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Purpose – This paper outlines the progression of the Talent Management (TM) scholarly body of work from 2001 to 2025, focusing on TM’s unique application across different forms of Project-Based Organizations. The principal aim of this work is to crystallize the most important academic contributions concerning TM, review the themes that have formed, subsequently, ascertain potential avenues for further developing research, and connect talent strategies with project-based working environments.

Design/Methodology/Approach – In our analysis of the procurement literature, we have determined that there are currently over 586 journal articles on procurement published in Scopus, which we conducted using Bibliometric Analysis, a tool used to perform performance metrics and author productivity metrics. In addition, also conducted Co-Authoring and Co-Word Analysis, and ultimately, we were able to construct a map of the intellectual structure of the field of TM based on the results of these analyses. For the most part, our map illustrated the existence of three major themes of interest regarding Talent Management: temporary project environments, knowledge-intensive project environments, and cross-functional team project environments.

Findings – This study examines the gap between the publication frequency of an author and the citation metrics for that author. The citation metrics show that the “International Journal of Project Management” is currently the leading journal for this area, while the “BI Norwegian Business School” has had the greatest academic impact based on their position as a major publisher in the field. The majority of these articles were authored in Europe. In addition, this study identified the authors of the publications with the most citations as primarily the first authors.

Research Implication/Limitation – The reliance on only one database, Scopus, has limited this study as it does not consider related studies contained in other databases.  The limitations surrounding the keywords used as well as use of bibliometric tools have resulted in excluding some of the lesser-known subtleties and contextual factors.  Despite these limitations, this research is able to provide an overall analysis of the current trends in talent management when applied to project-oriented environments. In the end, this provides practical information regarding how to harmonise the use of agile human resource management, leadership, and digital talent management strategies with successful projects.

Originality – This rapid shift to project-based organizational structures has completely changed the way knowledge, human capital, and performance are managed in the dynamic environment.