Abstract

Project-based organizations deliver work through temporary teams that assemble around an assignment and disband at its close, and a growing share of that work is now performed remotely or in hybrid form. Talent management theory rests on a permanency assumption that neither condition satisfies, and no existing model explains how project talent stays capable, engaged and attached when assignments and work locations change at the same time. This paper develops and specifies an integrated conceptual framework that closes that gap. The method is a two-track integrative review. A structured search of Scopus and the Web of Science Core Collection using three Boolean strings returned 519 records; after deduplication, title screening and eligibility assessment against pre-specified criteria, 86 studies were retained. A purposive track added 38 foundational theory statements, meta-analyses and landmark field studies identified through citation chasing, giving a synthesis corpus of 123 sources. Each source was coded for setting, design, constructs and the relationship it reports, and the coded relationships were mapped onto a path matrix from which the framework and five propositions were derived. The synthesis produced three outcomes. First, the evidence supports a capability-state-outcome sequence in which workforce adaptability (proactivity, adaptability, resilience and competence) supports employee engagement, and engagement supports retention in a continuous form and a boundaryless form in which talent stays attached to the organization's project ecosystem. Second, four conditions specific to distributed project work moderate the sequence: human resource quadriad clarity, e-leadership quality, swift trust formation and psychological contract fulfillment around flexibility. Third, the evidence is uneven: leadership-engagement associations in hybrid and remote work are moderate (r = .39), psychological contract breach predicts turnover intentions strongly (corrected r = .42) but not actual turnover, and only eleven of the 86 retained studies examine project-based and distributed work together. The framework differs from strategic talent management, the human resource quadriad and workforce agility models by treating assignment and location discontinuity jointly and by adding a boundaryless retention outcome. The paper states plainly a directional ambiguity inherited from the workforce agility literature and specifies the designs capable of resolving it.