Introduction: The Next Wave of Emerging Talent

Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, firms started to realize that international markets could provide an additional source of competitive advantage. By competing in both domestic and international markets, these multinational corporations (MNCs) could expect greater results, keeping shareholders content. Because of this trend to globalization, talent management is gaining mainstream acceptance worldwide as a key management area, thus adding new knowledge and innovation in the field of human resource management. With growing private-sector competition, the issue of identifying, attracting, developing and retaining talented individuals has become essential for sustainable corporate growth in the competitive and volatile markets. With human talent a resource not easily replicated by competitors, attracting and retaining talented people is becoming increasingly difficult due to specific demographical and psychological trends. Recent economic crises and globalization make the problem even more urgent today. Among arguments for the “strong” globalization thesis are increasing global competition, dominance of the new global economic system and the rapidly increasing number of multinational enterprises which operate not only in their home market but also in foreign countries, grabbing market share. This inevitably carries consequences for the talent management strategies of MNCs, including issues such as cross-border knowledge sharing, managing global virtual teams and much more.