Talent Development in Global Organizations Through Structural Equation Modeling of Leadership and Employee Engagement

Abstract

Talent development has become an important strategic issue to organizations in the globalization era that do not wish to be left behind as far as competitiveness and long-term sustainability is concerned. Despite a significant number of researches conducted on the issue of leadership and employee engagement, there is a lack of empirical research that integrates these two constructs into one framework of elucidating the results of talent development. The paper will be based on exploring how leadership influences talent development through employee’s involvement. A quantitative research design was adhered to and the respondents were collected using a survey instrument, which was designed and applied on employees in multinational organizations. The proposed relationships were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings indicate that leadership has a positive influence on the engagement of employees (r = 0.62, p < 0.001) and talent development (r = 0.30, p < 0.01) and that the engagement among employees has a positive impact on talent development (r = 0.55, p < 0.001). The mediation analysis demonstrates that employee engagement mediates the relationship between leadership and development of talent to some extent (0.34, p < 0.001). The paper adds to the theory building by synthesizing leadership and engagement into a structural HRM framework and provides useful implications on how organizations can develop leadership-centered, engagement-based approaches to designing talent development strategies in the global environment.