Talent management practices and the influence of their use on employee outcomes via perceived career growth
| Date | 18 September 2024 |
| Pages | 1625-1647 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-05-2023-0245 |
| Published date | 18 September 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Amro Aljbour,Muhammad Ali,Erica French |
Talent management practices and
the influence of their use on
employee outcomes via perceived
career growth
Amro Aljbour, Muhammad Ali and Erica French
QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –Talent management can provide an organization with a competitive advantage. However, little is
known about how human resource practices pertaining to talent management drive positive outcomes.
Drawing on social exchange theory, this study investigates the effect of talent management practices usage on
employee commitment and intention to leave. Integrating social exchange theory and the theory of met
expectations facilitated predicting the mediating role of perceived career growth in the talent management
practices usage-employee outcomes relationship.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected using a survey from 268 employees from eight
organizations from the financial and services industries in Jordan.
Findings –Talent management practices usage has a significant direct positive effect on employee
commitment but no direct effect on employees’ intention to leave. Further, there is pioneering evidence that
perceived career growth mediates the following relationships: talent management practices usage and
commitment and talent management practices usage and intention to leave.
Originality/value –The study provides unprecedented evidence of the effect of TM practices usage on
employee outcomes and the role of perceived career growth in the TM practices usage-employee outcomes
relationship from an underexplored context of Jordon. Our research results contribute to theory development
in TM by supporting, extending and integrating social exchange theory and the theory of met expectations.
Keywords Talent management practices, Usage of talent management practices, Career growth,
Employee commitment, Intention to leave, Jordan
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Talent management (TM) has attracted the attention of human resource (HR) scholars and
practitioners over the past 2 decades for its potential value to organizations. TM is the
systematic planning, acquisition, development, performance management, engagement, and
retention of employees identified as talent (CIPD, 2006;Silzer and Dowell, 2010). Hereafter we
refer to TM-related HR practices (e.g. talent development) as TM practices designed to
manage talent for several positive work outcomes. TM practices may help attract and retain
talent by providing career growth opportunities to employees for their continued
commitment to their organization (Bethke-Langenegger et al., 2011;Collings and
Mellahi, 2009).
Career growth is an important employee need that influences various aspects such as
performance (Ingusci et al., 2019), health (Wright et al., 1993), job satisfaction (Spagnoli et al.,
2018), employee commitment (Weng et al., 2010), and intention to leave (Weng and McElroy,
2012). Scholars recognize the importance of studying perceived career growth as a mediator
for employee outcomes (Spagnoli, 2020;Um-e-Rubbab et al., 2021). Mediation mechanisms
make strong theoretical contributions through explaining how a relationship occurs
(Cornelissen and Durand, 2014;Makadok et al., 2018). Perceived career growth has been
found as a significant mediator in the organizational socialization learning-job satisfaction
Employee
Relations: The
International
Journal
1625
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 15 May 2023
Revised 24 October 2023
18 February 2024
28 August 2024
30 August 2024
Accepted 2 September 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 8, 2024
pp. 1625-1647
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-05-2023-0245
relationship, the organizational socialization learning-performance relationship (Spagnoli,
2020), and the thriving at work-stress relationship (Um-e-Rubbab et al., 2021). We propose
that perceived career growth serves as a mediator in the relationship between TM practices
and employee outcomes. Organizations implement TM practices with the expectation that
they will encourage positive employee behaviors such as reduced intention to leave (Blau,
1964;Emerson, 1976;Gupta, 2019). Perceived career growth may play a critical role in
materializing positive employee outcomes (Ghosh et al., 2013). No study has yet investigated
the mediating role of perceived career growth in TM practices-employee outcomes
relationship.
Employees may perceive that their organization offers a range of TM practices, known as
perceived offering of TM practices (Sonnenberg et al., 2014), but they may use only some of
these offered practices, known as usage of TM practices (Khoreva et al., 2017). For example,
employees’ awareness of the availability of mentorship program in their organization reflects
their perceived offering of mentioning practice, whereas employees’ participation in this
mentorship program reflects their usage of mentoring practice. TM practices usage might be
a stronger predictor of employee processes and outcomes than perceived offering of TM
practices (Khoreva et al., 2017). The TM practices-employee outcomes literature lacks clarity
between perceived offering and actual usage of TM practices. For example, Chami-Malaeb
and Garavan (2013) studied both in one construct. A clear distinction between usage and
offering of TM practices with an unprecedented focus on usage will help improve the rigor of
future empirical research and TM theory development (Meyers et al., 2020;Suddaby, 2010;
Thunnissen and Gallardo-Gallardo, 2019).
TM has been studied primarily in developed countries. Scholars have called for more
context-specific empirical research about TM in underexplored developing countries,
such as those from the Middle East region (Bethke-Langenegger et al., 2011;Caiden and
Sundaram, 2004;Gallardo-Gallardo and Thunnissen, 2016;Iles et al., 2010;Pantouvakis
and Karakasnaki, 2018;Thunnissen and Gallardo-Gallardo, 2019). TM is considered a
pressing challenge in the Middle East region and is needed for its economic growth
(Ali, 2011). It is based on trial and error in this region, and it is still in its infancy phase,
with many countries not been able to develop sound TM strategies (Metcalfe et al., 2021).
This study focuses on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from the Middle East. Jordan is
still an underexplored country for the TM research (Gallardo-Gallardo and
Thunnissen, 2016).
Jordan has gained significance due to its strategic location in the heart of the Middle East
connecting Asia, Africa and Europe (Aladwan et al., 2014;United Nations, 2020). It is
considered one of the most stable and safest countries that plays an international role in the
economic and political stability of the region (Naser et al., 1999;United Nations Jordan, 2017).
Jordan has a scarcity of natural resources but considers human resources as its most
important resource (Aladwan et al., 2014). Only few studies have been conducted on TM in
Jordan (e.g. Al-Dalahmeh et al., 2020;Malkawi, 2017). Al-Dalahmeh et al. (2020) examined
3 TM practices, workforce planning, attracting talent and developing talent in the
information and communication technology companies in Jordan, and found a negative effect
on employees’ intention to leave. Malkawi (2017) studied TM practices in the Aqaba Special
Economic Zone Authority in Jordan and found a positive relationship with employee
commitment.
This study advances our knowledge of TM in several ways. First, it focuses on TM
practices usage and tests social exchange theory (Blau, 1964;Emerson, 1976) for TM
practices usage and its direct effects on employee commitment and intention to leave
(see Figure 1). Second, it extends and integrates social exchange theory (Blau, 1964;Emerson,
1976) and the theory of met expectations (Porter and Steers, 1973) to conduct an
unprecedented test of the mediating role of perceived career growth in the TM practices
ER
46,8
1626
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