Managing virtual talent

Today’s multinational enterprises (MNEs) tend to rely on high performers who are dispersed across the globe, creating the need to manage ‘virtual talent’. Virtual talent here refers to high-potential or high-performing employees in strategic roles who are part of a virtual collaboration, namely a collaboration that spans geographic boundaries and relies to a significant extent on electronic communication media. This chapter will highlight the specific challenges and levers of managing talent involved in global virtual collaborations in general, with a special attention to distances, boundaries, and perceived proximity. It will further elaborate on particular, important issues of managing global virtual talent within MNEs. Lessons will here be drawn from case study evidence on onshore-offshore collaborations. Finally, the chapter will provide a brief outline of the emerging practices of managing ‘virtual contractors’.