Talent management in small and medium-sized enterprises: towards an integrative multilevel approach in the French context
| Date | 15 July 2024 |
| Pages | 1191-1216 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-12-2023-0634 |
| Published date | 15 July 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Kousay Abid,Sabrina Loufrani |
Talent management in small and
medium-sized enterprises: towards
an integrative multilevel approach
in the French context
Kousay Abid
College of Business, University of Doha for Science and Technology, Doha, Qatar, and
Sabrina Loufrani
IAE Nice Graduate School of Management, Universit
eC
^
ote d’Azur, Nice, France
Abstract
Purpose –This research seeks to unveil an integrative perspective on talent management (TM) in small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly through a multilevel approach and within the French context.
Drawing on dynamic capability theory and focusing on French SMEs as a rich domain for multilevel studies,
the research aims to elucidate how these enterprises operationalize TM while addressing and integrating their
distinct capabilities and requirements, internal dynamics and challenges.
Design/methodology/approach–Through an integrative study based on a qualitative approach, we collect
data from 15 French SMEs. In total, 20 semi-structured interviews with individuals from different levels,
managing and working in SMEs, were conducted and analyzed thematically to identify patterns across all
SMEs. Companies and interviewees represented a variety of sectors such as telecommunication, high-tech,
circular economy, etc.
Findings–We present an integrative multilevel approach through TM in French SMEs, describing how SMEs
operationalize TM. Across three main levels (organizational, collective and individual) and key SMEs’
capabilities, our results underscore the significance of top management commitment capabilities and
SMEs’assessmentcapabilities, the involvement of line managers in facilitating strategic agility and cultivating
the talent ecosystem and the outcomes of TM in driving SMEs’reconfiguration, extending beyond mere
TM-level integrations and articulations. We address these findings for foreign SMEs intending to enter the
French context and SMEs’actors on the importance of contextual issues and level articulations while calling for
future research focusing on group-level and managers’roles in TM.
Originality/value –This article moves the TM research towards an integrative multilevel view in SMEs as a
fertile ground for studying multilevel TM. As part of recent studies on TM in French SMEs within thebroader
European competitive context, it expands the integrative approach in SMEs by accommodating the unique
requirements, the multilevel dynamics and the challenges that they encounter with TM, especially when
compared to multinational enterprises (MNEs).
Keywords Talent management, Small and medium-sized enterprises, French context,
Integrative multilevel approach
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Given the context-sensitive nature of Talent Management (TM) (Alzbaidi and Abu Madi,
2023;Ghosh et al., 2023), talent-related challenges extend beyond large multinational
enterprises (MNEs) or domestic organizations, affecting all organizations, including small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Jooss et al., 2022). Although over 99% of companies in
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and G20 are SMEs
(OECD, 2019), research on TM in SMEs is limited (Collings et al., 2022;Gallardo-Gallardo et al.,
2020). Notably, the role of actors in a specific context, such as HR managers and line
managers, has been overlooked in influencing the conceptualization and implementation of
TM (Alzbaidi and Abu Madi, 2023;Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2020). Scholarly attention has
Employee
Relations: The
International
Journal
1191
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 13 December 2023
Revised 5 April 2024
21 June 2024
Accepted 21 June 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 5, 2024
pp. 1191-1216
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-12-2023-0634
predominantly cent ered on contextualizing TM in larger corpor ations, MNEs, and
non-European contexts (Latukha et al., 2022;Tlaiss, 2020).
Despite the growing consensus on the “best fit”approach to TM and its contextual
relevance (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2020), actual knowledge raises questions about whether
the current assumptions in the TM literature related to these predominant contexts of MNEs
help us understand and explain TM issues, particularly in SMEs. Research has shown that
TM issues vary significantly depending on organizational nature (Ghosh et al., 2023) and
become salient in the resource-constrained environment of SMEs (Jooss et al., 2022). Thus,
SMEs must strategically use their HR and TM to develop new competencies and talents or
adapt current ones to sense opportunities in a constantly changing market (Gilman and Raby,
2013), and seize them for innovation (Razouk, 2011) through implementing TM (Harsch and
Festing, 2020). To deepen our comprehension and tackle the current challenge of resource
scarcity, we concentrate on two fundamental aspects: exploring SMEs as a rich domain for
multilevel studies and developing dynamic capabilities.
On the one hand, addressing the multifaceted challenge of effectively implementing TM
strategies and practices in SMEs requires recognizing the existing gaps in TM literature
about the multilevel approach. TM literature predominantly emphasizes a narrow, generic
and a profit-driven macro (organizational) perspective, while a context-relevant micro-level
analysis is absent (Ghosh et al., 2023). Despite some efforts (Wiblen and McDonnell, 2020),
TM research is still focused on the meso (organizational) level of analysis, with limited
attention paid to individual-level factors (Sparrow, 2019). In fact, TM is a complex
phenomenon, which should be explored at different levels, each with different concerns
(Crowley-Henry et al.,2019) especially in a dynamic context. Thus, the need for multilevel
analysis in TM, particularly in SMEs, will help to understand levels’integration by
recognizing the interconnectedness of individual, groups, business units as well as
organizational factors that affect or result from TM (De Boeck et al., 2018;Renkema et al.,
2016). Furthermore, the absence of level articulations, often referred to as integrations, has
been a notable gap in the existing HR and TM literature (Loufrani-Fedida and Aldebert,
2021). In fact, the fundamental concept of the multilevel articulations involves situating a
lower-level entity, such as an individual or group, within its surrounding context, referred
to as a higher level, such as an organization. This higher level can be further situated
within a broader context, like a network of companies, which is itself part of an even larger
“super-system”(e.g. an industry, country, or environment). Researchers then explore the
interactions between these levels, asking how the higher level influences the lower level
and vice versa. According to Hitt et al. (2007), this multilevel logic involves individuals
being part of teams or working groups, which are embedded within larger organizational
units like functional departments or strategic business units, which in turn are situated
within national or multinational organizations. Traditional TM approaches have
predominantly adhered to a “fixed”and “inventory”model of HR, rather than a
“dynamic”or “integrative”one, as it might not be congruent with the nature of SMEs
(Collings et al., 2019). This rigidity has limited the development of a larger understanding of
SMEs and their operational needs.
On the other hand, TM in SMEs is under-theorized and the TM literature is mostly based
on the Resource-Based View (RBV) framework (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2020), which falls
short in elucidating how SMEs develop ordinary and dynamic capabilities through long-
term TM paths or traj ectories (Teece et al., 1997). As the RBV is considered static with
limited explanatory power (Harsch and Festing, 2020), we still know too little about what
types of organizational capabilities are needed in TM operationalization within SMEs. By
focusing on SMEs, there is a pressing need to shift the research paradigm towards
recognizing and accommodating their distinctive key characteristics (Harney et al., 2022),
with the objective of gaining a deeper understanding of the unique requirements and
ER
46,5
1192
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