Macro talent management in the UK:Patterns of agency in a period of changing regimes.

Sparrow, Paul Ronald (2018) Macro talent management in the UK:Patterns of agency in a period of changing regimes. In: Macro Talent Management. Routledge, London, pp. 70-100. ISBN 9781138712409

Abstract

The chapter analyses the macro talent management context in the UK. It develops the notion of patterns of agency and webs of action at country level that serve to condition the conduct of talent management. There are few generalizable or preferable recipes for macro talent management – the patterns that emerge in the UK need not, or would not, necessarily work in a different national context. National strategies are embedded in, and managed through, complex webs of action. The dominant patterns in the UK concern: the HRM culture; specific qualities of being an advanced economy; the industrial structure; the link between skills and productivity; the comparative advantage of vocational and education training strategies, the impact on education strategies; the impact of globalized sector labour markets on large national employers; and the growing impact of London as a global city. The chapter draws upon institutional theory to argue there is a need not just for new talent management practices in the UK, changes in the structures in which these practices will need to become embedded, and changes in the regimes (the overriding expectations and planned way of doing things for a given issue-area around which actors tend to converge) currently in place.