Factors influencing the development of employees, participating in the Talent Development Program, of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden
Master thesis, MscBA, specialization Human Resource Management University of Groningen, Faculty of Management and Organization
January, 2010 Final draft
IRIS I. WYBENGA Student number: 1337394 Verlengde Nieuwstraat 28A
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION ... 4
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 5
2.1 Talent and Talent Development ... 5
2.2 External Factors ... 6 2.3 Internal factors ... 8 3. RESEARCH METHOD ... 11 3.1 Participants ... 12 3.2 Data Analyzing ... 13 4. RESULTS ... 13
4.1 The Definition and Competences of Talent ... 14
4.2 Factors influencing the Development of Talent ... 15
5. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION ... 21
5.1 Talent ... 21
5.2 Factors influencing Talent Development ... 22
5.2 Limitations ... 23
5.3 Theoretical and Practical Implications ... 24
REFERENCES ... 26
APPENDICES ... 28
APPENDIX A Talent Development Program ... 28
ABSTRACT
1. INTRODUCTION
This thesis is written for the Organizational Development and Leadership department of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden (CSPIJ). Corus Strip Products IJmuiden, a division of Corus Staal B.V., manufactures hot rolled, cold rolled, and metallic coated steels for many industries. They include the automotive and transport industries, building and construction, consumer appliances and electronics, and general engineering. Their customers are car producers, automotive suppliers, specialized tube manufacturers, steel service centers and re-rollers. The strip products are also used in construction, packaging, household appliances and yellow goods. Corus Strip Products is located in IJmuiden and employs 9.500 employees.
With Corus Strip Products IJmuiden all employees, who complete a Master or Bachelor education, are before the age of thirty, are employed by Corus Strip Products IJmuiden for less than five years and for who Corus Strip Products IJmuiden is their first or second employer, participate in the Talent Development Program (TDP). During the program the employee participates in various courses and training programs with the objective to get a clear view and understanding of the company. This enables the company and the employee to form an image of his or her interests, motivation, strengths, and weaknesses and to decide whether employee and employer would like to continue their relationship. The program, which stretches for approximately three years, exists of two phases. A short overview is presented in appendix A.
The name suggests the program is focusing on talent development. However, based on recent evaluation it became clear that the program is more focused on introduction and socialization. Although the organization is convinced of the effectiveness of socialization and introduction the program should change in such a way that it actually develops talent. The need to change the program is based on the strategy of the organization: “best supplier to best customer”. To achieve this strategy, Corus had made it his goal to attract and develop the best people. To develop the best people it is needed to have an effective Talent Development Program.
Before talent can be developed however, it is important to specify the definition of talent. In addition, what competences, further to be called talent competences, are needed to contribute to the strategy of CSPIJ? An equally important question to answer is which factors are influencing development. After all, these answers will have consequences for the content and structure of a Talent Development Program that facilitates the development of the best people. Therefore the following central research question and sub questions need to be answered.
Which factors are influencing the talent development of employees participating in the Talent Development Program of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden?
To help answer the central research question two sub questions are formulated.
• Which factors are facilitating and inhibiting in talent development and how?
The theoretical framework which will be discussed in the next chapter will elaborate on the subject of talent and talent development. Before talent can be developed it is important to specify what is meant by talent and which factors are influencing talent development. This will be described in the next chapter. Interviews, which will be described in chapter three, will be conducted to research which factors are influencing the talent development of employees participating in the Talent Development Program of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden. The results of the interviews will be described in chapter four and the research questions will be answered in chapter five.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Many authors describe the importance of attracting, developing and retaining talent (Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, and Michaels 1998; Holtrop, 1999; McCauly & Wakefield, 2006). The problem however, is that many authors describe the importance of talent development and talent management but fail in describing a clear statement of what they mean by talent. Proposed definitions are often a mélange of different concepts strung together (Reilly, 2008). Much discussion is for example going on about in- or excluding components like creativity (Renzulli, 1986:65) or wisdom (Sternberg, 2004:65) in the talent domain. As a consequence of this debate different terms and concepts as for example giftedness and competence are often used as synonyms for talent (Gagné, 2004a:80). Another discussion is going on about being talented as a consequence of innate capacities i.e. giftedness (Simonton, 1999 ; Simonton, 2008) or as the result of development (Gagné, 2004b:120 ; Tannenbaum 1986:33). In this thesis therefore, it is important to start with an outline of the talent concept at CSPIJ. After that a conceptual model of talent development will be introduced.
2.1 Talent and Talent Development
Talent is a concept that cannot be described in a single definition. One of the reasons for this is that being talented in one domain does not mean a person is talented in another domain. Furthermore, the definition of talent can differ among organizations. Talents are organization specific and the characteristics of a talent are dependent on the core competences needed to realize organizational goals (Fulmer and Conger, 2004). Therefore, before talent can be developed in an organization, it is needed to specify what is meant by talent. In addition, what competences should be developed?
