I will be attending the CHME Conference in Buxton from 28-30 May and presenting the paper on "Understanding Talent Management in Hospitality: A Career Perspective?" The purpose of this paper is to discuss the view that an understanding of talent management in hospitality organisations can be advanced through the adoption of a career perspective. This paper argues that the adoption of a career perspective could be beneficial to our understanding of talent management. This paper draws from a wider research project currently in its initial stages exploring talent management in hospitality small and medium enterprises in the UK. The conference presentation will aid to move the research project forward, and clarify aims and objectives of the research.

The relevance of this research lies in two directions. In its broadest context, the research offers empirical data on the talent management concept and its importance for hotel business and SMEs in particular. The rationale for the research is that share of SMEs exceeds 99.7 per cent of all enterprises in majority of countries in the EU, the USA and Japan (Krake 2005). Moreover, more than 70 per cent of population are employed by SMEs. However, most talent management research is in Multi-National Corporations. Therefore, by looking at smaller organisations, we can get a different perspective.

Second, the research aims to build on previous research in this area by adopting a new perspective. Whilst the previous research has focused on talent management from one HRM perspective (Collings et al... 2011, Cappelli 2008, Bhatanga 2008), this research focuses on a multi-disciplinary approach (psychology, HRM, strategic HRM) to talent management. Therefore, it seeks to address the gap in knowledge by using a more holistic perspective. These findings could be transferable to the similar types of hotels in the UK. Recently, I have got the funding for CHME. I hope that the presentation of my research theme will be successful.