Intangible outcomes of talent management practices in selected South African higher education institutions.

Abstract

In today’s competitive environment, talent management has been considered an important strategy that influences talent attraction, development, and retention required to create value for the organisation. Although talent management has received scholarly interest from both organisational researchers and human resources management practitioners, there is still a paucity of research on the intangible outcomes of talent management. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the intangible outcomes of talent management practices in some South African universities. The study adopted descriptive and exploratory research to describe and provide in-depth knowledge about the subject matter. The mixed-methods was employed to collect and analyse the quantitative and qualitative data. Stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 347 respondents and participants from three South African universities: University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu-Natal, and University of Pretoria. A structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview grid were used to collect the data. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 27.0) and Analysis of Moment Structures (version 27.0) were used to analyse the quantitative data, while the qualitative data was analysed using NVivo (version 12.0). The quantitative results revealed a significant relationship between talent management practices and intangible outcomes such as employee humility, teaching and learning, and university-industry collaboration. On the other hand, the qualitative findings affirmed that talent management practices positively impacted organisational trust, employee engagement, employee humility, teaching and learning, and university-industry collaboration. Additionally, the quantitative and qualitative findings revealed a positive relationship between talent management practices and a sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, the quantitative and qualitative results showed a significant relationship between intangible outcomes and competitive advantage. The scope of the study was limited to the intangible outcomes of talent management in South African universities. This study is unique because it creates a sustainable competitive advantage for South African Higher Education Institutions through talent attraction, development, and retention. The study recommends that universities continue to integrate talent management practices into their strategic plans.