Megan Monroe for invaluable research assistance. We also thank Zarina Durrani for her patient instruction in how compensation professionals make decisions and how they take inflation into

is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The authors would like to thank Daniel J.B. Mitchell for his editorial guidance, and Jennifer Carr and Kristin Roberts for their capable research assistance. Working papers of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. The views stated herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Working papers are now available electronically through the Cleveland Fed’s home page on the World Wide Web:

This paper has not undergone formal review or approval of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of Center research available to others interested in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions. Page 2In The Trenches At The Talent Wars CAHRS WP03-05 In this study, I attempted to extend strategic human resource management theory by developing and testing a model of inter-firm competition for human resources. Using the phenomenon of talent raiding as a vehicle to test the model, I examined how degree of threat and firm capability affected firms ’ propensities to respond to rivals ’ actions. Results suggest that attributes of the raiding firm, attributes of the raided human capital, and attributes of the target firm were associated with target firms ’ propensity to defend or retaliate in response to a successful talent raid. The findings have implications for a tactical theory of human resource management and the origins of intra-firm differences in human resource systems.

and comments on this project. I also thank Mary Ellen Colten, Carol Cosenza, and Anthony Roman of the