'Talent Management' is a part of managing employee life cycle and its basic objective is to build people to meet the business needs of the organization. Its start point is 'recruitment' with the aim of picking up the right potential. Potential is, therefore, to be defined by the company based on what they are looking for to select an applicant. And ways & means to assess/ evaluate the potential are to be evolved. A systems approach, of logging these aspects, transforming 'potential' into 'competence' and evaluating, year over the year, how the 'competence' was used to deliver 'performance' is a part of the 'Talent Management'.
Therefore, talent management is an on-going exercise which doesn't stop even if there is sufficient indication that employee's 'competence' has reached the saturation level. Good organizations develop new competencies & skills, practice job rotations & re-evaluate performance. All this is a part of talent management. Automation in HR has enabled today the management of talent through online access to information pertaining to potential, skills, competencies, achievement against goals, performance records, counseling data, training & development profile, self development initiatives taken by the employee, employment record and many other features which collectively give the 'capability profile' of an individual.
'Talent Management' , as an HR practice, deals with creation & utilization of the 'capability profiles' of all employees in the organization with a view to place right people in the right slots. It has become a mature practice because of the use of HR technology. While HR professionals in the past were quite aware of the philosophy & dimensions of talent management, they didn't have the tools to put this into practice. If you search for 'EmpXtrack' Blog on the web, you may find many articles in it connected with Talent Management. These may help you in preparing your dissertation. You are welcome to get in touch if you need any clarifications.