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Given the above discussion about the evolution of the concept of ‘talent’, the question therefore, becomes ‘What are talented workers in the 21st Century?’ The 15th century debate implied that Talent was an ‘aptitude’, an ’ability’, etc. Before attempting to answer the questions posed above and a few other questions that might arise thereof, we will initially explore the different definitions of ‘Talent’ in business and management.

The McKinsey consultancy company introduced the phrase ‘war for talent’, and essentially brought the concept of ‘talent’ to the forefront of the domain of business and management. This was due to the shortage of talent, and they thus defined talent as ‘…

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the sum of an individual's abilities, their intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence judgment, attitude, character and drive’ (Michaels et al., 2001, p. xiii). Talent also includes a person’s ability to learn and grow. Their view was that talent refers to the best and the brightest top 10-20 per cent of employees (Michaels et al, 2001) or the top 25 per cent according to Chabault, Hulin, and Soparnot (2012). There are many different definitions of talent, and Table 2.3 provides a list of examples of the different definitions of talent.

Author Talent Definition

Lunn (1992, p. 25) An individual who can use their capacity to achieve a near perfect performance Michaels et al.

(2001, p. xiii)

‘sum of an individual's abilities, their intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence judgment, attitude, character and drive’

Huselid et al. (2005, p.112)

‘A’ players or high performers who engage in work that’s essential to company strategy

Morton and Ashton (2005, p. 29)

Executive management team leaders, directors, and A-player managers in all functions – plus ‘B’-players as potentials

Future business leaders with more strategic capabilities than just operational excellence skills – plus specialist talent able to execute business integration projects on time and to budget

CIPD (2007, p. 3) Talent consists of those individuals who can make a difference to organisation performance, either through their immediate contribution or in the longer term by demonstrating the highest levels of potential.

Poowittayapan (2007)

Talented worker can be distinguished into two types:

-Individuals who are gifted, or have innate abilities. It is not just the knowledge and skills which can be developed. It is the attributes, including self-concept, traits, and motivations. These can contribute the output or out come on the work performance.

-The individuals who can contribute high performance and at the same time having good relationship with the colleague or co-workers. Moreover, they can be the role model in the organisation in term of work performance; as the result produce valuable outcomes.

Tansley et al. (2007, p. 8)

“Individuals who can make a difference to organisational performance, either through their immediate contribution or in the longer-term by demonstrating the highest levels of potential.”

Cheese et al. (2008, p. 46)

“The total of all the experience, knowledge, skills, and behaviours that a person has and brings to work.”

Lehmann (2009, p.157)

Workers not only possess formal qualifications obtained from education but also hold a set of competencies, which are highly personal and difficult to describe precisely. In other words, they have talent – talent to bring needed expertise and ideas to corporations, and talent to learn and execute new processes to prepare for changes

Lewis and

Heckman (2009, p. 141)

1. T talent (high performance and potential) as an unqualified good and resource, which has to be managed according to performance levels…according to specific role or organisational needs.

2. Classify employees according to performance levels (‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ level to denote top, competent, and bottom performer, respectively) organisations are encouraged to manage performance pools of talent generally rather than succession pools for specific jobs.

Silzer and Dowell (2010, pp. 13-14)

-Individual: talented worker is “an individual’s skills and abilities and what the person is capable of doing”

-In groups: talented worker is “a pool of employees who are exceptional in their skills and abilities either in a specific technical area (such as software graphics skills) or a competency (such a consumer marketing talent), or a more general area

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Author Talent Definition

(such as general managers or high-potential talent). And in some cases, it might refer to the entire employee population.”

