Talent management in the public sector: empirical evidence from the Emerging Economy of Dubai

Abstract

Talent Management (TM) has attracted considerable attention across the globe and the challenges of managing talent effectively and delivering on strategic agendas is increasingly recognized. Yet TM has remained underexplored in emerging markets, particularly, in the public sector context. This research aims to fill the gap by exploring TM in the public sector of the emerging economy of Dubai. 34 in-depth interviews with senior human resource (HR) managers, field visits and extensive document reviews provide insights about TM practices and policies in the public sector. Our key findings indicate that TM in the public sector in Dubai is ineffective, and fragmented. Accordingly, we offer some potentially valuable implications for theory, practice, and future research.

Keywords:

• Talent management
• public sector
• Dubai
• institutional logics
• Wasta
• emerging economies

Data Availability Statement

Data available on request from the authors. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [TD], upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).