ABSTRACT
In this chapter we address the issue of talent management (TM) in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We will argue that the CEE countries are beset with considerable contextual complexities, both culture-related and institutional in character, and that these complexities combine to make the TM landscape unusually challenging to apprehend both in theory and practice. The scene will be set with reference to the contentious issue of region’s socialist legacy. From here the discussion will move forward to a commentary on the labour market as well as leadership issues and performance management as a prelude to a section reviewing the status of TM in the CEE countries. This section, built around our telephone interviews in summer 2009 with three HR managers with specific responsibility for their companies’ HR practices, including TM, throughout the CEE countries. Their companies are a US-based MNC, an Austrian automotive components supplier and a Danish industrial enterprise.
