Global talent management: Shaping the careers of internationally educated talents in developing markets

• Author: Maral Muratbekova‐Touron,Dana Abeuova
• Published date: 01 November 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.22085
• Date: 01 November 2019

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Global talent management: Shaping the careers of

internationally educated talents in developing markets

Dana Abeuova | Maral Muratbekova-Touron

Department of Management, ESCP Europe,

Paris Campus, Paris, France

Correspondence

Maral Muratbekova-Touron, Department of

Management, ESCP Europe, Paris Campus,

79 Avenue de la République, Paris, 75010,

France.

Email: mmuratbekova@escpeurope.eu

Abstract

In the context of globalization, country-level actions to manage global talent

(e.g., development of immigrant-friendly policies, policies to attract back skilled dias-

pora, or investment in the international education of youth) have been

underresearched. The aim of this article is to analyze the impact of a country-level

global talent management practice on the careers and career success of its talents in

the Republic of Kazakhstan, a developing country in Central Asia. Using qualitative

methods, this study introduces new dimensions of career success evaluation for

internationally educated talents in developing markets: use of knowledge acquired

abroad and international aspect of the job. Based on these dimensions, it develops a

model of career types. The career types predict the varying degrees of talents' career

success and their involvement in sharing and capitalizing on knowledge, ideas, and

international experience, which may have an impact on society. The study contrib-

utes to the field of global talent management and career success by providing empiri-

cal evidence on an underresearched topic in the underresearched context of

developing markets.

KEYWORDS

careers, career success,developing markets, globaltalent management, government-sponsored

program,international education

1|INTRODUCTION

The war for talent, a term coined by McKinsey & Company in the late

1990s, refers to an organization's ability to attract, select, develop,

and retain key employees in a global context (Scullion & Collings,

2011; Stahl et al., 2012). However, the quest for talents is happening

not only on an individual or organizational level: Several governments

have developed immigrant-friendly policies (e.g., Australia, Canada,

Germany, United Kingdom, United States); some governments

(e.g., China and India) seek to attract back skilled diaspora (Khilji, Tar-

ique, & Schuler, 2015); and others are investing in the international

education of their young citizens. While some countries (e.g., China

and India) do not require their internationally educated students to

come back, as they consider it an investment in the development of

economic relations and transfer of scientific knowledge, others

(e.g., Kazakhstan, Singapore, Taiwan, or South Korea) use various

levers, such as guaranteed high wages, rapid career growth, or binding

obligations, to bring talent back into the country (Sagintayeva &

Ashirbekov, 2014). In the context of movement of people across

countries, these country-level actions to manage global talent have

been underresearched (Khilji et al., 2015). In order to fully grasp the

phenomenon of global talent management (GTM), scholars therefore

recommend broadening the scope of GTM and focusing not only on

organizations and individuals, but also on the contextualized macro

view (government and nongovernment policies, diasporas, and brain

circulation) (Al Ariss & Cascio, 2014; Khilji et al., 2015).

Khilji et al. (2015, p. 237) define macro GTM as “the activities that

are systematically developed by governmental and nongovernmental

organizations expressly for the purpose of enhancing the quality and

quantity of talent within and across countries and regions to facilitate

DOI: 10.1002/tie.22085

Thunderbird Int. Bus. Rev. 2019;61:843–856. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tie © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 843