Organizations
worldwide face a persistent talent paradox: while skilled immigrants possess
validated credentials, systematic barriers to recognition result in widespread
underutilization of human capital. This phenomenon, termed brain waste,
costs approximately $40 billion USD annually in forgone wages in the United
States alone, while Canadian immigrants with foreign degrees experience
overqualification rates 2.4 times higher than their Canadian-born counterparts.
Brain waste constrains both organizational capability and individual
flourishing. Despite its strategic significance, credential recognition remains
inadequately theorized within talent management scholarship. This article
addresses this theoretical gap by developing an integrative Input-Mediator-Outcome-Input
(IMOI) framework positioning credential recognition as strategic talent
management operating at the intersection of organizational practice, regulatory
systems, and individual capability. The framework synthesizes six theoretical
traditions: human resource development foundations establishing domain
legitimacy through psychological, economic, and systems engagement; the
capability approach providing normative grounding through its distinction
between functionings and capabilities; dynamic capabilities theory explaining
competitive advantage through sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring mechanisms;
the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity framework specifying mediating processes;
multilevel systems theory capturing cross-level dynamics; and care ethics grounding
relational obligations to immigrant professionals. The framework explains why
brain waste persists and specifies conditions for its resolution. The
multiplicative AMO logic demonstrates why partial interventions consistently
fail: weakness in any component creates structural bottlenecks nullifying the
others' effects. High ability without opportunity produces validated but
unemployable credentials; high motivation without ability produces engagement
without competence validation; high opportunity without motivation produces
unutilized access pathways. The ethical foundation positions credential
recognition as a matter of human dignity requiring care-based organizational
responses, addressing both economic and normative imperatives. Eleven testable
propositions specify relationships across micro, meso, and macro levels, with
particular attention to organizational absorptive capacity, strategic maturity,
regulatory opportunity structures, and conversion factors that moderate
recognition effectiveness. A theory-driven research agenda maps propositions to
appropriate methodological approaches. The framework advances talent management
theory by bridging economic and normative logics, demonstrating that effective
credential recognition serves both organizational performance and the expansion
of real freedoms that immigrant professionals have reason to value.
