Talent management and academic context: a comparative study of public and private universities

• Published in: EuroMed journal of business 2022-11, Vol.17 (4), p.731-751
• Main Authors: Abdallah Mohammad Taamneh, Taamneh, Mohammad, Alsaad, Abdallah, Al-Okaily, Manaf
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Competitive advantage; Employees; Higher education; Human resources; Performance management; Private colleges & universities; Private schools; Succession planning; Talent management
• ISSN: 1450-2194; 1758-888X
• DOI: 10.1108/EMJB-08-2020-0088

Purpose>The aims of this research are to present a comprehensive and holistic view of talent management (TM) at universities by exploring the current practices of TM among private and public universities in Jordan and make a comparison between the two sectors in regard to how they recruit, retain, train and develop, and measure the performance of talented people. Moreover, the practice of recruitment and selection, or so-called reflective or process-oriented practices, has given special attention to see how both public and private universities differ in regard to this process in particular.Design/methodology/approach>A structured questionnaire was utilized to elicit responses from participants on five selected constructs, recruitment and selection reflective or process-oriented practices, retention, training and development, and performance management. A convenient sampling approach was used to source participants for the study. The data has been analyzed, structured and organized utilizing SPSS software to analyze the results. Frequency tests have been used to test the demographic variables. Descriptive analysis was used to check the standard deviation and mean for total items. The reliability, discriminate validity, convergent validity and correlation matrix of all the questions have been tested using various methods. Moreover, exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) tests were performed. For testing the hypothesis and to examine whether or not there is a significant difference in TM practices between public and private universities in Jordan, independent sample t-tests have been employed.Findings>The results show that the means of TM practices differ slightly between public and private universities. The public universities demonstrate a higher level of TM practices compared to private universities in all practices except that of performance management. However, while there are visible differences in TM practices between public and private universities, these differences were not statistically significant. On the other hand, we revealed a significant difference in the reflective or process-oriented practices between public and private universities. The results show that HR departments in public universities are more likely to have less power in performing the recruitment and selection processes as compared to private universities. We also compared the extent to which elite academics in public universities select candidates congruent with their own perso