Talent orchestration and boomerang talent: seasonally employed chefs' evaluation of talent management practices

Purpose: The aim of this study is to shed light on the talent management practices in the unique context of seasonal work in professional kitchens. Acknowledging that in the context of seasonal work in the hospitality industry it is rather difficult to rely on mainstream strategic talent management practices (e.g., training and development), we draw on resource orchestration, an extension of the Resource Based View, and propose a conceptual model of talent management tactics that could potentially increase seasonal employees’ likelihood of returning to the same employer.

Methodology: Given the uniqueness of the context of this study and the dearth of prior relevant research, we employ a grounded theory approach. Specifically, we analyse and draw conclusions from 25 interviews with employees in commercial kitchens.

Findings: We develop a ‘talent orchestration model’, which places emphasis on management of talented employees across three dimensions: structuring, leveraging, and developing talent.

Implications: Extant literature in human capital management focuses mostly on the development of human capital but our results place more emphasis on utilising or leveraging human capital.

Originality: We move beyond the well-researched context of hotels and focus on talent management behind closed doors as in the case of kitchen chefs and, drawing on resource orchestration, we further examine talent management practices with shorter time frame targeted on seasonal employees.