Every department requires different talents. However, there are also talents useful for the whole organization despite the department the employee is working in. Based on this information it is decided to start the research specifying talent as a set of competences described in table one.
TABLE 1
The Talent Competences of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden Competences
Organizational sensitivity Learning ability
Goal and result orientated Vision
Initiative
It first might be helpful to explain what is meant by the different competences described in table one. Organizational sensitivity means being aware of the consequence and influence of decisions and behaviors of other people. Learning ability, on the other hand, is not only being aware but also be able to learn from these and other experiences by interaction, cooperation, and communication with other employees and managers and to apply the new learned in the work setting. The competence vision is based on the ability to formulate an inspiring future image of the organization with all her facets based on challenges, possibilities and threats in the wider world. The competence initiative means translating these challenges, possibilities and threats for the daily work and take appropriate action upon it. Talents who are goal and result orientated will focus on achieving goals no matter which possible problems, failure, distraction and resistance they need to face.
Although a talent has much more other characteristics besides competences, a choice is made to define talent as a set of competences because a competence represent a combination of personality characteristics, capacities, knowledge and abilities sufficient to contribute to organizational goals.
Effective talent development seems difficult as can be concluded from a research of McKinsey (1998). From 6000 executives of large US companies only three percent says their companies develop people effectively. Maybe a reason for this deficiency is that talent development is influenced by multiple interacting factors. These factors can be internal or external and can hinder or facilitate talent development. With internal factors is meant the personality characteristics of the individual while environmental conditions can be described as the external factors. The environmental factors will be described next while the internal factors will be described later in this section.
2.2 External Factors
when provided effectively, feedback from peers and managers can be a facilitator in the development of the competence learning ability because it helps the employee to learn from his or her experience.
In sum, employees can develop the competences organizational sensitivity and vision most effectively by spending time to challenging assignments and tasks others than they perform in their daily work in multiple parts of the business. Guidance of line managers by providing effective feedback and help employees to learn from their experiences is essential in this development. When time is provided and employees participate in projects in other parts of the business but do not receive support and feedback when the project fails the employees will not develop learning ability The factors described above are all external factors in the environment of the employee that can contribute to the development of the competences vision, learning ability and organizational sensitivity. However, talent development is, as argued before, a consequence of the interaction between external and internal factors. As Renzulli (1986: 60) explains: “giftedness is a condition that can be developed in some people if an appropriate action takes place between a person his or her environment and a particular area of human endeavor”. Therefore in the next section the focus will be on the internal factors contributing to or inhibiting talent development.
2.3 Internal factors
Although external factors can contribute to the development of multiple employees this is not the case with internal factors. Internal factors playing a role in talent development differ for every employee. Furthermore, although it is possible to make a clear connection between the development of some of the competences and the influence of external factors on this development it is much more difficult to make this connection with the influence of internal factors. The influence of external factors on talent development in general is more easily to describe than the influence of internal factors on the development of specific competences. One of the internal factors that play an important role in talent development is self perception. According to Feldhusen (1986:120), self perception consists of a clear view and understanding of one his or her talent and abilities, and a sense of one his or her social and affective relationships with other talented individuals. Although performance is influenced by the positive or negative self perception of the individual, the reverse is also true. As confirmed by many authors Tannenbaum (1986: 41) explains: “those who think of themselves as talented will try to act as though they were in order to match their projections with their self perceptions.” This could mean that a person who thinks highly of themselves will easily take initiative while a person with less confidence will not. Thus a positive self concept (Feldhusen, 1986:120) is an important facilitator in talent development of initiative while a negative self perception can hinder this development.
positive self image has a direct influence on the development of the competence initiative it also has a direct influence on courage, another factor influencing talent development. According to Goud (2005), courage is the energizing catalyst for choosing growth over safety needs. Fear, one of the dimensions of courage according to Goud (2005), is often a consequence of a lack of self confidence and decreases the courage of an employee. When a person is not courageous this will inhibit talent development because he or she will never develop the competence initiative and neither will have the courage to pursue goals in case of resistance. This example shows the important interaction between internal factors e.g. self perception and external factors e.g. line management. Line management should help the individual to build self confidence so the individual will be able to face fear, be aware of risks and possibilities which will facilitate the courageous act (Goud, 2005). In sum, although a positive self image is a factor playing a role in the development of initiative and goal- and result orientation, it can also positively reinforce courage. Courage is needed to choose growth over safety. A positive self image can be facilitated by the support and guidance of line management.
characteristics of a task contributes to the increasing or declining probability that an individual will select it. In this situation this would implicate that the values of an individual determine whether the individual will persist in his or her task or not. An employee will be only interested in developing if this development is aligned with the values of the employee. The values of an employee can thus be an inhibitor in talent development. On the other hand when values of the employee are congruent with development activities and goals this could reinforce the motivation of an individual.
