A Review of Talent Management in Finnis SMEs

Abstract

The attraction, development, and management of talents are among the most important centerpieces in organizations today. As a whole, talented employees are more often than not recognized as strategic assets as people are the ones constructing the organization and they are the ones who establish the organizational culture. Accordingly, talent management has been studied greatly especially in the context of global companies. However, talent management can manifest itself in different ways. The theoretical framework of this study is constructed around talent management as a concept, its different forms, as well as small and medium-sized organizations and how HR functions are often implemented in them. As a whole, this research aims to emphasize why talent management is a valuable function for organizations and how talent management manifests in Finnish SMEs. Altogether, this research intents to review talent management in Finnish SMEs in order to provide a more comprehensive foundation for further talent management research in Finland. The research phenomenon is examined through the dimensions of strategic human resource management, investment in leadership, knowledge development, performance management, and talent and successor planning. The empirical part of this research views these dimensions from the perspectives of both the organizations and the employees. The research was performed with a quantitative research design and the data were collected through surveys from 87 small and medium-sized enterprises in Finland. The analysis was performed and the research questions were answered by using correlation analysis and one-way analysis of variance. The main findings of this research show that talent management in general is informal and it is not strategic in Finnish SMEs. Additionally, the research indicates that talent management manifests itself exclusively in Finland with the leaders of the organizations being the talents. As a whole, the research findings support the notion that talent management can manifest itself in various ways and it is not necessarily implemented the same way as in global companies.