but procrastinate and don’t plan for the future.

2. What role should the board of directors, HR, and executives each play to ensure effective

succession planning?

Students’ answers will vary. They should consider that managers at every level should

identify the qualities needed in successors and identify employees who could be short-term

replacements for critical positions.

9-4. Careers and Career Planning

• A career is a series of work-related positions a person occupies throughout life.

9-4a. Changing Nature of Careers

• The new career model involves more frequent job changes as well as changes in major

vocational field.

company, length of time in one job, career progression, and career satisfaction.

9-4e. Career Transitions

9-5. Common Individual Career Challenges

• Several challenges are common across a variety of organizations and professions, many

of which deal with leadership issues.

9-5a. Technical and Professional Workers

• Dual-career ladder is a system that allows a person to advance through either a

management or a technical/professional ladder.

9-5b. Women and Careers

• A common career approach for women is to work hard before children arrive, plateau or

step off the career track when children are younger, and return to career-focused jobs

that allow flexibility when the children are older.

HR Highlight: Talent Management Strategies That Support Women’s Careers

Women face a number of career challenges in today’s workplace. While women have made

inroads into entry-level positions and middle management jobs, they have not been promoted

extensively into top-level leadership positions across organizations that operate in a wide

spectrum of industries.

1. What career challenges do you think women face? What challenges are the most common?

Students’ answers will vary. Some of the common issues would be gender bias, maternity

leaves, sexual harassment, work–life balance, and security.

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

• Psychological testing can provide useful information about individuals, motivation,

reasoning abilities, leadership style, interpersonal response traits, and job preferences.

• Well-done performance appraisals can be a source of development information.

HR Competencies & Applications: Leveling Development Focus

Key Competencies: Consultation; HR Expertise: People/Learning & Development

Development needs analysis should be conducted at the task level. The following four

development levels help managers provide appropriate support to each employee on each task:

• Level 1: Enthusiastic beginner

• Level 2: Disillusioned learner

• Level 3: Capable but cautious performer

• Level 4: Self-reliant achiever

1. How would you assess an individual’s capabilities at the task level? What methods would

be most appropriate to determine skill levels?

Students’ answers will vary. They should consider observing the worker completing the

task or evaluating the final result.

2. How would you prioritize the development of skills for a particular individual? Why would

you work on some skills before others?

Students’ answers will vary. They should consider that priorities can be set based on the

organization’s needs or the worker’s abilities. Some skills might be basic foundation skills.

9-7a. Job-Site Development Approaches

• Assigning promising employees to important committees may broaden their experiences

and help them understand the personalities, issues, and processes governing the

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

organization.

9-7b. Off-Site Development Approaches

9-8. Management and Leader Development

9-8a. Problems with Management Development Efforts

• Common problems include inadequate needs analysis, fad programs or training

9-8b. Supervisor Development

• The beginning level for managerial development is the first-line supervisory job.

• Employers may conduct pre-supervisor training.

9-8c. Leadership Development

• Leadership development is expanding a person’s capacity to be effective in leadership

roles.

• Modeling is copying someone else’s behavior.

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

• Leadership coaching is a specific application of coaching.

HR Perspective: Playing the Leadership Game

Financial services holding company BB&T created a game that is accessed as a mobile app to

teach users valuable leadership skills.

1. Download the app from Google Play or the Apple Store and try it yourself. What is your

evaluation of the usefulness of the LEGACY game to test leadership competence?

Students’ answers will vary. Most students will appreciate using a game for learning.

2. How can a game like LEGACY be used within a company to develop leaders? What type

of competition and debriefing might be used in leadership development to promote use of

the game?

Students’ answers will vary. They might suggest tracking employees’ passage through the

game.

Critical Thinking Challenges

1. Discuss what talent management is and why it is a consideration addressed by a growing

number of employers.

Talent management is concerned with the attraction, development, and retention of human

resources. Over half of all HR professionals reported the establishment of talent

management initiatives. The importance of talent management is seen as more crucial as

the demographics of the workforce change. Building talent and retaining it should be a

priority worldwide.

Some forces behind the emphasis on talent management include the following:

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

• Growth in technology capable of automating talent management processes

2. Visit the O*net website (http://www.onetonline.org) and, using the My Next Move Interest

Profiler, complete your “Interest Profile.” Follow the steps through determining which Job

Zone you prefer to receive a list of careers that fit your interests and preparation level.

