Evolving the Narrative of Managing Young Talent in SMEs
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Volume 23 Issue 2 Article 1 August 2021 Evolving the Narrative of Managing Young Talent in SMEs Katarina Katja Mihelič University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business Alison Pearce Northumbria University, Newcastle Business School Nada Zupan University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business, nada.zupan@ef.uni-lj.si Follow this and additional works at: https://www.ebrjournal.net/home Part of the Business Commons Recommended Citation Mihelič, K. K., Pearce, A., & Zupan, N. (2021). Evolving the Narrative of Managing Young Talent in SMEs. Economic and Business Review, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.15458/2335-4216.1006 This Editorial is brought to you for free and open access by Economic and Business Review. It has been accepted for inclusion in Economic and Business Review by an authorized editor of Economic and Business Review.
EDITORIAL
Evolving the Narrative of Managing Young Talent
in SMEs
Katarina Katja Mihelic a,*, Alison Pearce b, Nada Zupan a
a
University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business, Slovenia
b
Northumbria University, Newcastle Business School, UK
Introduction within GETM3 is drawn to an investigation into
how HEIs can contribute to the development of
T he topic of talent management (TM) has
received increasing attention since the 1980s
entrepreneurial competences.
The need to explore TM in different settings and
when the phrase ‘war for talent’ was coined from different perspectives has been a strong
(Cappelli & Keller, 2017). Scholars and practi- consensus in TM research. For example, Gallardo-
tioners alike have devoted time to exploring and Gallardo, Thunnissen & Scullion (2020) call upon
researchers to address the context in which TM
developing policies that facilitate talent acquisi-
takes place, including the business context (e.g.
tion, engagement and retention (Collings, 2014). globalization, technology, socio-economic and de-
Despite this, retention of talent and availability of mographic changes) and organisational character-
key skills are still cited as major human resource istics (e.g. type of industry, size, strategy).
management challenges (Hewitt-Associates, 2008; Recognizing that extant TM research has been more
Scullion, Vaiman, Collings & Thunnissen, 2016) in about solidifying conceptual models and theoretical
the global TM arena (Collings, Mellahi & Cascio, perspectives than exploring TM practices as they
occur in various types of organisations, Thunnissen
2019). Keeping young employees in particular
(2016) proposes to research TM practices by
engaged and interested in staying with a com-
answering questions of not only what they are but
pany thus remains a pervasive issue for managers also for whom and for what purpose. In addition,
across organisations of various sizes and in- TM research predominantly adopts the managerial
dustries, in national as well as international set- and performative perspective rather than incorpo-
tings. This thematic issue on managing young rating individual level research (Sparrow, 2019).
talent in SMEs draws inspiration from the inter- This thematic issue aims to contribute to TM
national research project Global Entrepreneurial knowledge by focusing on SMEs and young talent
i.e. Millennials or Generation Y, who have been
Talent Management (GETM3), funded through
entering the labour market in the last decade, add-
the European Union's Horizon 2020 platform.
ing to workplace diversity and TM complexity.
This collaborative research network brings While there is a rich body of literature in the area
together scholars in multiple disciplines with in- of TM conceptualization (Collings & Mellahi, 2009;
dustry practitioners in various countries and GallardoeGallardo et al., 2015), its architecture
adopts a multi stakeholder approach to TM, (Sparrow & Makram, 2015) and TM in large, most
considering employers', young talent and higher often multinational corporations (Bj€ orkman et al.,
educational institutions' (HEIs) perspective on 2017; Collings et al., 2019), TM in SMEs is under-
researched and deserves more attention in the Eu-
TM. As entrepreneurialism is one of the key te-
ropean as well as global context (Festing et al., 2017).
nets of EU competitiveness and development
SMEs constitute a major proportion of employers
(European Commission, 2013), special attention and contribute significantly to the global economy
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: katja.mihelic@ef.uni-lj.si (K.K. Mihelic).
https://doi.org/10.15458/85451.1006
2335-4216/© 2021 School of Economics and Business University of Ljubljana. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS REVIEW 2021;23:68e71 69
(Harney & Alkhalaf, 2021; Krishnan & Scullion, provide evidence-based recommendations for HR
2017): over 99% of the companies in the OECD and practitioners and leaders in SMEs. The practices and
G20 are classified as SMEs (OECD, 2015). The examples offered herein could serve as a spring-
number of employees is typically used to classify an board to inspire practical and innovative tools that
enterprise as an SME, but this depends on the na- form part of SMEs’ own TM toolkit.
