MBA & MM Theses

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Talent management

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Talent Management Practices in a South African Insurance Company
    (2012-11-20) Mazibuko, Siphosomusa Perfect
    The main purpose of this study was to investigate talent management practices at a South African insurance company. Talent management is increasingly being recognised as a strategy used by companies to sustain their competitive edge. It is the people employed by the organisations that successfully execute business strategy by making decisions on how to allocate resources. Various researches have found that those organisations that have top practices in talent management consistently show superior financial performance compared to their peers. The approach used in conducting this study was qualitative. Data collection was done through the use of interviews. A purposeful sampling methodology was employed and the sample was composed of 13 employees within the organisation. The finding of the research is that the company is struggling with the actual implementation of best talent management practices. Information that could be gathered from company documents showed a very detailed talent management strategy that is linked to company strategy, but there were a number of concerns that were raised by the respondents, which needs to be addressed by the organisation, should they want to have best practices. The biggest challenge for the organisation is that talent management is still being seen as the accountability of the human resources department, instead of being owned by the entire organisation. The research concluded that the organisation can overcome these challenges, and must accept that talent management is not a once-off event, but rather a continuous journey that evolves with the company strategy.
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    Attributes of the Employee Value Proposition for South African MBA students
    (2012-10-08) Rajha, Yuva-Rani (Chetty)
    In today‟s labour market, organisational success in the war for talent is viewed as the ability to attract and retain MBAs. Within the South African context, organisations must step up to the challenge and meet their employees‟ needs to win this war otherwise someone else will. Against this backdrop, this study identifies and evaluates the significant attributes of an appealing Employee Value Proposition for South African MBAs. An online survey was presented to MBAs to partially rank order their 10 most preferred attributes out of a possible 22 attributes. The study statistically compared the attributes selected by MBAs using a quantitative technique called the Shotgun stochastic parameter estimation algorithm to identify the most significant attributes preferred by MBAs. On the basis of the survey results, statistically significant differences were found overall within South Africa when compared with similar studies. In terms of gender differences, preferences for the attributes between males and females display overall similar patterns. On the other hand, the preferences across the different generations reveal nuances that require elaboration. In summary, Compensation remains the most important driver of attraction, while several other core drivers also feature rather prominently, including: Job Meaning, Purpose and Impact; Future Career Opportunities; Work–life Balance; Empowerment and Development Opportunities
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    FACTORS THAT IMPACT
    (2011-05-17) Mathebula, Jackie
    People are the main source of competitive advantage in business organisations. Good people are hard to find in the labour marketplace and hard to retain after they have been employed. The purpose of this study has been to identify factors that will enhance the ability of organisations to attract and retain managers and professionals in the gold mining industry. The study was conducted within Gold Fields Limited. The data were collected by means of a research questionnaire. Four hundred and fifty-four (454) questionnaires were processed. The data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistical procedures. The main findings of the research were that there are generic factors that impact on the attraction and retention of managers and professionals. A summary of the research findings has been presented reflecting factors that will assist organisations to become employers of choice and to increase their ability to attract and retain employees. The proposed factors include Organisational issues; Family and work-life balance issues; Performance management, remuneration and benefits issues; Flexible working arrangements; Employee development issues; Employee relationships and human dignity issues; Sustainable development issues; and Transformation and change issues.