Ambition also plays an important role in the development of competences. Spenner and Featherman (1978) describe ambition as an attitude or a complex of attitudes about the self in relation to specific sets of objects in achievement situations. Ambition contributes for example to the development of the competence learning ability. As described before learning ability is the ability to learn from successes and failures in new situations. Ambition can facilitate this process because ambition drives a person out of his or her comfort zone and facilitates the process of identifying new situations as in stretching assignments and challenging tasks from which the employee can learn. Ambition gives rise to determining future goals based on the needs and the capabilities of the individual. Furthermore, ambition reinforces the motivation to persist in achieving difficult goals.
As described above, future goals are partly determined by the needs of an individual. These needs determine which goals the employee wishes to achieve. Employees can have different needs. The need for self actualization is however, most facilitative in the development of competences. In addition, when the need to increase one his or her skills and the worth to the self, the employer or society become salient (e.g. self actualization), the attainment of one his or her goal typically lead to the setting of an even higher goal (Latham, 2007:130). Needs thus acts as a guide for behavior in a specific working context (Latham, 2007:130). Therefore, it is important that the needs of the individual are congruent with the development expectation of the organization. Namely, if the employee strives for fulfilling different needs he or she will develop in another direction. As is written in Latham (2007: 128) greater deficiency in a need, increases one his or her intentions to act on the need. This would implicate that the goal of developing talent competences is in line with the needs of the employee, e.g. the need for self actualization, he or she will set goals for developing those competences. However, if there is incongruence, need frustration will happen and this will increase the fulfillment of other needs, e.g. the need for power.
Although the internal and external factors described above can be very important in facilitating development they are not the only guarantee for success because not every individual has the potential to develop him or herself into a talent for the organization. Therefore the starting point of talent development is the talent potential of the individual. The presence or absence of talent potential is depended on personality characteristics and capacities. Talent potential can also be seen as a predictor for success under the right conditions.
To conclude, talent development starts with the prerequisite of possessing talent potential. This potential can be developed into talent. This process is however influenced by multiple interacting factors that can hinder or facilitate talent development. Based on this, the following conceptual model, as can be seen in figure one, is suggested. In the next chapter will be elaborated how the conceptual model is used, to research if the internal and external factors, described in figure one, were of influence on the talent development of employees, participating in the Talent Development Program of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden.
FIGURE 1 Talent development
Talent Development
External factors: Internal factors:
Time Self perception
Task (Challenge) Courage
Line management Motivation
Values Feedback
Ambition Needs
3. RESEARCH METHOD
3.1 Participants
The goal of the interviews was to research if the factors mentioned in the conceptual model in the theoretical section actually played a role in the talent development of employees participating in the TDP of CSPIJ. Additionally, it was important to research if the talent competences established by employees and managers of the Human Resource Department were acknowledged by employees and managers of other departments. The departments who had relatively the most employees participating in the Talent Development Program were asked to mention three employees, who participated in the Talent development Program, and who were considered talented by their managers. The employees and their managers were informed about the purpose of the research, and the nature of the questions.
In total, ten employees and five managers were interviewed in a time frame of approximately three weeks. Two different interviews were developed, one for the managers, and one for the employees as can be seen in appendix B, document B1 and B2. At the beginning of each interview the interviewee was told the time the interview would take, and that the answers of the participants would be treated anonymous. Because the interviews were held in the Dutch language they had been translated in English afterwards.
Employees. During the interviews the employees were asked to describe the competences and other characteristics needed to, in their opinion, be successful at Corus Strip Products IJmuiden. In addition, which talents are needed at CSPIJ? This question was necessary to research if the talent competences mentioned by the HR department were congruent with the talent competences mentioned by the employees. Furthermore, they were asked which competences they developed during their participation in the Talent Development Program. However, after several interviews it became clear that many interviewees had the opinion that the Talent Development Program had not contributed to the development of any competence. Therefore they were asked to describe the competences they developed during their career at the department they are currently working in. Furthermore, they were asked which factors were of influence on the development of those competences. To answer this question the interviewees received an overview and explanation, as can be seen in appendix B, document B3, of the internal and external factors that could had been of influence on their talent development. Because most interviewees mentioned among the talent competences other competences they were also specifically asked which factors, in their opinion, would be most facilitating in the development of the talent competences.
document B3, on the talent development of their employees. Also the managers were asked to describe which factors would be most facilitating in the development of the earlier mentioned talent competences.
