The elaboration and empirical evaluation of a partial talent management competency model

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study stems from an urgent need to understand which factors contribute to talentedemployees' intention to quit, and what organisations can do to ensure the retention of suchtalent. Difficulties regarding the retention of talented employees have become a worldwidechallenge. The retention of talented individuals has become a primary source of gaining acompetitive advantage. The increased focus on talent management practices has become awide spread phenomenon worldwide, including South Africa.History, cultural heritage, politics and the economic environment are but only a few factorsthat collectively now shape the nature and complexity of the South African labour market. Acontext, notorious and respected for its diversity and the struggles that have sprouted from it,poses formidable challenges for organisations competing in the global market.A multitude of factors, controllable and uncontrollable, contribute to increased levels ofemployee turnover in all sectors and organisations in South Africa. Organisations and topmanagement can position themselves, by implementing action plans and organisationalstructures, to identify and coordinate such controllable factors. Strategies and processescan be implemented to address the increasing challenges regarding the retention of valuabletalent.The implementation of structural talent management programmes have proven to addressand overcome retention challenges. The crucial role of line management in implementingand fostering a culture of talent retention has also been proven.The foundation of a talent management competency model, for the purpose of addressingand solving this issue, has been laid down. Additional research has been done in order to reevaluateand elaborate on the existing knowledge of such a competency model. This studyaims to once again re-evaluate the originally proposed model as well as any extensions thatmay have been developed by other researchers.The primary objective of the current study consequently was to expand on the existing modelas proposed by Oehley (2007) and Smuts (2011). Factors external to the organisationalenvironment were added to the model in order to gain a more comprehensive understandingof the complexity underlying the determinants of intention to quit. Only a subset of thehypothesised intention to quit structural model was then empirically tested. In the initialmodel only nine of the nineteen paths were empirically corroborated. The initial reducedmodel was subsequently revised by deleting various paths that were found to be statisticallyinsignificant (p > .05) and by adding various paths suggested by the modification indices.The final model produced exact fit. Seven of the nineteen paths in the final model were not empirically corroborated. Suggestions for future research are made by introducing additionalvariables that could be included into a future model.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University