Talent Management at the University: an experimental design to enhance students’ employability

In Human Resources Management (HRM) literature talent management is considered as an emerging field of research, characterized by lack of clarity. The ambiguity inherent to TM is bound up to the inadequate operationalization of the underlying construct talent, that often is not explicitly defined but just taken for granted. Over the last two decades talent management (TM) is at the center of a big debate and it is in the strategic agenda of organizations. Nevertheless there is a scarcity of empirical research and scholars don’t speak the same language. Furthermore the literature has a narrow and biased approach, based on the unitary and managerial perspective, with strong focus on private sector organizations, multinationals and organizations in the US-context. The present study attempts to shed some light in the empirical implementation of the Talent Management in a public organization, the University of Pavia, with students as targeted population with the expected outcome of enhance their employability. The research design is experimental design for the talent development (TD) treatment with the aim to demonstrate the eventual effectiveness in terms of students’ employability. Talent management is a process that starts with the talent identification and/or acquisition, prosecutes with the talent development and ends with the feedback phase. The present study could be divided in three main parts. First, the starting and crucial building block for TM is the definition of talent. At this aim the present research includes on one hand a multidisciplinary literature review in divergent streams correlated with the university context (i.e. giftedness, vocational and positive psychology) in order to overcome the lack of clarity about the concept of talent observed in HRM literature; on the other hand a multilevel explorative study inside the organization and in the labor market through semi-structured interviews in order to gather qualitative data about the definition of talent and the content of the talent development. This part adopts the inductive rigor qualitative method The results of this first part highlight that talent has an object (i.e. the potential in terms of employability), developable and inclusive approach. In other words each student possess talent and can develop in order to excel at one’s personal best. Secondly, the study analyzes the TD with the experimental design, implemented in synergy with representatives of the labor market. Two online surveys, that serve as pre and post treatment tests, measure some dimensions through scales, validated and not, and adjunctive questions in order to assess the talent of the students (i.e. the potential in terms of employability). After this the TD treatment is administered only to the treated group. The pathway takes part inside a mandatory course in “Management and Economics” at the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Pavia. The TD architecture is based on the DOTS model and include formal and informal training. Thirdly, the study faces the feedback part with a multilevel approach that entails the individual (students), the organizational (University) and the community level (labor market). In order to verify the results about the effectiveness of the TD implemented the research entails the external evaluation of HR professional. They evaluate through a form CV and job interviews of students, selected randomly in both groups. The study confirms the effectiveness of the TM process implemented in terms of employability and the related outcome of enhancing the role of the University as a crucial actor for the development of the workforce, leading to the creation of a talent brand with a lot of multilevel positive returns

Humanistic management. Il benessere organizzativo che rilancia l'etica della virtù

L’articolo intende analizzare come l’adozione dello Humanistic Management nelle organizzazioni favorisca il benessere organizzativo e un’esperienza lavorativa positiva (i.e., positive work experience). Lo Humanistic Management si caratterizza come una gestione dell’organizzazione che mette al centro le persone ed ha come ricadute la motivazione e la soddisfazione dei dipendenti, un forte commitment e delle performances migliori. In questo contributo si intende riflettere sullo stato della tematica e analizzarne l’influenza sull’esperienza positiva dei lavoratori e del benessere organizzativo. Nonostante sia già stato oggetto di studio, la prassi mostra come sia poco utilizzato. A tale proposito, verrà presentato il case study di un’azienda che ha esplicitamente adottato lo Humanistic Management. Attraverso l’analisi del report, pubblicato dall’Amministratore Delegato e dal responsabile risorse umane, e dell’intervista svolta con l’Amministratore Delegato stesso, è stato possibile approfondire le modalità di implementazione dello Humanistic Management, il cambiamento affrontato dall’azienda, i fattori che lo hanno favorito ed i risultati ottenuti

Are Female Leadership styles culturally universal or specific? A comparative study between Italy and Japan

