NATIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURAL IMPACT ON TALENT MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: CASE STUDIES FROM GREECE

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Abstract

Organisations today are investing in the efficient management of their talented workforce, known as talent management (TM) in order to bear fruitful outcomes in terms of corporate sustainability. Some businesses choose to include all employees in their TM strategy–inclusive TM–whilst others only include the highest-performing employees−exclusive TM. It has been suggested that no matter which TM strategy they implement, contextual factors such as culture seem to drive the degree of their application. Thus, the rationale for this research is in determining the cultural factors that trigger the exercise of TM.This study’s aim is to analyse the extent to which TM strategies are impacted by national and organisational culture. In addition, it seeks the critical exploration of TM in the context of key human resource practices (HRPs); the critical investigation of TM’s application; the critical examination of national and organisational culture; and finally, the degree to which both types of culture affect TM’s application. This study follows a conceptual framework which sets national culture as the independent variable, organisational culture as the mediating variable, and TM as the dependent variable. The body of theory overviewed is relevant to TM’s concepts and its interrelation to both human resource management (HRM) and human resource development (HRD). Predominant national and organisational cultural frameworks are also overviewed. This research’s sample includes six case studies from northern, central and southern Greece and adopts a mixed-methods approach using primary data collected through questionnaires and interviews, and analysed through SPSS and thematic analysis. Among the key findings is that national culture indirectly drives the adoption of specific TM modes through the development of certain corporate cultures. Additional findings shed light on the contemporary conception of ‘talent’ and ‘TM,’ as well as on the association between national and corporate culture. This study significantly contributes to knowledge by bringing in evidence from the business environment while also discussing implications for practitioners regarding the parameters that influence both their decisions and actions.

Keyword(s)

HRD; HRM; cross-cultural management; national culture; organisational culture; talent management

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