Sorting Talents Out: Talent identification and its consequences

Abstract

Abstract Talent Management (TM) has been argued more important than ever, especially in Multinational Corporations (MNCs). Previous research on the subject has however paid little attention to illustrate how TM processes unfold in practice, and has also neglected the political processes involved. This article mitigates these shortcomings by illustrating how local translations flourished when a TM practice was initiated. This article, based on a field study from a Swedish Medical Technology MNC, further demonstrates TM, and in particular talent identification, as a crucial classification activity, in which talents are sorted out. Our study indicates that a classification system can include a certain degree of heterogeneity that even can produce and maintain rather than dissolve a social order. Despite this, the classification activity proves to be highly political, where some actors become constructed as powerful and some factors become valorized while others become silenced, as a result from power struggles. This study illustrates the micro-politics of the use of classifications in the daily practices of one organization.