The Opinions and Recommendations of Academic Staff & Administrators on The Implementation of Talent Management at Some Turkish Universities

Author(s):

Filiz Akar(presenting / submitting)Prof. Dr. Ali Balcı

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 11 C, Policy, Management and Governance in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-12

17:15-18:45

Room:

STD-401

Chair:

Didi M.E. Griffioen

Contribution

Implementation of Talent Management at Some Turkish Universities

Higher education institutions are under the effects of global and demografic changes such as aging, new working habits of Y and Z generations, knowlegde economy, Bologna Process, high & complex skills requirement in administrative positions, global competition, need to develop academic staffs, cooperation with industry, globalization. These changes influenced the organizations’ and universities’ functions and structures which need to see talent management as a priority in order to survive and increase their effectiveness. Talent management approach sees talent and talented persons as a competitive advanteges. As a concept talent designates the outstanding mastery of a systematically developed abilities and knowledge in at least one field of human activity (Gagne, 2004,120). According to Powell and Lubish (2007, 24) talented persons “the handful of employees whose ideas, knowledge and skills give them the potential to produce disproportionate value from the resources they have available to them. They are the creative people, the innovators and entrepreneurs.” Talent management is the systematic attraction, identification, development, engagement, retention and deployment of those individuals who are of particular value to an organization, either in view of their ‘high potential’ for the future or because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles(CIPD,2006). During 1990’s some researches results showed that talent is the very important differentiator of the successful companies from the others and better talent is worth fighting for. McKinsey research results first coined the term “the war for talent”. Talent management is a critical businness challenge and the war for management talent is intensifying dramatically (Axelroad, Handfield-Jones and Welsh, 2001).Talent management is related with the developing the organization’s workforce for the future and includes career development (Gorrow and Hirsh, 2008, 389). After personnel and strategic human resources management, talent management accepted as the third stages of human resources management in 21 th century (Fang Li and Devos, 2008,17). Literature review indicates that as industry and private sector organizations deeply concern with talent management, universities which is a source of talented persons, have been showing very limited concern to talent management policy and implications (Heuer, 2003, 14). Very few studies have been published addressing the talent management strategies within four-year colleges and universities (Riccio, 2010,2). This study aimed to reveal opinions and recommendations of academic staffs and university administrators’ on implementation of talent management in five different talent management dimensions which are attracting, deploying, developing, retaining talent and succession planning at some Turkish Universities in İstanbul. Three sub-aims were questioned in this research which are How does opinions of academic staffs and administrators (deans) about the implementation level of attracting, deploying, developing, retaining talent and succession planning dimensions at their universities. Are there any significant difference between the opinions of academic staff in terms of title, faculty, university’s types. What are the recommendations of academic staffs and administrators (deans) about implementing talent management in their university’s

Method

In this research, mixed research design which includes both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The quantitative data were gathered through “Talent Management Scale” which was developed by the researchers and administered to the sample(academic staffs). This scale was developed as the likert type questionnare which was combined two parts. First part was aimed to gather demographic data and second part was aimed to gather opinions and recommendations of the academic staffs. Qualitative data were gathered by interviewing 11 deans and deputy deans by using semi-structured interview form which was developed by the researchers based on the Talent Management Scale. The sample of the study comprised of 275 academic staffs whose titles’ are professors, associate professors, assistant professors and 11 administrators who are deans and deputy deans were working in 11 faculties (Law, Engineering, Economic & Administrative Sciences, Arts & Sciences) at three universities in İstanbul (One public, two private). The quantitative data were analyzed through the SPSS 13.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) program. To analyze the quantitative data mean, standart deviation, coefficient of variation, frequency, t-test, one way ANOVA were used. Qualitative data were analyzed with the content analysis

Expected Outcomes

Research results reveal that “attracting talent” dimension of talent management has been implemented in “some degree” at universities. “Deploying talent”, “developing talent”, “retaining talent” and “succession planning” dimensions have been implemented “rarely” at Universities. Implementation level of talent management differs according to types of the University (Public, private, corporate). Academic staffs at private universities were more positive than the academic staffs at public university about implementation level of talent management in all subdimensions. According to the types of faculties’ and academic title variables, there was a significant difference. University administrators opinions’ parallel to academic staffs. Corporate university academic staffs and administrators are more positive on talent management implementation level at their universities. Study offers data for the further researches on the basis of the implementation level of talent management at universities. There is a need for developing a talent mindset in order to implement the talent management effectively at universities. Impact of this research will create an opportunity to develop a talent management perspective and strategy at higher education institutions. Research enables some benefits such as : provide data and framework for creating the talent mindset, determining the requirements of establishing talent management system at Universities; prepearing the effective talent pool for the academic and administrative staffs

References

Axelrod, E. L., Handfield-Jones, H., Welsh, T. A. (2001). The War For Talent, Survey-Part Two. McKinsey Quarterly, 2 , 9-12. CIPD (2006). Chartered Institude of Personnel and Development. From Talent Management: Understanding The Diamensions. London (www.cipd.co.uk/research insight) Fang Li, F., Devos, P. (2008). Talent Management: Art or Science: The Invisible Mechanism Between Talent and Talent Factory. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Kalmar, Sweden. Gagne, F. (2004). Personal Talent. High Ability Studies, 15 (2), 119- 147. European Council of High Ability. USA: Carfax Publishing Heuer, J. J. (2003). Successsion Planning For Key Administrators at Ivy-Plus Universities. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Pennsylvania, USA. (UMI Number: 3084871) Powell M., Lubitsh G. (Jul-Aug, 2007). Courage in The Face of Extraordinary Talent. Strategic HR Review, 6(5), 24-27. Riccio, S. J. (2010). Talent Management in Higher Education: Identifying and Developing Emerging Leaders Within The Administration at Private Colleges and Universities. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis. University of Nebraska: Faculty of the Graduate College, Educational Administration

Author Information

Filiz Akar (presenting / submitting)

Bozok University

Primary Education

Yozgat

Prof. Dr. Ali Balcı

Ankara University, Turkey

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