Talent management (TM) is a growing field that concentrates on optimizing human resources so that they provide a sustained competitive advantage to organizations. While successful TM practices are widely understood to include career development, the topics of careers and TM remain largely disconnected in the human resource management (HRM) literature. In this conceptual paper, we review the traditional and boundaryless career literature from a multi‐level perspective, in order to theoretically develop TM, which to date has been consistently described as under‐theorized. We contend that consideration of the functioning of careers within and across individual, network, organization, industry, occupation, and national/global structures is important when developing effective TM practices. To further understand the relationship between careers and TM, this paper develops researchable propositions for future studies, supported by the existing literature.

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