Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of talent development, define its scope and identify the issues involved in formulating talent development strategies in organisations. Design/methodology/approach-The paper reviews the relatively scant and fragmented literature on talent development processes. Findings-The literature review revealed that talent development is usually discussed as part of a wider talent management process. The literature highlights issues concerning who is the talent to be developed, what competencies should be developed, who drives development, what is the appropriate pace of development and what is the architecture to support the development. Research limitations/implications-The paper is solely theoretical in nature; however, it does identify gaps for further research. Practice implications-The paper raises a number of important questions that should be considered by organisations when they engage in talent development. Originality/value-The paper contributes to a perceived gap in the literature and highlights the issues that come within the terrain of talent development.

A considerable body of research exists on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability (CS). However, there is significantly less on the influence of employees on the adoption of CSR and CS initiatives. Given the centrality of employees as stakeholders in CSR/CS adoption, it is important to understand how barriers at individual, organizational, and institutional levels of analysis influence the adoption of CSR/CS initiatives. An understanding of these barriers will illuminate the potential contribution of human resource development (HRD) to their removal. HRD has a major role to play in changing employee behavior and organizational values and there are significant affinities between HRD and CSR/CS concerning behavior and change. This article discusses a typology of HRD interventions that may be used to address barriers to the implementation of CSR/CS initiatives.

This article reviews the emerging literature on developmental relationships and proposes a typology of relationships. Developmental relationships are defined as either formal or informal relationships where an individual takes an active interest in and initiates actions to advance the development of another. The authors focus on five dimensions of developmental relationships: type, network effect, object of learning, time span of outcomes, and developer style. The authors propose four developmental relationship types: organizational navigator, sponsor of development, grandparent, and friend. The authors also identify implications of their typology for both research and practice.

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