The management of criticism in talent assessment trials: from reactions to proactive strategies

Purpose This article analyses how large companies manage criticism from employees who have been invalidated as high-potential employees (HPEs), and therefore excluded from talent pools. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative analysis of one in-depth case study was conducted, which relied on significant empirical investigations (including 2.5 years of nonparticipant observation, 67 semidirective interviews and an analysis of written documentation). Findings The empirical results revealed three proactive strategies to manage criticism, which were strongly driven by the organizational context: radical redesign of the assessment trial to anticipate and defuse criticism, orchestration of mediations to anticipate and moderate criticism and implementation of a discursive strategy to avoid the emergence of criticism in the global talent review. Originality/value Our article contributes empirically to the limited literature on the perceived fairness of exclusive talent management (ETM) practices, by investigating the proactive strategies implemented in talent identification to manage criticism from employees who have been invalidated as HPEs. In addition, it conceptually enriches the trial dynamics framework (analyzing the dialectics between criticism and reactions to criticism) in two ways. It provides a conceptual framework for understanding how the organizational context shapes the perceived risks of criticism to a trial's legitimacy posed by such criticism, and the approaches used to manage criticism. In addition, whereas the trial dynamics framework has thoroughly analyzed four reactions to adapt to criticism, this article identifies proactive strategies implemented by large companies to anticipate, limit and defuse criticism.