Talent Management Implementation at an Open Distance E-Learning Higher Educational Institution: The Views of Senior Line Managers

Abstract

The war for talent remains a challenge that many organisations face but more so for distance education institutions to deliver on its mandate to provide effective online academic offerings. The question that remains is: How can intellectual capital be managed effectively in order to recruit and retain talent that is necessary for success? This study was conducted at a mega open and distance learning institution, and this institution has identified talent management as one of the key strategic initiatives to ensure institutional strategic goal attainment and adopted an inclusive/developable talent approach as its framework. The aim of this article is to report on the perceptions of senior line managers regarding their experience with implementing the talent management strategy in their operational areas at the institution. This study adopted a qualitative approach and purposive sampling was used to select interviewees. The population group included chairpersons of 26 talent committees who are senior line managers and 11 of them were interviewed. Participants were of the opinion that policies and strategies do not always support the implementation of talent management in their respective environments. The findings show that although the university embraces the inclusive/developable talent approach in its strategy, the impact thereof is inhibited by a lack of methodological implementation, a lack of integration of supporting Human Resources policies with talent management, and insular line manager discernment.

Talent management practices: perceptions of academics in Egyptian public business schools

“…The same has been explored before by Kolsaker (2008) when confirming that managers of HEIs feel confused between their managerial professionalism and academic one. Surprisingly, Erasmus et al (2017); in their attempt to evaluate distance education institution, have highlighted the limited experience of senior managers in operationalizing talent management strategies. This indicates that managerial expertise in identifying, designing and implementing talent management strategies has represented a challenge or maybe a struggle in either African developing HEIs or western developed ones in the past decade.…”

Talent Management of Academics: A Systematic Literature Review and Implications for Further Research in Hungary

“…The first problem we encountered when wanting to conduct this research was regarding the operationalization of 'academics'. Some of the examined sources (e.g., van Balen, van Arensbergen, van Der Weijden, & van Den Besselaar, 2012;van den Brink et al, 2013) refer to teaching and research staff as academics, some (e.g., Barginere, Franco, & Wallace, 2013;Oppong & Oduro-Asabere, 2018) include university support staff as well, while others (e.g., Erasmus, Naidoo, & Joubert, 2017;O'Bryan & Casey, 2017) do not really specify what they mean when they speak about, for instance, "all university staff" (Lim & Boey, 2013) or "faculty members" (Eghbal, Hoveida, Seyadat Seyedali, Samavatiyan, & Yarmokhammadian, 2017). Fig.…”

“…Some other authors (Erasmus et al, 2017;Saddozai et al, 2017) were concerned about defining talents according to the talent tensions (inclusive versus developable). Only Thunnissen and Van Arensbergen (2015) focused on conceptualizing academic talents, while Singh and Singh (2015) wrote about a specific measurement (the so-called Teacher's Talent Quotient) in order to define talent of management teachers.…”

“…Barkhuizen, Roodt, and Schutte (2014), Oludayo et al (2018), andThunnissen (2016) mentioned only two TM processes; while Barkhuizen, Mogwere, and Schutte (2014), Salau et al (2018), Thunnissen and Van Arensbergen (2015), and van Balen, et al (2012) proposed three of them. Most of the articles distinguished four TM processes (Bradley, 2016;Erasmus et al, 2017;Mohan et al, 2015;Peet et al, 2010;Saddozai et al, 2017;Singh & Singh, 2015;van den Brink et al, 2013). Furthermore, some authors mentioned even more (6-9) TM processes (Eghbal et al, 2017;O'Bryan & Casey, 2017;Rastgoo, 2016;Rutledge et al, 2016).…”

Manajemen Talenta di Pemerintah Daerah: Studi Eksplaratori Penerapan Kebijakan Manajemen Talenta di Provinsi Kalimantan Timur dan Kalimantan Utara

“…Beberapa kajian telah mencoba menganalisis penerapan manajemen talenta di sektor publik, seperti di sektor kesehatan dan pendidikan (Erasmus, B., Naidoo, L., & Joubert, P., 2017). Di Indonesia, survey penerapan sistem merit yang dilakukan oleh Komisi Aparatur Sipil Negara (KASN) terhadap pemerintah daerah pada Tahun 2019 menunjukkan bahwa hanya 14% pemerintah Kabupaten dan 22% pemerintah kota yang sudah masuk kategori baik dan sangat baik dalam menerapkan pengelolaan SDM berbasis sistem merit / manajemen talenta (KASN, Pemetaan Penerapan Sistem Merit Dalam Manajemen AS, 2019:2).…”