Talent retention: evidence from a multinational firm in France

Date05 June 2017
Pages426-445
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2016-0130
Published date05 June 2017
AuthorHayfaa A. Tlaiss,Pascal Martin,Mahrane Hofaidhllaoui
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law
Talent retention: evidence from a
multinational firm in France
Hayfaa A. Tlaiss
College of Business, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and
Pascal Martin and Mahrane Hofaidhllaoui
Department of Management and Corporate Environment,
École Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales dAngers (ESSCA), Angers, France
Abstract
Purpose While multinational corporations appear to understand the importance of talent retention (TR) for
maintaining their competitive advantage, they continue to struggle to identify and develop strategies to retain
talent. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore how talent is identified, and more importantly, how it is
retained within the context of a multinational firm in France.
Design/methodology/approach This study is exploratory in nature and capitalizes on a case study
methodology through which in-depth, open-ended interviews with partners and managers were conducted.
Findings The findings suggest that TR is approached in an arbitrary and ad hoc manner. They also reveal
that TR practices are mostly motivated by the direct costs associated with a failure to retain talent, and less
with the indirect costs and loss of tacit knowledge. Of considerable interest is the finding that despite the use
of utilitarian power via incentives to promote TR, the focus is mostly on normative power via workplace
culture and organizational norms.
Originality/value This study is the first to explore TR in the context of one of the Big Four accounting
firms in France and among the few to extend the use of Etzionis (1975) model of compliance to TR research
and to a French context. The originality of this study is also derived from its ability to explain the factors
impacting TR, how talent is retained in practice, and the gap between the ideals and reality.
Keywords Talent management, France, MNCs, Big Four accounting firms, Talent retention
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
With the global realization of the unequivocal value of talent as a competitive weapon and a
source of competitive advantage, talent management (TM) has received increasing scholarly
attention over the past decade (Scullion et al., 2016; Thunnissen, 2016). While the fieldof TM
has been criticized as lacking intellectual and theoretical foundations (Scullion et al., 2016;
Tarique and Schuler, 2010) and consensus on its definitions and principles (Collings and
Mellahi, 2009), a number of recent studies have contributed significantly to this field
and its theoretical underpinnings (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007; Cappelli, 2008; McDonnell
et al., 2010; Tarique and Schuler, 2010; Vaiman and Collings, 2014; Vaiman et al., 2012).
Nevertheless, the field is still young (Gallardo-Gallardo and Thunnissen, 2016) and a good
understanding ofwho is considered talented and why is lacking (Lewis and Heckman, 2006).
As the field of TM develops over the coming years (Vaiman et al., 2012), the emergence of a
consensus around TMs conceptualization will be a critical measure of progress.
Another key issue with the current TM literature is the wide difference between the
rhetoric of formal policies and what happens in reality (Vaiman et al., 2012). In a systematic
review of the empirical research on TM in academic peer reviewed journals between 2006
and 2014, Gallardo-Gallardo and Thunnissen (2016) reported that although the
conceptualization of TM is one of the most controversial issues in the field, less than
20 percent of what has been published explores or attempts to understand how TM is
actually conceptualized within organizations. Despite recent evidence suggesting that TM
and talent retention (TR) remain key issues for senior managers in several companies and
economies, and across many sectors (Vaiman and Collings, 2014), few studies have focused
on TR (McDonnell et al., 2010). For example, none of the papers published in the recent
Employee Relations
Vol. 39 No. 4, 2017
pp. 426-445
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-07-2016-0130
Received 4 July 2016
Revised 29 January 2017
9 March 2017
Accepted 9 March 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
426
ER
39,4
special issue on TM in Employee Relations: The International Journal, looked at TR. As the
majority of recent studies are in the form of literature reviews, focusing on global TM and its
relation with human resource management (HRM) (Vaiman and Collings, 2014) and
international human resource management (Tarique and Schuler, 2010), TM decision
making (Vaiman et al., 2012), and/or strategic TM (Collings and Mellahi, 2009), limited
attention has been paid to TR, despite it being the ultimate objective of all TM policies and
strategies (McDonnell et al., 2010). Hence, several authors (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2013)
have called for more studies exploring how talent is organizationally conceptualized,
managed, and retained.
However, it is equally important, as Vaiman et al. (2012) argue, to not lose sight of the
differences in how TM is conceptualized and conducted in different national contexts.
Currently, the field has been criticized for the scarcity of sound empirical evidence on TM
(Vaiman et al., 2012) and TM-related conceptual ideas and models (Lewis and Heckman,
2006; Thunnissen, 2016). In spite of the proliferation of empirical studies, TM scholars argue
that the empirical studies currently available suffer from theoretical inconsistencies and call
for more theoretically rigorous investigations (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2015). Furthermore,
the available TM literature is mostly focused on talent issues in the US context and among
US-based organizations (Gallardo-Gallardo and Thunnissen, 2016; Thunnissen, 2016). While
this is not meant to undermine the contributions that have emerged from the US context,
it is important to integrate broader insights and to explore different perspectives and
contexts (Collings et al., 2011). This criticism is further endorsed in the European context
(Collings et al., 2011), whereby TM studies are much needed and essential given that the
talent supply is expected to continuously decline, leading to almost empty pipelines of talent
by 2020 (World Economic Forum, 2011, p. 11). As the field of TM moves into adolescence,
more knowledge on TM within the European context is critical given that, according to
Boston Consulting Groups (2007) report, TM is one of the five key challenges faced by the
HR profession in Europe, and worryingly, the field in which the HR departments are least
competent. A change of focus is also needed in European contexts: the contemporary TM
literature reflects a narrow view and focus and the majority of mainstream research has
focused on reducing repatriate turnover and increasing employee engagement (McDonnell
et al., 2010), knowing the level of organizational awareness of TM, how TM operates in the
public sector, and the meaning of talent (Gallardo-Gallardo and Thunnissen, 2016), with
almost no focus on TR.
To further advance the field of TM through empirical work and to bring insights from
beyond the US context, the current study explores how talent is identified and focuses on
TR within the context of one of the Big Four accounting firms (BFAFs) in France, (hereafter
referred to as HPM in order to preserve anonymity). Our main objective is to improve
understanding of how TM issues, especially retention, are executed in order to better
understand the gap between the ideals and reality, and how TR practices actually unfold in
a French local context. A thorough debate regarding the definition of TM is beyond the
scope of this study, therefore we adopt Stahl et al.s (2007) broad denition of TM as being
an organizations ability to attract, select, develop, and retain key talented employees.
Our focus on France stems from the paucity of research on TR there. In addition, we
consider one of the BFAFs, among which there is a dearth of research despite raging
turnover rates(Allen et al., 2010, p. 48) and their position as global employers with the
ability to improve global TM practices, especially in TR. Indeed, if TR is investigated in
the context of multinational accounting corporations, the focus of these investigations has
mostly been on reducing repatriate turnover and increasing employee engagement
with minimal attention paid to the strategies used by the BFAFs to retain their talent
(McDonnell et al., 2010). Recent studies interested in BFAFsissues focus on their
globalization and multinational auditing (Alon and Dwyer, 2011), the making of managers
427
Talent
retention

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT