Labour Productivity, Investment inHuman Capital and Youth Employment

Extensive international empirical research provides support for the argument thatcompanies that have adopted new work, organizational and human capital managementpractices as ‘bundles’ have been able to achieve significant benefits interms of both their productive and their financial performance (Huselid, 1995;Antila and Ylo¨stalo, 1999; Cully, Woodland, O’Reilly and Dix, 1999; Goudswaardand Dhondt, 1999; Lay, Shapira and Wegel 1999; Whittington, Pettigrew, Peck,Fenton and Conyon, 1999; Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg and Kalleberg, 2000).The five companies with the highest return to shareholders from 1972–1992 differentiatedthemselves from their competitors and the market only in the way theymanaged their people during the early stages of talent management (Pfeffer, 1994).In Europe several incentives towards more flexible organizations have beenintroduced and different forms of regulations of the working relationship, other than traditional employment, have been adopted, also if the labour market is stillrigid, especially in the public sector (Biagi, 2003; Blanpain and Weiss, 2003;Morley et al., 2003; O’Hagan et al., 2005; Morley et al., 2006). Within this scenarioTalent Management (TM) has gained increasing relevance