Silzer and Dowel (2010 p. 75)

“Talent refers to those individuals and groups with the strategic competencies that enable a company to achieve its short - and long - term goals. They exhibit the competencies that will add the most value to customers and in doing so, help to differentiate the organisation from its competition”

Berger and Berger (2011, p. 4)

Talented workers (or super-keepers) are “a small group of individuals, about 3% of the organisation’s employees, who can inspire others to attain superior accomplishment and embody the creed, core competencies, and values of their organization”

Ulrich and Smallwood (2012, p. 60)

Formula of talented workers is “talented workers = competence × commitment × contribution, next generation of talented worker is competent (able to do the work) and committed (willing to do the work), but unless they are making a real contribution (finding meaning and purpose in their work)”

Dries (2013, pp. 278-280) and Thunnissen and Arensbergen (2015, pp. 182- 183)

1. Objective (characteristics) vs. subject (people) — Can these be isolated from each other?

2. Inclusive vs. exclusive approach — Is talent an inclusive (all workers) or exclusive (some workers) concept?

3. Talent as innate vs. acquired ability 4. Talent as input vs. output approaches

5. Talent as transferable vs. context-dependent skill Gallardo-Gallardo

et al. (2013, p. 297)

1. Object approach (characteristic of people) — talent is conceptualised as exceptional abilities and attitudes demonstrated by an individual… (i.e., talent as natural ability, talent as mastery, talent as commitment, and talent as fit).

2. Subject approach (people) — exclusive (e.g. high performers, high potentials) vs. inclusive (all employees)

Mallick and Saini (2013)

Entrepreneurial talent is the combination of abilities, traits, and dispositions that enable a person to mobilise capital to start and operate a new business at his own personal risk in the face of uncertainty.

Uygulamasi (2014, p. 6236)

Talent consists of: information, capabilities, experiences, intelligences, judgments, attitudes, characters and motivations of people

Table 2.1: Definitions of Talent in Business and Management

These definitions of ‘talent’ are wide ranging, and some of the general themes include people “who show potential in the company; namely the leadership, top performers, employees with leadership potential, and employees in “pivotal roles”. Thus for example, D'Annunzio-Green (2008, p. 810) argued that talented workers are high potential and high performance workers who are identified as promotable and have talent, that is, people with talent that organisation values at all levels. D’Annunzio-Green (2008, p.810) further argue that these people have specific skills or knowledge or possess special expertise, which differentiates them from other employees and makes it hard to replace them. This point-of-view is also propounded by Stahl et al. (2012, p. 4) who contended that ‘talent’ relates to “a select group of employees – those that rank at the top in terms of capability and performance – rather than the entire workforce.”

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Meanwhile, Bethke-Langenegger (2012) appears to be more focused on ‘talent’ within the context of management. Accordingly, he argues that;

“…we understand talent to be one of those workers who ensure the competitiveness and future of a company (as specialist or leader) through their organisational/job specific qualification and knowledge, his social and methodical competencies, and his characteristic attributes such as eager to learn or achievement oriented” (p. 3).

Williams (2000, p. 35) echoed this view, and described talent as:

“…a person who regularly demonstrate exceptional ability and achievement over a range of activities and situations..; and those who consistently indicate high competence in areas of activity that strongly suggest transferability...”

Thus according to Williams (2000, p. 35), talent is not just the natural gift, skill, or knowledge; but a combination of practice and motivation of the individual (Abbott & Collins, 2002; Howe, Davidson, & Sloboda, 1998). The combination of practice and motivation include such things as a strategic mind, leadership ability, emotional maturity, and communications skills.

Additionally, Berger and Berger (2011) defines talent as a “super-keeper”, and this is based on a classification of employees according to their potential and value to organisation. The super-keepers are a very small group of individuals, who have demonstrated superior accomplishments, and have inspired others to attain superior accomplishments. They embody the core competencies and values of the organisation. A loss or absence of such employees will severely retard organisation growth because of their disproportionately powerful impact on current and future organisational performance. Robertson and Abbey (2003) view talent as the potential and realised capacities of individuals and groups and how they are organised. This includes those within the organisation and those outside. For future business success, talent is the most important corporate resource, because those with talents are smart, sophisticated, technologically literate, globally astute, and operationally agile (Fishman, 1998, p. 104). Ready, Conger, and Hill (2010) gave another notion of talent when referring to them as high potential and thus able to deliver strong results, and also master new type of work quickly.

