Talent management: two pathways to glory? Lessons from the sports arena
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-11-2017-0271 |
| Pages | 34-51 |
| Published date | 07 January 2019 |
| Date | 07 January 2019 |
| Author | Juan M. Maqueira,Sebastián Bruque,Ákos Uhrin |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Talent management:
two pathways to glory?
Lessons from the sports arena
Juan M. Maqueira
Department of Business Organization, Linares Institute of Technology,
Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain, and
Sebastián Bruque and Ákos Uhrin
Department of Business Organization, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between financial and operational
performance and the application of two different talent management (TM) models: internal talent
development model and external talent capture model. Comparative case studies of the Football Club
Barcelona and the Real Madrid Football Club allow drawing a definitive conclusion for TM in companies
related to the competitive strategy.
Design/methodology/approach –The two TM models are examined via a longitudinal comparative case
study analysis: FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF. Present paper builds on secondary sources: first, the TM
properties of the clubs were extracted from academic sources and newspapers; second, data used to analyze
the financial performance were derived from SABI database and operational performance was measured as
the effectiveness in winning trophies in football championships (data gathered from Union of European
Football Associations and International Federation of Football Associations databases).
Findings –The case analysisreveals that the two TM modelsoffer equally effective financialand operational
performance outcomes. The internal talent development model would be more useful for companies whose
competitiveadvantage is achieved through differentiation throughteamwork. However, companies thatdo not
achieve a clear differentiation throughteamwork should opt for the external talent capture model.
Originality/value –Talent is one of a company’s most important intangible assets. Although there exists a
growing interest among companies as to the best way to TM, practical models on how to manage talent are
virtually nonexistent. Comparative case studies from the sports arena allow for the extraction of lessons for
companies related to TM and competitive strategy.
Keywords Talent management, External talent capture model, Internal talent development model
Paper type Case study
1. Introduction
In the past two decades, talent management (TM) has become a core part of the managerial
discourse and organizational practices (McDonnell, 2011). One of a company’s most
important intangible assets is the talent of its employees.
The resource-based view of the firm states that certain assets in the organization can
provide dynamic capabilities, which on occasion can be turned into sustainable competitive
advantages due to their nature of being valuable, scarce and hard to imitate (Barney, 1991;
Amit and Schoemaker, 1993). As such, talented employees are valuable resources owing to
their exceptional performance that is both valuable and unique and it would be hard for
another person to imitate their contributions (Gelens et al., 2014). We put the theoretical
focus on the resource-based view of the firm as the majority of the papers establish their
ideas based on this notion (McDonnell et al., 2017).
Employee Relations
Vol. 41 No. 1, 2019
pp. 34-51
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-11-2017-0271
Received 15 November 2017
Revised 22 February 2018
Accepted 23 February 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
In memory of María Eva Escudero-Otero, this study was funded by the research project
ECO2015-65874-P of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the University of Jaén
through its Research Support Plan (2017 and 2018). The authors appreciate the work and assessment
of the editor and the anonymous reviewers.
34
ER
41,1
Just as talent is a critical asset for companies, its management within an organization is
a major issue. In spite of the plethora of TM models, articles that illustrate how to put them
into action are practically nonexistent. For this reason, the area of sport is put to spotlight
and two of the world’s major soccer clubs, Real Madrid Football Club (Real Madrid CF)
and Football Club Barcelona (FC Barcelona), TM models are compared. This perspective
has been chosen as the way that the two clubs approach TM is different, which means that
they are ideal cases for illustrating the models found in the literature. Rivalry in team
sports is also a good mirror of business competition; as in the case of companies, teams
that are bonded, motivated and well-commanded gain competitive advantage over those
that do not possess these capabilities (Groysberg et al.,2008).Therefore,themainresearch
objectiveofthispaperintendstorelatetheexistingTMmodelstothefinancialand
operational results of two high-performing sports clubs by analyzing their TM models.
Di Minin et al. (2014) conducted a similar study about the Italian Udinese Calcio
soccer club. However, their study differs from present one as they focused on attaining
strategic agility only. Moreover, their study was carried out un der circumstances of
environmental scarcity, whereas the two cases presented in this study are not
characterized by such constraints.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the concept of
TM. Then, Section 3 lays out the methodology used in this paper, whereas Section 4 focuses
on differences between the TM model of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF. Section 5 uses
these observations as the basis for describing the two models for managing talent in the
company. The implications are discussed in Section 6.
2. Talent and talent management
For the past two decades, the topic “TM”has been enjoying an increased research
attention due to the assumption that links TM practices to gains in competitive
advantage (McDonnell et al., 2017). The discipline got into the crossfire of investigative
interest with the rise of the McKinsey Group (Chambers et al., 1998) who expressed
pressing concerns about the supply of talent (War for Talent). Since then, the
discipline enjoyed a growing amount of scrutiny that is attributed to the augmented
global mobility, which poses both challenges and opportunities to the human resources
(HR) department (McDonnell et al., 2017), that is, to attract and, in its case, retain talent
(Van den Brink et al., 2013).
As a discipline, TM belongs to the strategic HR management (Lewis and Heckman, 2006).
There is, however, no agreement among academics about a clear definition. Jackson and
Schuler (1990) defined TM as finding the most suitable people for the job at the given time,
whereas Rothwell (1994) put the focus of TM on leadership continuity. Later, Pascal (2004)
identified the significance of TM in the appropriate management of the supply, demand and
flow of talent. Moreover, Redford (2005, p. 20) argues that TM should attempt to make sure
that “everyone at all levels works to the top of their potential.”Lewis and Heckman (2006)
reveal three collections of thoughts with respect to TM:
(1) TM as a collection of HR practices: TM includes the traditional activities of an
HR department, such as selection, recruiting, development.
(2) Talent pools: TM can be described as a set of processes with the intention of
establishing an adequate flow of employees. This includes succession planning and
typical HR practices as well.
(3) Generic view: the concept of talent is lifted above the organizational boundaries
and is defined as “a resource to be managed primarily according to performance
levels”(p. 141).
35
Talent
management:
two pathways
to glory?
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