From Administration to Strategy: A Systematic Review of Traditional HR to Talent Management Transition in Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: This paper is a systematic review of the literature that reviews and summarizes the literature findings and identifies critical research gaps for further research in the context of Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review has been performed as per PRISMA guidelines. A structured search string was used to perform searches on various reliable electronic databases. Studies were selected if they had to be peer-reviewed, published between 2013 and 2025, and reported HRM in work organizations in Pakistan or a comparison of HRM in other developing countries. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the quality. Out of 777 original records, 27 comparative studies for Pakistan and 5 studies for the other countries were made.

Findings: HRM in Pakistan is found to be administrative in nature, with a rigid structure and culturally bound, with the banking sector being the most studied one. Comparative studies among the international also prove that even though some barriers (resource constraints, change resistance) are common across the developing economies, Pakistan has unique cultural barriers such as the hierarchical nature of authority and favoritism, which the western model does not take into consideration. Four types of gaps are identified: (1) sectorial (pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, government under-researched); (2) methodological (78% qualitative, zero longitudinal studies); (3) comparative (minimal cross-national analysis despite available benchmarks); and (4) theoretical (blind use of Western frameworks). The pharmaceutical industry, which is economically important and experiences specific regulations, is especially neglected.

Originality/value: This is the systematic mapping of HRM literature in Pakistan that includes international comparative studies in order to differentiate between universal and context-specific barriers. It proposes a theoretically based research agenda that can be empirically tested, and it offers a diagnostic framework in the service of practitioners negotiating HR transformation in the context of developing economies.