High flyers: glorious past, gloomy present, any future?

The concept of high‐potential career management programmes needs to be re‐examined in the new era of organizational flexibility, given the prevalence of such practices as downsizing and re‐engineering. New types of psychological contracts are emerging, in which promotions cannot be guaranteed or expected as a reward, even for the most promising managers. Organizations need to retain the best people and motivate them to stay and lead organizations. Different approaches are called for. Former methods for selection and assessment of high potentials are likely to become redundant or obsolete as the status of the high‐potential employee fades away altogether. This trend is part of the new way organizations will be managed towards the twenty‐first century.