Talent management strategy in Saudi universities discussed

Saudi experts have found that there are several obstacles facing the process of implementing the talent management strategy in Saudi universities, including administrative, regulatory, cultural and assessment obstacles.

The conclusion was in a study discussed at the Arabian gulf University (AGU) by researcher Thuihaiba Al Obaid titled “The Reality and Obstacles of Applying the Talent Management Strategy in Universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.

Recommendations in the study, part of the requirements to grant Al Obaid a PhD degree in Gifted Education from AGU, included providing more moral and materialistic privileges to gifted students, in accordance with their outstanding performance, and to encourage their innovation, skills, ideas, decision-making and problem solving abilities.

The researcher also called for setting a mechanism to attract the gifted to occupy administrative positions and to work on preparing them to be a perfect replacement of individuals who are currently occupying critical and sensitive positions once it is vacant. 

Al Obaid also recommended that the administrations of universities should dedicate more care to the academic staff, especially in the field of inclusive talent management at all levels as well as the field of investment in the development of latent talent and avoiding administrative and organisational constraints and cultural obstacles to the strategy of implementing talent management in Saudi universities.

The study was aimed at acknowledging the achievement of the implementation of talent management strategy from the point of view of gifted students, academic staff and leaders, and revealing the discrepancy of the responses of gifted students to the talent management strategy in Saudi universities according to gender, specialisation and interaction between them.

Sampled on 89 students of both genders, 116 academic staff and 37 experts, the study gathered information utilising a scale measuring the reality of implementing the talent management strategy in Saudi universities and the obstacles it is facing from the prospective of students, academic staff and experts.