Talent Management – a Paradigm Shift in Human Resources Management?

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit research studies and review papers showing the latest theories, concepts, approaches, practical cases, and trends in talent management (TM). The current dynamic business environment and globalization trends are making organizations rethink their approach to human resources management (HRM). TM continues to be a subject of various interpretations and debates among scholars, human resources professionals and organizations. Furthermore, in the last three years researchers and consultants have identified this field of management as being a knowledge niche and an opportunity for solving problems, and for making optimizations at the individual, organizational (workplace level, system level (production lines, departments, factories, supply chain etc.)), and global levels (mainly for the case of multinational organizations).

This Special Issue aims to focus on TM from theoretical and empirical perspectives, and to bring evidence of best practices and experiences. We welcome international researchers and experts to contribute an overview of the best models and frameworks for uncovering people’s potential, supporting their development and increasing their professional performance. Furthermore, the scope of this Special Issue is to gather a collection of contributions that propose new concepts, approaches, methods and tools for managing talent (from the operational perspective of HRM to the strategic perspective), considering the global business environment disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Having in mind the current turbulent period for HRM, we expect contributions to address research issues related (but not limited) to the following questions:

• How do organizations maintain a balance (or preference) between the talents they need and the talent employees have? How can talent be managed at the organizational level?
• What are the pre-, peri-, and post-pandemic challenges and opportunities in managing the work–life balance related to the better manifestation of people talents? How can talent be managed at the individual level?
• What is the effect of multiculturality (diversity) on TM?
• How can TM affect and model organizational culture and behavior?
• How has the paradigm shifted in the world of TM with the advent of
  e-recruitment and AI technologies?
• How important are the awareness of occupational safety, health, ergonomics and sustainability in attracting and retaining high-performing employees?
• How do workplace cultures entailing toxicity, micromanagement, inflexibility, injustice, etc. affect talented workers, and what are the TM strategies for addressing such issues?

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• Interdisciplinary approach/research/study on TM;
• Empirical evidence of TM models and frameworks;
• Best practices (cases, use cases) of managing talent;
• Performance management vs. TM;
• Understanding human behavior for managing people;
• The vision for the future: strategic human resources or TM?;
• TM and leadership;
• AI/technologies supporting TM;
• Re-engineering of TM after the COVID-19 pandemic disruption;
• Work-life balance and TM;
• TM strategies for stressful, conflictual workplaces;
• Green HRM and green TM;
• Outsourcing of human resources and TM;
• Brain drain issues;
• Restructuring and retrenchment.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Anca Draghici
Prof. Dr. Poh Kiat Ng
Dr. Jian Ai Yeow
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Merits is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• TM
• human resources management
• human resources development
• talent frameworks
• performance management
• human behavior
• human resources technologies
• trends
• workplace stress
• work–life balance