The Contribution of Regional Institutions to Talent Management: Perspective on the Montreal Aerospace Cluster
This study examines how institutions, through a process of experimentation, contribute to the development of Talent Management (TM) at the regional level. Based on a case study of the Aerospace cluster of Montreal, we demonstrate how TM is turned from a private to a collective good by regional institutions. This shift takes place through the creation of agencies, formal and informal rules, and networks nurtured by stakeholders who seek to develop and attract talent for their ecosystem. To analyze the contribution of institutions to shared TM, we conducted a case study of the Montreal aerospace cluster. Based on a qualitative methodology, more than one hundred interviews were conducted between 2005 and 2017 with key informants (representatives of agencies and training institutes) as well as union and firm management representatives (human resource managers, production managers, general managers). Three main findings have emerged from this study. First, it shows how Montreal aerospace cluster actors have developed TM practices that benefit the aggregate of companies located in the region. These practices have led to the creation of a diversified talent pool that helps fulfil labour requirements, as much for production as it does for R&D and the development of the value chain. Second, findings indicate how the form of TM that has emerged at the regional level has resulted from a process of institutional experimentation through which actors have developed strategic responses to common challenges. Third, this depiction fleshes out a hybrid institutional model that distinguishes itself from the dominant model characterizing a liberal market economy. We identify sustainable dynamics of collaboration, which lead to a process of diversification of TM and institutional densification that allow actors to share TM practices and resources. Benefits are both of an individual nature, namely for companies, and a collective nature, for all the stakeholders located within the cluster.