Talent identification and management in the Ghana civil service: Evaluating perspective and practices

Abstract

Talent management is perceived as any action plan instigated to attract, develop, engage and retain employees who are regarded as indispensable and highly valuable to the organisation. With the fierce competitiveness in the global world of international and national businesses, the implication of harnessing and nurturing talents has become a topical issue in organisation, work and management research and practice. While there exists a proliferation of research on talent management practices from western countries, little is known about similar studies from non-western contexts particularly in the African region. More specifically, there remains paucity of research on talent management evaluation and practices with the Civil Service necessitating a scholarly focus on understanding talent and talent management practices within the Ghana Civil Service. Using human capital theory as a theoretical lens, this doctoral thesis explored the identification, effects and challenges of talent management as well as the nature of methods adopted in talent management research in an African context with the aim of showcasing the realities of talent management in an under-researched terrain (i.e. Ghana Civil Service). The study adopted a qualitative research design to retrieve data by conducting 30 interviews with senior management staff of the Ghanaian Civil Service which includes Chief Directors, Heads of Directorates, line managers and supervisors involved in implementing and assessing talent identification processes and programs. The thematic analysis revealed divergent context-specific definitions of talent identification and talent management which includes talents being conceptualised as managing scarce resource, human capital management and building personnel for a high-performance workplace. Furthermore, results relating to challenging factors affecting the processes of identification and employee differentiation when managing talents in Ghana are lack of specialised Civil Service structure and challenging work environment. In addressing these challenges, emerging themes such as fostering career development, encouraging coaching and mentoring as well as attenuating job dissatisfaction were identified as mitigating interventions. In addition, future talent management programs were evaluated that are necessary to improve talent management in Ghana’s civil service. In terms of research contribution, the study contributes to talent management research by exploring the concept and realities from a largely overlooked African region – Ghana. This study informs policy and practice in African countries, helping to develop effective strategies for attracting, retaining, and developing talented professionals. The study extends the notion that future research should examine the accounts of those in the private sector to report balanced views on non-governmental employees of different occupational groups in Ghana and beyond.