Beyond managerial talent: ‘key group’ identification and differential compensation practices in multinational companies

Anthony McDonnell, Patrick Gunnigle, Jonathan Lavelle, Ryan Lamare

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

With the maturation of strategic human resource management scholarship, there appears to be a greater call to move from monolithic workforce management to a more strategic and differentiated emphasis on employees with the greatest capacity to enhance competitive advantage. There has been little consideration in the literature as to whether organizations formally identify key groups of employees based on their impact on organizational learning and core competences. Using survey evidence from 260 multinational companies (MNCs), this paper explores the extent to which key groups of employees are formally recognized and whether they are subject to differential compensation practices. The results demonstrate that just in excess of half of these MNCs identify a key group. There was considerable differentiation in the compensation practices between these key groups, managers and the largest occupational group in the workforce. The results give rise to questions worthy of future investigation, namely whether the differentiated approaches used lead to improved performance outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1299-1318
Number of pages20
JournalInternational Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume27
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Jul 2016

Keywords

  • compensation practices
  • Ireland
  • key group
  • multinational company
  • rewards
  • strategic HRM
  • talent management

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