Talentudvikling i Flyvevåbnet.pdf - Forsvarskommandoen

Abstract
We are at war! At this moment some of the toughest battles of human resources the world has
ever seen are taking place. According to a global survey performed by Mckinsey, today more
than ever, companies rely on talented employees and the way their talent is managed to gain
the competitive advantage. Question is: Are we winning the war?
The research focus of my study is to identify how the Danish Air Force can sucessfully
manage talent strategically within the organization.
This dissertation starts by acknowledging that in order to attain efficient talent management
the organization must understand what talent means in relation to human performance, and
how to incorporate talent management at a strategic level. Thus it is relevant to examine how
the Danish Air Force interprets these terms at the different levels of the organization.
To collect representative empirical data, a triangulation method was used. Initially a narrative
gives a personal perspective of how talent management was introduced to an employee and
how this experience caused surprise. Secondly a questionnaire was sent out to 70 key
officers. The filled out questionnaires gave a quantitative knowledge of where to focus the
qualitative interviews. Four interviews were carried through with officers at four different levels
of the organization. Their views of talent and talent management were analyzed through the
perspective of leading theoreticians aiming to value the existing talent management and their
understanding of the term “talent”.
The three main findings of the analysis are:
1. The understanding of talent in the Danish Air Force primarily refers to high-performing
officers and not as a product of the two dimensions “human potential” and “high performance”
as the theory dictates.
2. Parts of the content and purpose of the existing talent management program is deliberately
kept exclusively for the Danish Defense Personal Agency and the top leaders of the Air Force
organization. This leaves the day-to-day heads and the employee with little or no awareness of
their role in the talent management program.
3. Air Force strategic talent management is set up to support the existing strategic
competence development system. However the talent management only focuses in
developing talented officers and middle-leaders. The existing theories highlight the importance
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