Five freedoms for human development: Examining talent management in the Philippines

The theory and practice of talent management converge to the perspective of Human Capital Accumulation Theory (HCAT) of Gary Becker which advances the materialist view that human capital is developed to attain internal efficiency in an organization and allow the individual worker earn higher income in the future. As such, HCAT is short of promoting sustainable value creation as its trajectory of human development is preset to the pursuit of the financial and efficiency goals of the organizations and individuals. This study holds a perspective that talent management should be humanized in perspective in order to promote genuine empowerment of an individual. It tests this view by adopting the perspective of Human Development (HD), developed and advanced by Amartya Sen, in reconceptualizing talent management. It proposes that an HD oriented talent management should enable individuals to dispense with their five freedoms in their workplace, namely: economic facilities, political freedoms, protective securities, social opportunities, and transparency guarantees. A 30 point likert scale is developed to examine the presence of HD and HCAT in talent management activities of employees in the multicultural contexts of five corporations and one higher education institution in the Philippines. It finds that all participating respondents have been able to observe all freedoms in the implementation of talent management activities and program in their workplace. The talent management of these organizations have directed efforts of organizations to secure the needs of the respondents, who, in turn, are able to use their talents and skills to expanding their participation in meaningful organizational activities. Organizations can thus reconsider empowering their employees to ensure that their services are not merely of quality but also have embodied advocacies for human development