House M.D.’s dilemma when hiring and firing talents

The study aims to improve the process of managerial decision-making on the issues of hiring and firing employees. The author examines the problem in the context of a new research field in HR management, i.e. talent management. The methodological basis includes the provisions of the theories of behavioural economics and management psychology. We propose to introduce the concept of House M.D.’s dilemma, which is quite common in managerial practice, into scientific discourse. The metaphor is used to describe managerial situations, where an employee is valuable to the organization due to their professional competence, but their personal traits cause problems for the boss. In the current research, we distinguish between difficult and toxic employees and prove that a difficult worker is not always toxic, and vice versa. We put a special emphasis on situations where an employee is both talented and difficult. The empirical base includes the results of a model experiment conducted by the method of situational modelling. The participants in the experiment are heads of the Russian investigative bodies. The findings of the research help us conclude that, if encountered House M.D.’s dilemma, the majority of managers make a meritocratic decision, i.e. choose business competence of employees over their personal qualities. The author develops a practice-oriented approach to optimizing managerial decisions associated with the given dilemma taking into account the specifics of the situation. The paper suggests solutions to the dilemma based on investigative bodies’ practice and extrapolates these solutions to other spheres.