3.2 Data Analyzing
Every interviewee received a number and a corresponding letter so it was recognizable in which department the interviewee was working in. The departments were labeled A, B, C and D.
Talent definition. An effort was made to find a common definition of talent. Because the variety in answer was too large, a few arbitrary definitions were described in a table. To answer the question, if the talent competences established by the HR department were acknowledged by the employees and manager of the other departments, it was counted and displayed in a table how many managers and how many employees mentioned a talent competence. Furthermore, to see if there was any agreement between the competences mentioned by the managers and the competences mentioned by the employees within one department it was registered by using the symbols ●●●, ●●, ●, if the competence was mentioned by respectively all employees and managers of the department, by two or more employees and managers of the department, or by only one employee or manager of the department.
Factors influencing talent development. The facilitators and inhibitors as described in the conceptual model in the theoretical section were compared with the facilitators and inhibitors mentioned by the interviewees by counting how many managers and employees mentioned that an external or internal factor had influenced development. These numbers were displayed in a table. The two internal and external factors in both categories, i.e. facilitating an inhibiting, that were mentioned the most were displayed in bold. To elaborate how the factors influenced the development of
employees, remarkable of multiple mentioned quotes were per factor summarized in several tables. Furthermore, a table was constructed which showed which factors are most facilitating in the development of the talent competences. These results were displayed in a separate table by counting how often a factor was mentioned as facilitating in developing a specific talent competence. Also in this table the two factors that were most facilitating in the development of a competence were displayed in bold.
4. RESULTS
will be presented which shows which factors will be most facilitating if specific talent competences need to be developed.
4.1 The Definition and Competences of Talent
In the interviews employees and managers of different departments were asked to describe the definition and or characteristics of a talent at Corus Strip Products IJmuiden. This resulted in an enormous variety of answers. Although the focus of the talent definition in department C seems to be on goal and result orientation, and in department B on people management aspects, e.g. respect and sensitivity, no further lead motive could be identified in the answers. A few quotes from different departments are described in table two.
TABLE 2 The definition of talent
“A talent is capable of implementing improvements in a short period of time” “A talent is capable of thinking in solutions, rather than problems”
“A talent is an entrepreneur, a leader with ambition" “A talent cannot be summarized in a few competences”
“The definition of a talent can differ per organization and even per department”
TABLE 3
Number of times a competence was acknowledged as talent competences by employees and managers Managers (5) Employees (10) Total (15) Congruence Organizational sensitivity 4 7 11 A ●●● B ●● C ● D ●● Learning ability 3 3 6 A ● B ● C ●● D ●●
Goal and result orientation
3 7 10 A ●● B ● C ●●● D ●●●
Vision 4 8 12 A ●●● B ●● C ●● D ●●●
Initiative 4 8 12 A ●●● B ●● C ●● D ●●
Legend: A Department A ●●● Mentioned by all employees and managers in a department
B Department B ●● Mentioned by two or more employees and managers in a department C Department C ● Mentioned by only one employee or manager in a department D Department D
4.2 Factors influencing the Development of Talent
The employees of the different departments were asked which factors, mentioned in appendix B document B3, played a role in their development. The managers were also asked which factors, in their opinion, influenced the development of their employees. The answers to this question are summarized in the table below. To explain how the factors, in table four, influenced the development of the employees quotes of employees and managers are displayed in table five to fourteen.
TABLE 4
Number of times internal and external factors were mentioned as facilitating or inhibiting in talent development
Facilitating Inhibiting
External factors Managers Employees Total Managers Employees Total
Time 3 1 4 1 3 4
Tasks 9 6 15 1 2 3
Management 7 8 15 5 3 8
Internal factors
Facilitating Inhibiting Managers Employees Total Manager Employees Total
Self perception 7 5 12 3 2 5 Courage 6 3 9 - - - Motivation 10 7 17 - 2 2 Values 3 1 4 1 3 4 Ambition 6 5 11 - 2 2 Needs 3 2 5 - - -
The influence of the internal and external factors differs for every employee. The external factors, management and tasks, and the internal factors self perception and motivation, are mentioned most as facilitating by both employees and their managers, as displayed in bold in table four. In all departments the answers given by employees differ from the answers given by managers. Only in department A and department B some agreement was found regarding the internal and external factors playing a role in the development of the employees. Furthermore, it is interesting to see that both internal and external factors are more often mentioned as facilitating factors in the development of employees than as inhibiting factors. Another observation is that managers mentioned themselves more as an inhibiting factor than their employees did. These observations will be further discussed in chapter five.