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    EVALUATION OF A TALENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
    (2011-05-10) Koyana, Zimasa Sibongile Shadinah
    The combination of highly mobile talent workers and the turbulent economy places more responsibility on organisations to be proactive in managing their human capital through an effective talent management system. The ability to identify, recruit, develop and retain the best staff can create continuous value for stakeholders and can give an organisation a competitive advantage. Thus every organisation needs to understand talent workers in terms of what they think, what they want, what they are willing to contribute, and what they expect in return. The purpose of this research was to identify the elements of a talent management system, and factors that contribute to its effectiveness through an investigation of a system in place at a South African organisation within the food and beverage industry. A qualitative research methodology was used and this allowed the researcher to conduct unstructured interviews with both management and talent workers. The researcher was able to interact with them in their natural setting so as make sense of and interpret phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to the phenomena. The data was subjected to content analysis. Factors which emerged as important for talent workers were compared with factors that managers thought were most effective in identifying, recruiting, developing and retaining critical talent. These results were cross checked against other qualitative data sources such policies and best practice. The interpretation of results revealed that this organisation‘s talent management system has the following elements: identifying talent workers from within, identifying talent workers from outside, managing and developing talent workers, and retaining talent workers. A combination of the following factors: talent friendly organisation, communication, career advancement opportunities, strong presence in the market place, an A-list reward system, clearly set goals, effective performance management, training, visible and caring leadership, high performance teams and results-driven culture lead to the effectiveness of this organisation‘s talent management system
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    Perception of factors influencing labour turnover
    (2011-04-15) Horak, James Dirk
    The ongoing war for talent has resulted in many companies focussing more time and effort on retaining their employees, and understanding why they leave so that a successful retention strategy can be developed. Information technology (IT) has become a critical tool in ensuring the success and competitiveness of companies, but as many IT leaders understand, it is the people and not the systems alone that are the key factor. The context of this research is therefore to understand the perceived factors that influence the labour turnover of IT workers in South Africa. A single case study approach was used focussing on the IT developers in a single, large company operating in the financial and insurance services sector. Data was gathered from exit interviews, market information, and face to face interviews with both past and current employees. This data was evaluated against the findings of the literature review. The initial findings of the research indicated four main factors that contributed to the turnover of IT workers, these being promotions and career growth, technology and skills development, financial factors, and management and the working environment. The impact of these factors differed amongst the employees when factors such as gender, race and age were taken into account, indicating that any company focussing on retaining its employees required a deeper understanding of the reasons behind staff turnover
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    FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO EMPLOYEE
    (2011-04-06) Cawe, Mawethu
    Employee engagement is a critical business issue for South Africa if we are to take this country to the next competitive landscape. South African business has been mired by negative perception of underperformance and uncompetitiveness from the international community for years in the past, with an over-reliance on the mining sector. From 1994, this perception has progressively improved and going forward more urgency from business is required in order to progress even further. Whilst employee engagement represents only one factor amongst a number of macro and micro issues, it is central to this country’s economy, business productivity and sustainability. In attempting to assist business in this regard, a study of factors that promote employee engagement has been investigated. The research was qualitative and quantitative in nature. A number of respondents from across the length and breath of South Africa participated in the study. Analysis was done on the results and correlation done to the propositions and the literature. The findings identified employee engagement strategy, the culture of engagement, leadership and management, talent mindset, communication and knowledge sharing, and organisations’ reputation and branding as prominent factors in business in South Africa. Resulting from the research, an employee engagement model is proposed which attempts to integrate key lessons for business.
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    Identifying and sourcing talent in a South African information and technology consultancy
    (2011-03-24) Tandy, Cameron Peter
    The research was conducted on a single South African Information and technology consultancy using a mixed methodology. Results were determined from 16 qualitative interviews, and 122 quantitative surveys, including 64 newhires to the organisation. The research served to establish and confirm the list of components of talent required within a South African information and technology consultancy, as well as the importance of job profiling, business strategy and organisational culture in the process of identifying talent needs. Furthermore, using an analysis of the relative significance of means of Likert scale responses, the research established the most important talent needs of a South African information and technology consultancy as being: adaptability, analytical skills, communication skills, learning ability, problem solving, quality of delivery, self management and teamwork. The research, using an investigation of standard deviations, determined that there is a high degree of agreement on the talent importance ratings both within the executive and new hire survey groups, and when comparing the responses from the two groups with each other. Prior to the statistical analysis, the Stacey (2005) normalisation algorithm was used to rescale the mean and standard deviations of the responses in order to allow for statistical significance to be determined from ordinal level data. The research concluded with an investigation of the organisation’s recruiting activities, and concluded that they are suitable for identifying the required talent. Recommendation to executives fighting the ongoing war for talent are given, as the need to recognise and prioritise the agenda of talent management, via activities such as successful identification and understanding of talent requirements, is likely to be a differentiator for the most successful organisations of the future.