If you pay attention to some commentators on recruiting and human capital management, we’re at war. No, I don’t mean the one in Afghanistan, or even the one against terror. I mean the War for Talent.
I
s there anyone out there who, with me, sees this metaphor as tired and tastelessly inaccurate in today’s world, not to mention downright silly and macho-pretentious? What does it say about us that we have continued to invoke it so mechanically and reflexively for more than a decade, after all that’s happened to us as a nation and a world culture?
Back in the heady days of the start-up boom, it was once a clever, seriocomic outrider of dot.com expansionism. But it’s time to move on. Of course companies and organizations are engaged in competition with each other—competition for market share, for a share of our attention, and even for talent. But let’s not confuse healthy competition with aggressive conflict. Would you endorse this rough-and-tumble strain if it were to spread inside your organizational culture?
The War for Talent? Say it and listen to yourself. Don’t you sound like a character on Mad Men? Let’s allow this blow-hard, self-aggrandizing bromide to fade into business history, like the dictaphone.
Comment by Jon Prete on February 18, 2011 at 12:01pm
Comment by Sylvia Dahlby on February 18, 2011 at 7:23pm
Comment by Alasdair Murray on February 22, 2011 at 2:01pm
Comment by Joe on February 22, 2011 at 2:34pm Comment
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