Influence of Talent Management Practices on Organisation Performance in Nigeria

: An Evaluation of the Civil Service

Abstract

Most existing studies of Talent Management (TM) Practices as the pinnacle of human resources are on the anglophone world's advanced economies, very few treat talent management practices within emerging economies. These previous few studies concentrated more on multinational corporations (MNC), national or local private enterprises in oil and gas, telecommunications, and financial services. The context of public service has received little or no attention. This study explores talent management practices and their influence on the performance of the Nigerian civil service. In addition to the federal service, six out of the current thirty-six states in the federation were selected systematically across the six geopolitical zones based on their year of creation. Respondents of the research were employed in Management Staff categories drawn from the civil service commissions and the office of the heads of civil service. The researcher adopted a mixed-methods research approach in the collection of data to examine the influence of talent management practices on the organisation. With the use of the Taro Yamani formula, 1480 respondents were identified for the quantitative data collection from the total population of 3,627. Twenty-eight interviews with Directors were conducted, and seven focus group sessions were held to generate highly rich qualitative data. Findings reveal that there are genuine ways of defining and identifying talent in the service. The results indicate that there are no significant differences in the practices of talent management between the federal and state on the one hand, and the old and new states of the federation on the other. Similarly, no significant differences in practice were found within the old and new states. The study reveals that there are significant differences in the perception of management staff regarding the barriers to effective talent management in the Nigerian civil service. The findings confirm that talent engagement, development, and exclusive practices would significantly enhance performance. The study identified some limitations and areas for future research. Overall, the study has brought to the fore the importance of the civil service as an additional context for the talent management research literature in Nigeria and other emerging economies, especially in Africa.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Nicholas Perdikis (Supervisor) & Ratnesvary Alahakone (Supervisor)