Next, will be described specifically how the different factors influenced the development of employees participating in the Talent Development Program. These examples are provided by both managers and employees. Moreover, managers and employees described how the factors influenced talent development.
Time. Between employees and managers, opinions differ concerning time an influencing factor. According to several managers, the presence of time can be a facilitating factor. However, the absence of time cannot be used as an excuse for underdevelopment as is illustrated by the first quote in table five. The second quote in table five represents how time hampers the development of initiative.
TABLE 5 Time
“Time can never be an inhibiting factor in talent development. Talents should be able to make time for development”
Tasks. The factor task is seen as one of the most important external factors in facilitating development. The quotes in table six illustrate how the tasks of an employee influence the development of organizational sensitivity and vision.
TABLE 6 Tasks
“If challenging tasks are missing in your work load it can mean that you are only performing routine tasks and that makes it harder to develop yourself”
“By performing tasks that are crossing the boarders of your department you will become familiar with other business. This contributes to the development of organizational sensitivity and helps you to form a vision of the broader organization”
“My tasks should cross the boarders of this department. How can I develop vision if I only perform tasks concerning my own department”
Management. The majority of the employees and managers agree that a manager can facilitate development as is illustrated by the first two quotes in table seven. By playing the role of coach, by identifying causes of failure or underdevelopment, and by identifying interesting tasks the manager facilitates the development of multiple competences needed in the current function. Some employees however, argue that their manager is not helpful enough in facilitating the development of competences that are needed for the next step in the career of the employee. Managers admit, as is described by the third quote in table seven, that they are not stimulating their employees to develop themselves in other departments. Furthermore, the majority of the managers do not focus on the development of specific competences.
TABLE 7 Manager “My manager is my motivator and my inspiration”
“I watch my talent carefully, continue the conversation, monitor their development, and watch both their verbal and non verbal cues”
“It is not my objective to see my carefully trained talents leaving this department”
TABLE 8 Feedback
“I hardly receive any feedback from my manager on the development of a specific competence” “When projects are finished, feedback is provided. This helps me to do better in the future and improve on my weaker points”
Self perception. Managers and employees evaluate self perception an important factor in the development of employees. A negative self perception hampers the development of initiative while a positive self perception is considered an important facilitator in the development of organizational sensitivity, initiative, and learning ability. Too much self confidence however, can inhibit the development of employees when it leads to ignorance.
TABLE 9 Self perception
“if you think you are not capable enough to perform a task you will not take the initiative to pick up that task”
Courage. None of the interviewees mentioned courage an inhibiting factor in the development of employees. However, the factor courage can play a facilitating role as is illustrated in table ten. For example, it is considered as a facilitating factor in the development of goal and result orientation.
TABLE 10 Courage
“Courage is my engine to pick up tasks that are difficult but very effective for my development” “Courage facilitates persistence when tasks are discouraging”
Motivation. As a rule, motivation is the key for development. In addition, this factor is judged the second most important factor in facilitating the development of goal and result orientation, and initiative. Some employees admit that the underdevelopment of competences is caused by lack of motivation as is illustrated by the second quote in table eleven.
TABLE 11 Motivation
“Motivation is the key for development” “I am not motivated to develop those competences”
Values. In the development of employees the factor values can be an inhibiting factor. For example, an employee who valued hard work above all else did not develop the right competences. His drive to just work hard steered him in a wrong direction. For some employees however, their values are contributing to their development as is illustrated in table twelve.
TABLE 12 Values
“I value hard work, persistence, and performance and those values are contributing to my development”
Ambition. Although ambition, even as courage, has been an important facilitating factor in the development of employees it is still mentioned two times as an inhibiting factor. Also, as is illustrated by the first quote in table thirteen, ambition facilitates the development of goal and result orientation, and initiative. In table thirteen is also illustrated why ambition sometimes inhibits the development of employees.
TABLE 13 Ambition
“My ambition drives me to pick up problems on a higher level”
“To achieve my goals and ambitions I need to develop specific competences. However, I am not provided with the opportunity to develop those competences because my manager has different
expectations”
Needs. Needs are neither often mentioned as an inhibiting factor in the development of employees nor as facilitating factor in the development of talent competences. In table fourteen two quotes from employees who explain how needs influenced their development are displayed.
TABLE 14 Needs
“My need for self actualization directs me to develop myself”
“My needs, improve the organization, make a difference, and improve myself are facilitating my development”
factors will play the biggest role if talent competences need to be developed. These results are described in table fifteen.
