Talent Characteristics among frontline bankers: The effect of Role Stress and Customer Professionalism

Frontline bankers and Talent Management (TM) are aguably important for the banking profession, but in order to attract, retain and develop employees with the 'right' talent, banks need, first and foremost, to define the construct of talent. However, the question arises as to what characterises a talented frontline banker? The literature on talented bankers is scarce, implicit and takes a unilateral approach to the definition of talent. Based on a qualitative case study among talented frontline bankers in the Danish banking industry, this paper offers definitional characteristics that constitute talent. The talent construct is linked to four contextual settings in the banking industry, drawing on Role Stress Theory and distinguishing between bankers delivering services to professional customers (B2B) and non-professional customers (B2C).