The Mismanagement of Talent

Citation

(2005), "The Mismanagement of Talent", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447bae.001

The Mismanagement of Talent

Books

The Mismanagement of Talent

Phillip Brown and Anthony HeskethOxford University PressISBN 0 19 926954 8

I will start where I plan to finish. This is an excellent book and deserves wide readership. In a moment I will say a little more as to why you should read it. First, picture if you will, two scenarios. In the first scenario the vice-chancellor of “Anywhere University” is welcoming the thousand plus “graduands” to their new status as “graduates”. After appropriately celebrating their achievements he looks to the future. “The future is yours”, he tells them “...what superb opportunities there are in the knowledge based economy of the 21st century for your talents to be exercised and your skills utilised. You have the employability skills – go forth and prosper”. Rapturous applause from the mass ranks of the new proletariat and their family and friends...and of course, the same scenario is being repeated up and down the land. In the second scenario a leading figure from one of the main government funded training/kills bodies is delivering a keynote speech at some conference or other. “The answer to the UK's economic and competitiveness problems”, she proclaims, is deceptively simple. “We must educate and train our workforce more. In the knowledge-based workplaces of the future it is brains not brawn that will be the key to success.”

I have lost count of the number of times I hear the sorts of arguments illustrated above. It is easy to get sucked into a false sense of security. The answer to the problem of wealth creation and societal development is to generate more graduates and undertake more workplace education and training. In this way the knowledge-based economy becomes a nirvana of opportunity, inclusiveness, equality and so on. Enter Messrs Brown and Hesketh armed with a very sharp pin! Fundamentally, they cast serious doubt that a knowledge-based economy leads to a significant increase in the demand for highly educated workers – just more “congestion” in the top 10-20 per cent of the employment hierarchy. They ask “can the expansion of higher education and policies aimed at increasing social diversity overcome enduring inequalities in the allocation of jobs and life chances?” and “to what extent can the political commitment to employability fulfil policy objectives?”. At the heart of Brown and Hesketh's analysis is a conceptual framework based on what they call the “duality of employability”. “Employability not only depends on whether one is able to fulfil the requirements of specific jobs, but also on how one stands relative to others within a hierarchy of job seekers. It cannot be understood outside this duality.” This duality of employability focuses attention upon the limits to supply-side policies as a way of extending occupational opportunities. “Understanding the duality of employability is a necessary corrective to the over optimism of the pundits of the knowledge economy and its impact on employment.”

I should perhaps stress at this point that the book is not abstract pontification. It is underpinned by data from 15 private and public sector organisations, includes interviews with 60 graduates over a two-year period, together with existing labour market data from both the USA and the UK. Of course, the arguments advanced are not wholly new. Ewart Keep and colleagues have been fighting this corner for some time now (Keep, 2000). The UK government appeared to signal a policy shift in 2001 (Performance Innovation Unit, 2001) but I see precious little progression down this road. If there is failing in Brown and Hesketh's book it is their arguments for an alternative. They claim that their conclusion is not necessarily negative or pessimistic and they are right to make such a claim. They put forward interesting ideas about a “cultural revolution” in the way organisations utilise the capability of graduates and meet expectations for interesting and meaningful work. Changes to the way organisations address status, authority and the distribution of rewards are advocated. But, this alternative is not explained with as much rigour, conviction and clarity as their mainstream analysis. A small price to pay for an otherwise most valuable contribution to this incredibly important debate. The book should be required reading for anyone considering a university degree. It should also be required reading for every VC, corporate leader, government minister, government official in the Department for Education and Skills and Department of Trade and Industry and senior member of the UKs various training and skills quangos. I suspect too many of the latter are sitting all too comfortably with the (flawed) assumption that the knowledge economy offers promises upon which we can deliver. For everyone else it is simply recommended.