I fattori di attraction e retention dei talenti. Il caso di una compagnia di danza

Over the last decades, both management and academic literature have increasingly addressed the issue of talents’ attraction and retention. Despite such a great attention, there are still some under-investigated areas of interest. For example, previous research has devoted limited attention to cultural industries despite the fact that talents represent the key asset for organizations operating in these industries. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring this under-investigated issue by addressing three research questions. First, we will analyze a cultural institution’s characteristics that are able to attract and retain creative talents; second, we will investigate if attraction and retention are influenced just by organizational elements or also by external factors such as the city where an organization is located. Finally, we will analyze potential differences between attraction and retention factors.In doing so, we will analyze the case of the most important Italian dancing company – Fondazione Nazionale della Danza Aterballetto. We triangulated data collected combining different qualitative methods such as interviews, document analysis, and direct observation. Findings show that a cultural institution’s characteristics that are able to attract and retain creative talents are partially different from those highlighted by previous literature. For instance, results show the relevance of a single organizational role’s reputation in attracting and retaining creative talents rather than organization’s image and reputation. In particular, the most important factor of attraction seems to be the opportunity to work with the main choreographer, while the most important reasons to stay are represented by the main choreographer’s creative process. Another relevant factor of retention is represented by the chance offered by the organization to meet and work with other artists operating in different creative sectors. This opportunity is appreciated by dancers who perceive Aterballetto as the centre of a relational network, which extends beyond the organizational boundaries. Differently from previous studies, results show that the external context does not play a role in attracting creative talents, but it influences their retention. Findings also show that factors of attraction are partially different from retaining ones. Finally, the paper presents and discusses potential future lines of research.