In this article, we examine the effect of talent identification on employee attitudes. Building on social exchange theory, we analyze the association between employees' perceptions about whether or not they have been formally identified as “talent” and the following attitudinal outcomes: commitment to increasing performance demands, building skills, and supporting strategic priorities; identification with the unit and the multinational enterprise; and turnover intentions. Our analyses of 769 managers and professionals in nine Nordic multinational corporations reveal a number of differences between employees who perceive that they have been identified as “talent” and those who either perceive that they have not been identified or do not know whether they have been identified. We found only limited differences between the two latter categories.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to develop an “HRM-as-practice” research agenda. The authors suggest that the HRM-performance literature would benefit from an actor-centric approach and a focus on activities, and that the HR roles research needs to shift its attention toward a more dynamic perspective of HR work and link this further to performance.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper first provides an overview of strategy-as-practice (SAP) literature, and then review how extant HRM literature deals with three core notions of SAP: practices, praxis and practitioners. Based on this, the paper outlines an “HRM-as-practice” research agenda.
Findings
– Focussing on the intersections between praxis, practitioners and practice, the paper suggests that an “HRM-as-practice” approach can give new insights into first, how people-related decisions are made, implemented and enacted in organizations; second, how employees and other HRM stakeholders interpret and engage with HRM; third, how HR actors become more effective and influential organizational agents; and fourth, what the short-term and long-term effects of these actions and activities are.
Research limitations/implications
– The authors acknowledge the fuzzy and intertwined nature of the practices, practitioners and praxis categories, but believe that their intersections provide a fruitful theoretical lens to examine the practice of HRM.
Originality/value
– The authors use the HRM-as-practice lens to suggest novel research approaches that can shed new light on several open questions within the HRM field.
Dual organizational identification -with both the whole corporation and the local subsidiary -is considered valuable for subsidiary employees, international assignees, and multinational corporations (MNCs). While extant research has examined antecedents of separate targets of identification, it has not fully addressed the challenge of identifying factors capable of supporting both simultaneously. This study examines the influence of individual-and organizational-level factors on the dual values-based identification of foreign subsidiary employees. Drawing on acculturation and organizational socialization theory, we test hypotheses on multilevel data from 793 managers and professionals in 90 foreign subsidiaries belonging to 11 Nordic MNCs. The results show that dual values-based identification is associated with acculturation and first-hand contact at the individual level, and a supportive social context for affective learning at the organizational level. Through its emphasis on higher-order elements that connect different parts of the MNC, rather than those that lead to the formation of in-groups and out-groups, the values-based approach to identification contributes to our understanding of dual identification in MNC subsidiaries, and represents a more positive treatment of cultural diversity. The findings have heightened practical relevance given the emphasis individuals are placing on values congruence in career choices and MNC efforts at instilling shared values.
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