Organizational Psychology

Purpose. This paper aims to identify the features of talent attraction and selection practices, in accordance with both talent categories and the industry type (knowledge economy or traditional industries). Methodology. The empirical research was conducted with the use of qualitative methods, and the data was collected through 20 semi-structured with HR-specialists from knowledge economy and traditional companies located in Moscow. Companies of 13 different industries participated in the study, both traditional (FMCG, energy, engineering, oil & gas) and knowledge-intensive ones (IT, telecom, pharmaceuticals). Findings. Turning to the main findings, it was revealed that all companies, whose talent management system was focused only on internal talent pool, belong to traditional industries. The vast majority of companies used the object approach to define talent, describing itas a certain set of characteristics. Interestingly, a latent talent categorization was a popular case for foreign companies, which was not true for Russian ones. The paper also discusses three types of talent selection systems: systems focusing on one particular group of practices; systems with differentiated selection practices and systems with individual set of practices for each position. It turned out that the application of systems with differentiated selection practices and systems with individual set of selection practices are the features of knowledge economy. Originality of this work results in detected trends in the use of practices of talent attraction and selection in both traditional companies and firms belonging to the knowledge economy.