Talent Management in Public Sector Organizations: A Study on the Impact of Contextual Factors on the TM Approach in Flemish and Dutch Public Sector Organizations

Abstract

Public sector organizations are confronted with the intensifying competition for talent and suffer from a chronic shortage of talented people. There is little empirical research on the specific talent management (TM) issues in the public sector. This article aims to clarify how public sector organizations conceptualize TM, and particularly what (contextual) factors influence the adoption of an inclusive or a more segmented people management approach in the public sector. Theory on institutional mechanisms and institutional logics is used to clarify the impact of contextual factors. The empirical data are collected in two substudies on TM in the public sector. The data show that TM is highly contextual. Both the organizational internal and external context affect the intended TM strategy, including the actors involved in TM and their interrelated logs. This article is among the first to explore conceptually and empirically the influence of institutional logics on the different aspects of TM approach and as such provides some new directions for future TM research.