Discuss what you learned about your interest profile and then evaluate the attractiveness of

the jobs presented and determine what developmental steps you would take to prepare for a

career in one of the occupations.

3. How have the evolving business environment and the emergence of free agent workers

affected make-or-buy talent decisions?

4. Design a management development program for first-level supervisors in a mass-market

retail company. What courses and experiences do they need?

5. You are the HR Director of a large manufacturing company that is approximately 50 years

old. The company has reaped the benefits of a mostly tenured workforce, and many of the

key workers are now approaching retirement age. It is anticipated that approximately 20

percent of the company’s workforce will retire in the next three to five years. To assist the

company with the retirement transition process, you want to present a business case to the

President for a succession plan for several key positions, including the Chief Financial

Officer and Director of Operations.

A. Which internal and external company advisors should be included in the succession

planning process?

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

Students’ answers will vary. They might recommend that outside company advisors

would be major vendors and suppliers that provide their input.

B. The successor employee for the replacement of the Chief Financial Officer and

Director of Operations positions should have an advanced level of work experience

in what key essential functions? How can the company help candidates get these

experiences?

Case: Western Union Program Guides Team Development

In a bid to help leaders increase the level of talent development among team members, Western

Union started a program that established workable development goals for teams by discussing

key issues, which prompted the collective development of managers and employees in teams.

1. What are the pros and cons of focusing on groups in talent development? What support

would be needed in leadership to ensure that the participants get the most out of their

interactions with others?

2. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of GPS? What about Leadership in Action?

How could these programs be improved?

3. How might you use leadership circles to facilitate other forms of talent development in

organizations? Would this approach work well in certain companies over others?

Supplemental Cases

Walmart’s Boot Camp for Top Leaders

This case highlights how a large retail organization prepared its top leaders to work effectively

during a time of high growth and store expansion. (For the case, visit MindTap® at

1. What are the pros and cons of rotating participants from in-class training back to the

worksite every two weeks? What support would be needed at the worksite to ensure that

the trainees get the most out of their hands-on assignments?

2. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of the Leadership Academy?

3. How does the overtone of military-style training impact Walmart’s employment brand?

Would this appeal to particular segments of the labor force? How might it impact the

company’s ability to recruit diverse employees and participants?

Leadership Leverage

This case demonstrates how a health care company utilized talent to better manage the

1. The top managers are very busy people. Why was it necessary to involve them in

leadership leverage?

2. The program took 5 years to get to the end point. Is that realistic, or did it take too long?

Explain why the timing may vary.

This was a large organization with 6,834 employees and includes a wide diversity of

3. Would you let the names of the HiPos out to the rest of the organization? Why or why not?

Students’ answers will vary. I think it will be obvious to many employees and managers

Equipping for the Future

This case shows how one company in the oil industry started a succession planning program.

1. Discuss how NOV’s efforts combine different phases of talent management to reach a

successful result.

NOV starts with focusing on recruitment and selection with its broadening recruiting

2. What are some of the possible advantages and disadvantages of the “draft approach” to

placing candidates in business units?

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

Developed Today, Gone Tomorrow

1. As Ezra’s manager, what would you do to retain him?

It is clearly indicated in the case that Ezra is a “high–potential” individual (or a HiPos) of

the firm. One of the ways for Ezra’s manager to retain him is to have Ezra volunteer for

development in his own time and provide good development opportunities. Also, the

manager should try avoiding the following incorrect assumptions and approaches:

• Thinking Ezra is fully engaged in the workplace

2. What changes would you recommend in the educational aid program?

The employer always runs the risk of employees choosing to leave with the valuable skills

Comments

A real problem exists in this actual situation, but not quite the one defined by Ezra’s manager.

The problem is threefold in that the company is (1) allowing the “developed” people to get away

from the firm (as a result of 2 and 3 below), (2) having a rather unplanned approach to

Chapter 9: Talent, Careers, and Development

developed and implemented.

Extra Teaching Video

On the Job Video: Stew Leonard’s—Talent Development

This short video will help reinforce key points and may prompt additional discussion from the

class.