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Besides ‘talent’ in general, other researchers have focused on managerial talent, defined as a person who possesses the combination of having a strategic mind, leadership ability, emotional maturity, and communications skills. Furthermore, a person with managerial talent has the ability to attract and inspire other colleagues or subordinates, has entrepreneurial instincts, functional skills, and the ability to deliver results (Michaels et al., 2001). Additionally, Preece, Iles, and Chuai (2011) argue that ‘talent’ should possess the ability to create, acquire, transfer and apply knowledge.

Thus, ‘talented workers’ should be able to create value and contribute above average values to their work place, which helps organisations to gain short-term and long-term success (Iles, Chuai, & Preece, 2010; Tansley et al., 2006). Consequently; Fishman (1998) and Lawler (2005) argue that for future business success, talented workers are the most important resource. This is due to the fact talented workers are smart, sophisticated, globally astute, and operationally agile. Ready et al. (2010) gave another notion of talented workers, identifying them as ‘high potential’ with an ability to deliver strong results, and learn new types of work quickly. It can be concluded that the term ‘talented workers’ refers to the individuals with high potential at all levels of the organisation who have the motivation to perform and they can influence their counterparts as role models, which will lead to business success.

Since talented workers are vital to business success, individual organisations should have clear and specific definitions of ‘talented workers’. Research conducted by the Tower Perrin Consultancy Company indicated that 87% of their respondents used the term ‘talent’ to identify employees but none of them used the same definition. The research also concluded that the definition of talent should be dependent on the organisation’s business strategy, type of firm, the overall competitive environment, etc. (Iles, Chuai, & Preece et al., 2010; Tansley, 2011). Tansley (2011) also found that there was no single universal contemporary definition of talented people, which strengthens the observation that there is no term that sufficiently describe talent and a lack of consensus (Gelens et al., 2013; Iles, 2013; Iles, Chuai, & Preece, 2010; Tansley et al., 2013; Ulrich & Smallwood, 2012). Thus in this research, we will explore how the hotels identify their talented workers in this industry.

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In conclusion, it is noted that the term ‘talent’ refers to the individuals with high potential, in key positions of the organisation are motivated to perform and can influence their counterparts as role models, which will lead to business success. Since, talented workers are vital to business success, individual organisations should have clear and specific definitions of ‘talented workers’. This ensures that they can recruit and retain ‘precious individuals’ who can create value, and contribute above average value to their work place, and thus lead to organisation success in the short-term and long-term (Gallardo-Gallardo, 2013; Iles, 2008a; Tansley, 2011; Tansley et al., 2007).

The research conducted by the Tower Perrin Consultancy Company drew very interesting conclusions when noting that 87% of their respondents used the word ‘talent’ to identify employees but that also none of them used the same definition. The research also concluded that the definition of talent should be dependent on the organisation’s business strategy, type of firm, the overall competitive environment, etc. (Iles, Chuai, et al., 2010). The research also affirmed the view of Tansley (2011) that there is no single universal contemporary definition of talented people (Tansley (2011). This leads to a lack of universal definition of talented workers, and as result each organisation will need to work towards understanding the specific talented workers profile that fits best with their culture and structure (D'Annunzio-Green, 2008, p. 809). This also has the added danger that there will be a lack of ‘industry-wide’ drive towards ‘universal standards and training’. Consequently, many organisations today might invest resources in describing the behaviours that they would like to encourage in talented workers but these will vary from organisation to organisation.

From the ensuing discussion, an interesting observation from all the definitions is the fact that there appear to be no common agreement on what ‘talent’ is? These wide variations in definitions lead to the following questions - “does talent refers to people (subject) or to the characteristics of people (object)? Is talent more about performance, potential, competence, or commitment? Is talent a natural ability or does it relate more to mastery through practice? Is it better to take an inclusive or an exclusive approach to talent management?” (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2013, p.291). Furthermore, should we include all employees in the hotel as talent or not? If not, who should we include and why?

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Therefore, while discussing the question of who are ‘talented workers’, four aspects are considered. These aspects are discussed in turn below.