TABLE 15
Numbers of time factors were mentioned by employees and managers as facilitating the development of talent competences
External Factors* Organizational sensitivity Learning ability **
Goal and result orientation***
Vision**** Initiative Total
Time - - - - 1 1 Tasks 4 3 1 6 - 14 Management 2 - 2 3 1 8 Feedback 6 9 4 1 6 26 Internal Factors Self perception 4 4 1 - 4 13 Courage 1 - 4 - 4 9 Motivation 1 1 6 2 5 15 Values 4 - 1 1 - 6 Ambition 1 1 9 1 6 18 Needs - - 1 - - 1
Legend: * In total four managers answered this question
** According to one manager and three employees the competences is not developable *** According to one employee and one manager the competence is not developable **** According to one employee the competence is not developable
5. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The aim of this study was to research which factors are influencing the talent development of employees participating in the Talent Development Program of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden. To answer this research question two sub questions were formulated. The first question concerned the definition and competences of a talent at CSPIJ. The second question involved the facilitating or inhibiting character of the factors influencing talent development. In this section an answer will be given to these questions after which limitations regarding the research will be discussed. Finally, recommendations for future research will be given.
5.1 Talent
Based on the results described in the previous section it can be concluded that a clear definition of talent is missing in the organization. The departments differ in culture and focus and pursue different goals for talent development. As a consequence, the departments value different competences and therefore differ in managing talent development. Despite the difficulty to formulate a concrete definition of talent it is however needed for effective development. As Reilly (2008) argues, it is obvious that the selection of who is included under any definition of talent profoundly affects the how and what of a talent management program. In other words, how to develop talent if it is not clear what is meant with talent? Furthermore, a clear talent definition provides a common language and objectivity in talent development. Therefore it is needed that the management team of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden develops a set of generic competences, by using the strategy based approach of Evans, Puck, and Barsoux (2002), which represent the personality, ability and skills of a Corus talent. In the strategy based approach generic competences are formulated by studying competences needed for the achievement of the future strategy of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden. The earlier mentioned competences; organizational sensitivity, learning ability, goal and result orientated, vision, and initiative are acknowledged by multiple departments and therefore might be used as generic competences. However, the Human Resource department should research if these competences are acknowledged by the whole organization.
based approach, studies distinguishing characters and competences of high performers in a
specific department or domain and includes those competences in the talent definition.
In sum, a clear definition of talent is missing in the organization. To develop talent effectively it is needed to determine which competences will guide future talent development. These competences can be generic but also department or domain specific and can be established by one of the earlier mentioned two approaches. The different sets of competences can be used in future development processes and provides guidelines for the content and structure of a talent development program.
5.2 Factors influencing Talent Development
Based on the results it is difficult to conclude which factors are responsible for talent development. Even when factors can be distinguished that influenced the development of a specific competence by two or more employees it cannot be said that those factors will always account for the development of that specific competence because the influence of factors can change per individual, per situation and over time. One of the reasons for this might be that talent development is also influenced by a chance factor. According to Gagné (2004b) chance plays besides internal and external factors an important role in talent development because it has his influence on all internal and external factors. Another difficulty with internal factors is that most internal factors not only moderate the development but are also an outcome of talent development e.g. motivation. As Tannenbaum (1986: 41) points out: “Perhaps the most serious difficulty in determining how personal traits figure in high level achievement is that nobody can tell which of these attribute are responsible for human excellence, which are merely associated with it, and which are by-products of it”
As discussed in the previous chapter both internal and external factors are more often mentioned as facilitating in the development of employees than as inhibiting. Especially internal factors are hardly mentioned as inhibiting factor. This might implicate that if talent development is inhibited external factors play a larger role than internal factors. However, some managers are of the opinion that the influence of external factors can be ignored because “real” talents do not need to be encouraged or stimulated. According to Tannenbaum (1986: 44) however, human potential cannot flourish in an arid cultural climate, it needs nurturance, urgings, encouragement and pressure.
External factors. Managers mention themselves more as inhibiting factor than their employees did. A direct explanation for this phenomenon is not available. It might be that employees answered this question in a political correct way or that managers by mentioning different internal factors identified the blind spots of an employee. Furthermore it is possible that because of the different life stages the manager and employee are in they have a different view on what has contributed to development.
and challenging tasks in different departments. However, randomly rotate people in different tasks and projects are not only expensive but also ineffective if not is carefully thought out what development experiences an employee needs. Opportunities thus need to be created for the individual employee. Human Resource managers and advisors should thus pay more attention to talent development and senior management need to take more responsibility for developing their employees. Both the employee and manager need to identify which competences need to be developed, and which tasks or projects will contribute to the development of competences in a specific department or domain. Management should be responsible for providing effective and multiple feedback opportunities and be more in touch with other departments so exchange between departments is facilitated. Furthermore, talent development should have a more prominent role in the tasks of a manager.
