Intent vs. action: talented employees and leadership development
| Pages | 200-216 |
| Published date | 02 March 2015 |
| Date | 02 March 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-10-2013-0191 |
| Author | Violetta Khoreva,Vlad Vaiman |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Intent vs. action: talented
employees and leadership
development
Violetta Khoreva
Management and Organization, Hanken School of Economics,
Vaasa, Finland, and
Vlad Vaiman
School of Management, California Lutheran University,
Thousand Oaks, California, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the responses of employees, who are identified
as talents by their multinational enterprises, in regards to leadership development activities. By
applying social exchange and expectancy theories, the authors examine the association between talent
identification, perceived effectiveness of leadership development activities, willingness to participate in
those activities and actual participation in them.
Design/methodology/approach –The data were collected through a web-based questionnaire
entitled “Leadership2020 Talent Survey”. Eight multinational enterprises joined the survey and
delivered a sample based on the target group definition.
Findings –The analysis shows that perceived effectiveness of leadership development activities is
positively associated with willingness of employees to undertake those activities. The results also
reveal that there is no significant association between the employees’willingness to participate in
leadership development activities and their actual participation in those activities.
Research limitations/implications –Given its cross-sectional nature, the authors cannot
completely exclude the possibility of common method bias having impact on the results of this study.
The authors thus call for longitudinal research to examine the nature of causality within the
relationships analyzed in this study.
Practical implications –Managers and practitioners should keep in mind that willingness to
participate in leadership development activities does not always result in actual participation of
employees in those activities. Symbolic representations may be very different from representations in
real-life situations. Investigations that rely on the willingness as a proxy for actual behaviour must
thus be interpreted with caution.
Originality/value –The authors found that employees often fail to act in accordance with their stated
eagerness. According to the findings, there is a clear discrepancy between expressed willingness to
implement certain behaviour and its actual implementation. This study poses a strong bias in
overestimating the likelihood that an employee will engage in a desirable behaviour based on his/her
willingness to do so.
Keywords Career, Leadership development activity, Quantitative, Employee development,
Multinational enterprise, Talent identification, Talent management
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The global economygenerates a competitive environment that is becomingprogressively
more complex, dynamic and uncertain for multinational enterprises (MEs). The current
Personnel Review
Vol. 44 No. 2, 2015
pp. 200-216
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-10-2013-0191
Received 25 October 2013
Revised 28 April 2014
Accepted 14 June 2014
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
The authors are grateful to Hanken & Stockholm School of Economics Executive Education, and
particularly to Dr Sari Salojärvi for providing the data for this research, and to the Foundation for
Economic Education (Liikesivistysrahasto) (Dec. no 2-926-24) for financing this research.
200
PR
44,2
competitive environment has not only influenced the way business is performed, it has
also influenced the way MNEs attract, develop, mobilize, and retain talented employees.
The employees who can effectively manage through this complex, vibrant and often
uncertain global environment are crucialfor MNEs’future effectiveness and sustainable
growth (Caligiuri and Tarique, 2009; Cappelli, 2008). Given the prominence of effective
global leadership,it is not surprising that both academics andpractitioners have become
increasingly interested in ways to develop talented employees and grow successful
business leaders.
Unless the MNE acquires a “high flier”from the open market or another enterprise,
talented employees and future successful business leaders do not appear magically
from nowhere. Successful global leadership is the result of harnessing education,
experience, and personal effort of an employee and channelling this concoction into the
development of someone who is initially not much more than the uncertain potential
(Gagne, 2009). Since “talent rarely arrives fully developed”(Stainton, 2005, p. 42),
talented employees are expected to continuously learn, develop, and then apply new
knowledge, skills, and abilities to the organizational context. Therefore, after talented
employees are identified, many MNEs provide continuous support to learning and
development efforts in order to maximize the potential and performance of these
employees.
Leadership development activities are a crucial tool in building and retaining new
knowledge, skills, and abilities of talented employees. Leadership development activities
are defined as demanding assignments that expand the capacity of employees to perform
leadership roles in the future (Björkman and Mäkelä, 2013). These activities are typically
novel and challenging, associated with problems to overcome, difficult decisions to be
made andconflicts to be solved(Van Velsor et al., 2010). Leadership development activities
involve a variety of developmental undertakings such as international assignments, cross-
national mentors, global rotational programs, and involvement in global teams (Beechler
and Javidan, 2007; Caligiuri and Di Santo, 2001; Lombardo and Eichinger, 1996;
Maznevski and DiStefano, 2000; Mezias and Scandura, 2005).
The importance of leadership development activities has been widely acknowledged
by both scholars and practitioners (Altman and Shortland, 2008; Collings et al., 2007;
Yan et al., 2002). Studies have investigated perceptions of employees regarding
developmental activities (e.g. Kuvaas, 2008). Yet, there is a clear distinction between
intended (i.e. the activities formulated by HR managers and senior management) and
implemented (i.e. as experienced by the employees) developmental activities (Khilji and
Wang, 2006). The field of the actual participation in leadership development activities
by employees beyond employee perceptions has been often referred to as the “black
box”in human resource management (HRM) research (Boxall and Macky, 2009;
Paauwe, 2009). Investigation of the actual participation in leadership development
activities has been addressed as possible venue for future studies as it can further
develop the understanding of the effects of HRM at the work place (Bal et al., 2013).
Several studies have concentrated on the willingness of talented employees to
participate in leadership development activities building on social exchange theory (e.g.
Björkman and Mäkelä, 2013). Although the study of Björkman and Mäkelä (2013)
significantly contributes to the field of HRM, it investigated only one type of leadership
development activities such as willingness to undertake on-the-job-learning. More
studies are needed to confirm the results Björkman and Mäkelä (2013) and to
investigate whether talented employees are willing to undertake other categories of
leadership development activities.
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Intent vs.
action
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