Borrow or Grow: An Overview of Talent Development/Management Practices in Indian IT Organizations

The Problem: In recent years, as India started to emerge as the IT (information technology) super power and the supplier for human capital trained in IT to the Western world, a plethora of talent management and development issues have started coming to the surface. Given the vastness of India’s young and diverse human resources, the concerns center less around availability of talent and more around managing and developing the available talent to suit local needs. Furthermore, concerns are raised over excessive reliance on Western models of TD/TM (talent development/talent management) in Indian organizations and their implementation without significant adaptation to local cultural and institutional conditions. The Solution: This study explores TD/TM strategies in three different business organizations using the case study method. The three organizations are a multinational corporation headquartered in India, a foreign multinational organization with subsidiaries in India, and a smaller local business organization. The article discusses (a) the commonalities and differences in the TD/TM strategies followed by three different types of organizations, (b) the use of home-grown strategies and strategies borrowed from the West, (c) the trends and challenges of TM/TD practices facing the IT industry. The Stakeholders: Chief learning officers, directors of human resources, HRD scholars.