Promoting Leadership Development and Talent Management in Modern Organizations

Background

Organizations need effective leadership in order to survive and thrive (Hayward, 2011). The role of leadership is considered as the effective managerial impact that drives results and leads organization (Allayarova, Kalashnikova, & Moiseenko, 2015). Leadership is identified as a critical element in collaborative effectiveness and an element of capacity for joint action (Bryson, Crosby, & Stone, 2006). Leadership development is a lifelong process that involves helping people to work together in a collaborative environment (Carroll & Simpson, 2012). Clayton (2012) indicated the importance of leadership development initiatives being aligned with the organization so that the individual and the organization are simultaneously being developed.

The basic concept of talent management was introduced in the late 1990s, when a group of McKinsey consultants coined the term War for Talent (Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001). Despite the global financial crisis, many regions still face a shortage of skilled labor (McDonnell, 2011; Ward, 2011). Some Western industrialized countries especially suffer from declining population growth rates although employment rates remain stable or even are rising (Ward, 2011). Talent management is one of the most debated themes in human resource management (HRM) theory (Thunnissen, Boselie, & Fruytier, 2013). Talent management systems emphasize the importance of human resource (HR) development and make use of a diverse set of HR practices toward expanding the employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities (Meyers et al., 2013).