The aim of the present research is to analyse to what extent female leadership styles vary across cultures – by digging more in depth on how the new “impostor phenomenon” affect successful women covering leadership position, since, nowadays, women still face either difficulty in entering the job market or they receive a lower salary compared to the male counterpart. This has been done through the analysis of the already existing literature upon the various leadership styles, gender differences and influences on leadership styles, and culture. After adopting the cultural definition and dimensions proposed by Hofstede, an experimental empirical section started. To explore the main research question, a sample of female managers and directors working in Italy and Japan filled out an online self-report survey. The quali-quantitative findings clearly reveal that leadership style varies according to the culture; while behaviours related to the Impostor Phenomenon seems to be universally felt. These results seem to take even more shape in the light of the social role theory and the Hofstede cultural dimensions of the two countries. Notwithstanding the obtained results, the research gives a lot of other suggestions, leaving space for further studies and consideration in the field of leadership studies, especially in relation with the female group

University Talent Management: an experimental design to enhance student's employability

Talent management experiment proposed to enhance employabilities of students in university in the work world. First experiment based on a reasearch realized in collaboration with California State University (Sacramento) and in University of Pavia. It are presented the conceptual framework, the research methodology end the first results

The Crucial Role of Green Soft Skills and Leadership for Sustainability: A Case Study of an Italian Small and Medium Enterprise Operating in the Food Sector

Increasing concerns about the human impact on the environment are leading to new challenges for companies and their employees. Specifically, the food industry is facing the need to provide sustainable services, requiring a specialized and skilled workforce. This article presents a case study of an Italian sustainable Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) operating in the food sector in order to determine the drivers of working for this company, the key skills needed, and the Green Human Resource Management practices adopted. A total of 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees and thematically analyzed. The findings showed that soft skills were perceived as more relevant than hard skills, although the food sector is characterized by high technical complexity and subjected to several national and international regulations. Moreover, the crucial role of organizational culture in determining the relevance of soft skills within the company and in fostering the implementation of the holacracy organizational management method emerged. Finally, by detecting the relevance recognized to values and soft skills during the recruitment and selection process, our findings provided some evidence of Green Human Resource Management in sustainable SMEs

Examining the effects of environmentally-specific servant leadership on green work outcomes among hotel employees: the mediating role of climate for green creativity

International audienceDrawing upon theories of conservation of resources, social information processing and organizational creativity, this study examines the potential effects of environmentally-specific servant leadership (ESSL) on green employee work outcomes (i.e., green innovative work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment) as well as the possible mediating role of climate for green creativity in the ESSL-green work outcomes relationships. Based on two-wave data collected from 237 employees working in Pakistani hotels, the findings showed that ESSL has a positive association with green work outcomes. Moreover, the results showed that the climate for green creativity mediates the positive association of ESSL with green innovative work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment. This study is one of the first studies which extends the servant leadership-innovative work behavior literature in hospitality to green innovative behaviors. Discussion, implications and limitations are discussed

Leadership adjusts the sails: stimulating employees' creative behaviors through servant leadership

This research generally aims to advance the servant leadership literature as it is still in its maturity stage. This research investigates a model of the effect of servant leadership on creativity in the hospitality industry in a nonwestern context. The researchers predict that servant leadership would significantly impact employees\u2019 creativity via the role of climate. Our data come from employees working in the hospitality sector in Palestine. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling analyses. The results of the paper reveal the significance of the relationship between servant leadership and employees' creativity via the role of climate. Discussion, Limitations, and Implications are discussed

Linking authentic leadership and management capability to public hospital performance: the role of work engagement

Turkmenoglu, Mehmet Ali/0000-0001-5668-2184; Cicek, Berat/0000-0002-4584-5862;WOS:000616282600001Purpose This paper aims to propose a model of the effect of both authentic leadership and management capability on hospital performance. This model proposes work engagement as an intervening mechanism between the aforesaid links. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 380 medical staff working in Jordanian Public hospitals and were analysed using the structural equation modelling analysis technique. Findings The results suggest that both authentic leadership and management capability have a positive effect on hospital performance. Although positive, the direct effect of management capability on performance was not significant. Furthermore, work engagement demonstrated to play a full mediation effect between management capability and hospital performance and a partial mediation effect between authentic leadership and hospital performance. Practical implications This study may be of use for public medical services providers in general and other services sectors in terms of the role authentic leadership and management resources can play in contributing to positive work-related outcomes at the individual and organisational levels. Originality/value Considering the mainstream literature in health-care management, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to date to integrate the impact of both authentic leadership and management capabilities in the public health-care sector. Further, the research model has not previously been introduced when taking into account the role that work engagement can play between the examined variables