Talent management in the public sector – empirical evidence from the emerging economy of Romania

Barrington, Graham (author)

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how talent management is conceptualized and practised within Romanian public sector organizations. Just like their private sector counterparts, public sector organizations need talented employees or high performers to support their operations and enhance public service delivery. However, research on talent management in the public sector, particularly in Eastern European countries, remains limited. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was conducted through a series of semi-structured interviews with employees in public sector organizations. The results were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: The study reveals that talent management practices in the public sector are still in a nascent state of development. Furthermore, there appears to be a lack of understanding of talent management among HR practitioners, and implementation efforts have yielded less-than-desirable results. Practical Implications: The results of our study suggest that while talent management practices are widely embraced by a growing number of private sector companies, their conceptualization and implementation in the public sector differ. In the case of Romania, implementation is hindered by the bureaucratic structure of the public sector and the legacy of previous communist regime. Originality/Value: The study represents one of the initial attempts to investigate the impact of talent management practices in the Romanian public sector, leveraging empirical evidence to support its findings.

• Language: English
• Keywords: public sector, talent, talent management, theory of bureaucracy
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FU - Faculty of Administration
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 199-220, 227-228
• Numbering: Vol. 22, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-158238
• UDC: 35:005.95/.96(498)
• ISSN on article: 2591-2240
• DOI: 10.17573/cepar.2024.1.08
• COBISS.SI-ID: 197251075
• Publication date in RUL: 30.05.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Central European public administration review
• Shortened title: CEPAR
• Publisher: Fakulteta za upravo
• ISSN: 2591-2240
• COBISS.SI-ID: 293849600

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Upravljanje talentov v javnem sektorju – empirični dokazi iz razvijajočega se romunskega gospodarstva

Abstract

Namen: Prispevek proučuje upravljanje talentov v organizacijah javnega sektorja v Romuniji. Tako kot v zasebnem tudi organizacije v javnem sektorju namreč potrebujejo talentirane ali visoko potencialne kadre, da bi okrepile svoje delovanje in izboljšale zagotavljanje javnih storitev, a so raziskave o upravljanju talentov v javnem sektorju, zlasti v vzhodnoevropskih državah, še vedno precej skope. Zasnova/metodologija/pristop: Študija temelji na polstrukturiranih intervjujih z zaposlenimi v organizacijah javnega sektorja. Rezultati so bili analizirani z uporabo tematske analize. Ugotovitve: Analiza razkriva, da je upravljanje talentov v javnem sektorju še vedno v začetni fazi razvoja. Zdi se, da kadrovske službe upravljanja talentov ne razumejo, prizadevanja za izvajanje tovrstnih praks pa niso prinesla želenih rezultatov. Vpliv v praksi: Rezultati naše študije kažejo, da so prakse upravljanja talentov sicer dobro sprejete v vse več podjetjih zasebnega sektorja, povsem drugačna pa je situacija v javnem sektorju. V primeru Romunije izvajanje ovirata birokratska struktura javnega sektorja in zapuščina nekdanjega komunističnega režima. Izvirnost/vrednost: Študija je eden prvih poskusov proučevanja vpliva praks upravljanja talentov v romunskem javnem sektorju. Ugotovitve so podprte z empiričnimi dokazi.

• Keywords: javni sektor, talenti, upravljanje talentov, teorija birokracije