The Name of the Game: High-potentials identification and assessment : a comparative study of Talent Management Policies and Practices

The central issue of concern in this research is how organizations deal with their talent pool, and how, through different policies and practices, they manage to identify, develop and retain their outstanding employees, namely, in the terminology of the field, their high-potentials. High-potentials are considered the next generation of leaders. The idea for this research arose out of the necessity to find a clearer definition of high-potential and to identify a framework that allows for a better understanding of the qualities and traits we are looking for. This delineates the orientation of this research, namely to look into motivational theories in order to better understand one of the foundational aspects of potential: motivation. It is about having a better understanding and insight into what kind of goals we are after and why, as individuals and as an organization. In this paper, implicit theories are used to show that having one view or the other can have meaningful consequences on what kind of potential we are looking for. This theoretical background gave significant insights into the field study that included interviewing fifteen senior HR professionals from large listed organizations. The theories presented are key to understanding the "best" possible approaches not in generic terms, but rather according to each company's values and needs.