tional context and the SME classification used. In
Europe, the mark of a large enterprise is 250 or more
The papers in this issue
employees, while in the USA it can be 500 or more
(Krishnan & Scullion, 2017). According to EU Recognizing the importance of understanding
criteria, there are three types of entity: 1) micro SMEs as the context for TM, the first article by Harney
firms (fewer than 10 employees), small businesses adopts a macro (organizational) level perspective on
(10e49 employees) and medium-sized enterprises TM as a part of wider human resource management
(50e249) (Harney, 2015). (HRM) systems. It usefully presents a critical review
While TM practices contribute considerably to of HRM in SMEs, appealing for definitional clarity on
their success (Krishnan & Scullion, 2017), SMEs both counts. Specifically, this article evaluates four
often face a lack of resources for HR, have no or key theoretical frames of reference in HRM: univer-
insufficiently formalized TM processes and their salism, best fit and cultural and ecological theories,
strategy depends heavily on the philosophy of the especially when applied to younger workers. The
owner (Festing et al., 2017). Indeed, a high degree of paper demonstrates differing interpretations of the
informality in HR policies is common for SMEs conceptualization, role and value of HRM in the
(Valverde, Scullion & Ryan, 2013) despite the fact context of SMEs and points the way for future
that a strategic TM system can develop entrepre- research into TM in SMEs.
neurial behaviour in employees (Chen, Lee & Ahl- The second article, authored by Mihelic, Bailey,
strom, 2021). SMEs face more difficulty in recruiting Brückner, Postuła and Zupan, combines both macro
than larger companies (Wilkinson, 1999). For and individual level analysis into TM exploration in
example, due to scarce resources, only the most SMEs. It adopts a multi perspective to investigate
convenient recruitment methods might be used so the psychological contracts between young pro-
that insufficient qualified talent is targeted (Festing fessionals and their employers in European SMEs
et al., 2017). Further, an SME's values and norms from four countries: Ireland, Poland, Slovenia and
must be clearly communicated at the recruitment the UK. Through a qualitative research design, au-
stage to ensure the required person and the orga- thors identify the contemporary expectations of
nisation fit. SMEs also face the challenge of retain- employers as well as young employees in terms of
ing talented employees, particularly the young, who competence, performance-enhancing behaviour, job
do not prioritise organizational commitment and characteristics and support systems, helping both
loyalty and are used to job-hopping (Ferri-Reed, sides to understand the other better, updating our
2014). knowledge of this important area and advancing it
The aim of this issue is to advance the current further into the SME domain.
understanding of TM in SMEs through the lens of In the third article, Meglich and Thomas deal with
three different stakeholders, namely SMEs as em- a particular TM practice, namely the onboarding
ployers, young talents as employees of SMEs, and process of new employees. They explore the topic
HEIs as developers of employable talent for SMEs. from a fresh perspective, focusing on the phenom-
With the intention of extending the existing body of enon of hazing, which comprises purposeful de-
theoretical knowledge on one hand and informing mands placed on new employees beyond the scope
practice on the other, the five articles comprising of their job. A two-study design using samples of US
this issue consider TM from these different per- employees shows the types of workplace hazing
spectives and offer various recommendations. In demands, the prevalence of hazing and the conse-
capturing diverse views, we highlight the contem- quences of hazing in terms of strain, turnover and
porary characteristics of the employment relation- work engagement. This can have particular rele-
ship. The collection of articles in this issue draws vance for SMEs, where job roles are typically less
from empirical and theoretical research covering the well-defined.
current state of HRM in SMEs, entrepreneurial ca- The last two articles delve into entrepreneurialism
reers, psychological contract expectations, socializ- as a key component of SME's success. That by Balas
ation processes and entrepreneurial education. Rant, Dziewanowska, Petrylaite and Pearce explores
Articles offer novel insights into employer- European young talent's motivational drives for
employee-higher education relationships and pursuing an entrepreneurial career, including in70 ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS REVIEW 2021;23:68e71
SME. Through an analysis of in-depth individual for their work during the pandemic lockdowns and
interviews conducted in three countries, personal, efforts invested in conceptualizing, researching and
social and institutional factors are revealed to attract writing up articles that advance our current under-
and deter young people in their career choices at standing of talent management.
micro, mezzo and macro levels. We hope that, whether a scholar or practitioner,
Finally, a three-year, multidisciplinary investiga- you will find the contents of this issue insightful and
tion into the suitability of entrepreneurial education inspiring for your future HR endeavours.
for SMEs by Valencia, Humble, Doyle, and
Skoumpopolou explores the current state of entre- Katarina K. Mihelic, Alison Pearce and Nada Zupan
preneurial education against the backdrop of the Guest Editors
European Commission's strategic plan for growth
which identifies entrepreneurship as an essential Conflict of interest statement
educational focus to rejuvenate the SME sector.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to
Authors investigate the best practices for entrepre-
declare.
neurial education based on a wide range of data
gathered through knowledge-exchange events held
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