5. Defining talent in organisations
How organisational talent in defined for talent management purposes is a tricky issue, with
no consensus in practice as to what such talent is (Tansley et al., 2007). Some argue that
‘‘companies do not even know how to define ‘talent’, let alone how to manage it’’ (The
Economist, 2006, p. 4). There are marked differences in the extent to which the term talent is
in use in organisational practice. This can range from:
B no use of the term talent in policy or processes and an absence of an organisational
definition;
B some limited use in policy and processes and an emerging understanding of an
organisational definition at certain levels of the organisation; or
B a widespread use of the term in strategy, policy and processes and common
understanding of an organisational definition.
What emerged from the findings of the 2007 CIPD research, in common with other studies, is
that how talent is defined is generally:
B organisationally specific, being highly influenced by the type of industry and the nature of
its work;
B having group-level implications;
B mainly focused on the individual; and
B dynamic and so likely to change over time according to organisational priorities
(Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007).
So we can usefully take three levels of explanation about talent in organisations.