Global talent management and global talent challenges: Strategic opportunities for IHRM

The need for multinational firms to be as competitive in the global marketplace as possible has increased dramatically over the past twenty years. For international human resource management this has meant many strategic opportunities to international human resource management. An excellent example of such an opportunity is that which exists regarding the management of talent. This opportunity began to develop in the late 1990s with the advent of the challenge of "global talent management." During the past few years this opportunity has expanded to include challenges dealing with talent shortages, talent surpluses, locating and relocating talent, and compensation levels of talent. Together, these conditions are all "global talent challenges". In this article we describe these several global talent challenges and the strategic opportunities they present to firms and propose the implications of these for firms and for the field of international human resource management. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.