Internal factors. Equal to the external factors, internal factors are more often mentioned as facilitating than as inhibiting factors. The factors courage and needs are both mentioned as facilitating factor but none of the interviewees mentioned these factors as inhibiting in talent development. It seems thus that the presence of these factors is desirable but not crucial for talent development. Furthermore, it can be concluded that self perception, motivation, ambition and courage are seen as most facilitating in talent development. For this reason it is important that managers support and motivate their employees so they develop a positive self perception which gives them courage. Furthermore, managers should help employees identify development possibilities so ambition can be developed. Ambition will facilitate the development of learning ability and, goal and result orientation while courage facilitates the development of initiative and, goal and result orientation. The factors values and needs play a relatively small role in talent development. A reason for this could be that whenever the values or needs of an employee are incongruent with the values of an organization, he or she will automatically leave. As a consequence a relatively small amount of employees will perceive the factors values and needs an inhibitor in talent development.
To conclude, all factors plays a role and should be take into account in talent development. When development is not as expected it should be researched which factors inhibit talent development. It is however not surprisingly that it is difficult to conclude which factors contribute to talent development. As described at the beginning of this chapter a clear definition of talent is missing in the organization. The departments differ in culture and focus and pursue different goals for talent development and as a consequence, the departments value different competences and therefore differ in managing talent development. Differences in managing and developing talent account for differences in influencing factors. This even more stresses the importance of a general, overall talent definition.
5.2 Limitations
however. First, although is argued that talent potential is needed for talent development it is not to say that the personality characteristics and capacities are the result of endowment. They can be developed over time. As a consequence it is possible that talents identified as not having talent potential will develop in talents after all. The reverse is however also true. This requires the organization to continually monitor and evaluate employees to identify talent. Furthermore, an employee considered talented in one domain is not necessarily a talent in another domain or department. Therefore, managers should take into account carefully the role requirements of the next status before making predictions on the basis of success in a previous one (Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson, 1986:280). Second, it is not to say that the factors mentioned in the model are the only factors influencing talent development. Third, it is important to emphasize that the definition of talent cannot be seen as a stable set of competences. As Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1986: 271) argue, talent is dependent on changes within the individual and the environment. By changes in the environment the strategy of organization can change which in turn requires different competences to achieve the new strategy. Fourth, the representativeness of the research can be discussed. From the three hundred employees participating in the current TDP ten employees of four different departments were involved in the research. Therefore the answers given are not representative for the whole organization. In future research all departments should be represented by using questionnaires instead of interviews. The final remark concerns the economic crisis. The current economic situation is mainly responsible for the standstill of many courses and training programs. This may have had an influence on the answers of the interviewees.
5.3 Theoretical and Practical Implications
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APPENDICES APPENDIX A
TABLE 1A
The Talent Development Program Phase 1 Compulsory for
employees who followed a Bachelor or Master education
Content
First performance interview After the first three months, the performance of the employee will be discussed with the manager and HR manager. Goals for the future year will be established along with a development plan for achieving those goals.
Production Information Cycle (PIC)
Theory and practice regarding the production of steel Excursions to production units
Shift placement
Intro IJmuiden Functioning of departments Work methods
Ambition and future plans of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden Starters review Discussing current performance in comparison with past
performance Discussing (dis)satisfaction of employee and employer
Phase 2 Only compulsory for employees who followed a Master education
Content
Functional training Training content dependent on department (e.g. marketing training)
Just-for-you training Training content dependent on employee (e.g. communication or presentation training)
International Management Competition
New Generation Providing employees with the basic toolkit for effective change management. Employees are encouraged to develop skills required for initiating change
The Bigger picture A two-day event providing participants an increased awareness of Corus on an international level and an opportunity for
international networking. Different sessions are held to share experiences, learn about culture, work together in teams and talk about career and talent development at Corus
APPENDIX B DOCUMENT B1
INTERVIEW
FACILITATING AND INHIBITING FACTORS IN TALENT DEVELOPMENT AT CORUS STRIP PRODUCTS IJMUIDEN
Manager Name: Department: Date: Seniority: Manager of employee(s): Introduction
With the purpose of finishing my study Human Resource Management at the University of Groningen I am doing research at Corus Strip Products IJmuiden into the facilitating and inhibiting factors in talent development of employees participating in the Talent Development Program. By studying literature I developed a conceptual model, see appendix B document B3, in which I described several factors that are, according to literature, influencing talent development. These factors can be internal or external. Internal factors are factors situated in the person self e.g. motivation, and ambition. By external factors is meant factors that are situated in the environment of the employee as for example the workload of the employee and, the manager of the employee. Based on these factors I would like to research if these factors in your opinion actually had played a role in the talent development of your employees. The interview will approximately take one hour and contains eight questions. Your answer will be treated confidential and in an anonymous way.
