Letting the chosen ones know: The psychological effects of talent status self-awareness

Due to organizational concerns about the effects of openly communicating employees’ talent status, employees may not be aware of having been identified as talent. In this paper, we examine how talent status self-awareness on the part of the individual influences the social exchange relationship between the employer and the talent. We propose that the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment, promised inducements and performance appraisal is modified by talent status self-awareness. Based on analyses of a sample of 313 talents – as identified by their respective multinational corporations (MNCs) – we find that talent status self-awareness makes talent more demanding in terms of psychological contract fulfillment, and performance appraisal less effective as a management tool. The findings have important implications for talent status communication, differentiated HRM practices, as well as future research on talent management.