Tandy, Cameron Peter2011-03-242011-03-242011-03-24http://hdl.handle.net/10539/9224MBA - WBSThe 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.enTalent managementTalent developmentConsultanciesThesis