People & Strategy Fall 2014 Teaser - 4

from the executive editor

Is Global Overrated?

T

he jury is still out as to what "global
talent" actually means to businesses
and organizations and how it should be
delivered. After a couple of decades of addressing global competencies and debating
"boundary-less" structures, it turns out the
world has not become any flatter or less
diverse. In fact, we have yet to witness the
arrival of that promised oversupply of globally competent managers.
At People & Strategy, our mission is to serve
the "state of the practice" to the strategic
members of the HR profession who partner
with business leaders to deliver results with
impact. The People & Strategy journal positions itself at the junctures of best practices
and strategic research. Our approach has
always been to highlight strategic people
issues in the context of multiple business perspectives.
A few years back, we followed the overall
direction that business strategy was taking
toward global. We committed to producing a
global issue every year-and we delivered.
We have published two global-themed volumes "Global HR" (2012) and "Global
Leadership" (2013). Those two editions
complemented each other nicely, contributing and expanding on the already-growing
debate about the role of global in people
strategy.
We have arrived at the 2014 Global Talent
Management issue with the same set of expectations: that the practice of "global talent" will
be universally acknowledged and accepted.
We found ourselves with talent management
traversing a much more challenging consulting and scholarly terrain and diversified
company practices. We discovered that HR
senior leaders, researchers, and strategic practitioners alike were most likely further away
today from identifying that one elusive "global talent" solution to business's strategic needs
than they were even a few years ago. The
applications of "global talent" practices have
been reviewed, revisited, and challenged much
more frequently now than since the time that
the practice of "global HR" had officially
emerged in the mid '90s in the USA.

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PEOPLE & STRATEGY

The debate has continued to unfold between
those who believed that the global talent supply
chain is defined by centralized multinational
organizations with a drive to standardize talent
delivery across borders and those who contended that global is best delivered as a sum
total of individual regional solutions and that
most talent issues should be solved exactly as
they present themselves, locally.
Followers of the centralized approach contend
that centralization is necessary to be efficient
and consistent. Those who support the decentralized argument, on the other hand, hold that
there is nothing more relevant or efficient than
providing a talent solution at the point of need
and growing local leaders to replace the existing cadres of expats.
Could we promise our readers a definitive
answer based on the stories, interviews, and
research presented in this volume? We do not
think we should.

At People & Strategy, we like to throw spotlight on the controversial issues and join in the
debate. Based on our conclusions, it seems
that, despite a couple of decades of HR engagement with the global topics, we are still in the
early stages of identifying those solutions that
are highly in demand.
With the Global Talent Management issue
now in front of you, we have come full circle
with the global topics in HR: global HR, leadership, and now, talent. Peruse these pages,
consider what you read, and then apply and
practice as appropriate.
Our role has been solely to bring you closer to
the discussion, but the solution you can offer
your organization is yours to determine.
Dr. Anna A. Tavis



People & Strategy Fall 2014 Teaser

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of People & Strategy Fall 2014 Teaser

People & Strategy Fall 2014 Teaser - 1
People & Strategy Fall 2014 Teaser - 2
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People & Strategy Fall 2014 Teaser - 4
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