Section A Competences and characteristics of talent 1. What is in your opinion the definition of a talent?
2. The following competences are mentioned as talent competences by the HR department of CSPIJ. Which of the below mentioned competences are talent competences in your opinion?
• Organizational sensitivity • Learning ability
• Vision • Initiative
Section B Talent Development
3. Which competences did your employees develop (during their participation in the TDP)? 4. Which of the in the table one, see appendix B document B3, mentioned internal factors played a facilitating role in this development?
5. Which of the in the table one, see appendix B document B3, mentioned external factors played a facilitating role in this development?
6. Which of the in the table one, see appendix B document B3, mentioned internal factors played an inhibiting role in this development?
7. Which of the in the table one, see appendix B document B3, mentioned external factors played an inhibiting role in this development?
8. Which factors from table one, see appendix B document B3, will be most facilitating in the development of the following competences?
• Organizational sensitivity • Learning ability
• Goal and result orientation • Vision
APPENDIX B DOCUMENT B2
INTERVIEW
FACILITATING AND INHIBITING FACTORS IN TALENT DEVELOPMENT AT CORUS STRIP PRODUCTS IJMUIDEN
Employee Name: Department: Date:
Seniority:
Number of years/months participating in TDP: Manager:
Introduction
With the purpose of finishing my study Human Resource Management at the University of Groningen I am doing research at Corus Strip Products IJmuiden into the facilitating and inhibiting factors in talent development of employees participating in the Talent Development Program. By studying literature I developed a conceptual model (see appendix B, document B3) in which I described several factors that are, according to literature, influencing talent development. These factors can be internal and external. Internal factors are factors situated in the person self e.g. motivation, and ambition. By external factors is meant factors that are situated in the environment of the employee as for example the workload of the employee and, the manager of the employee. Based on these factors I would like to research if these factors in your opinion had played a role in your development. The interview will approximately take one hour and contains eight questions. Your answer will be treated confidential and in an anonymous way.
Section A Competences and characteristics of talent 1. What is in your opinion the definition of a talent?
2. The following competences are mentioned as talent competences by the HR department of CSPIJ. Which of the below mentioned competences are talent competences in your opinion?
• Organizational sensitivity • Learning ability
• Vision • Initiative
Section B Talent Development
3. Which competences did you develop?
4. Which of the in table one, see appendix B document B3, mentioned internal factors played a facilitating role in this development?
5. Which of the in table one, appendix B document B3, mentioned external factors played a facilitating role in this development?
6. Which of the in table one, appendix B document B3, mentioned internal factors played an inhibiting role in this development?
APPENDIX B DOCUMENT B3
FIGURE B1
Conceptual model Factors influencing Talent development
Talent Development
External factors: Internal factors:
Time Self perception
Task (Challenge) Courage
Line management Motivation
Feedback Values
Ambition Needs
TABEL B1
Factors influencing Talent Development External
factors
Example of influence
Time Time as in release an employee from obligations, release an employee from daily work, time as in enabling an employee to develop activities in other departments which contribute to long term performance of the employee. Time can be a facilitating factor in the development of the competences vision, organizational sensitivity and learning ability.
Tasks Employees learn most by doing things that they have not done before. Tasks used for the development of talent competences should therefore be challenging and involve aspects that stimulates the talent to develop the desired competences. Example of challenging situations are for example putting people in jobs before they are ready and letting them work in unfamiliar business units.
Line
management
areas, action items for development, identifying possible next assignments and
readiness for the next assignment. Line management can also play an inhibiting role in talent development. In general the problem can be that managers do not know which employee need to develop what competence or they do know what an employee needs to develop but do not able the employee to spend time in developing the competence because they are more interested in short term rather than long term performance. Feedback Effective feedback is facilitating in the development of the competences learning
ability, organizational sensitivity and vision. Reviews should be held about the performance of the employee, tasks outside the functional area, challenging tasks inside the functional area, future vision, short and long term development of the employee, strengths and weaknesses. Effective feedback helps the person to learn from experiences. Internal factors Example of influence Self perception
The self perception of a person determines if a person thinks he or she is capable. A negative self perception can be an inhibiting factor in talent development. People learn most from things they have not done before. A person with a negative self perception will not pick up a new/challenging task if he or she thinks he or she is not capable. Courage Courage gives employees the power to persist even though it seems difficult to
achieve something
Motivation Motivation can have a positive influence on talent development. However, trying to motivate a person extrinsically while a person is more intrinsically motivating can be inhibiting
Values Tasks and assignments used for talent development that are in contrast with the values of an employee can be an inhibiting factor in talent development.
Needs The career direction of a person is among others factors determined by the employee his or her needs. Needs can play an inhibiting factor when the development of talent competences focuses on a different direction.
