Exploring the Effect of Talent Management Practices on Organizational Excellence in the Egyptian Health Sector: The Mediating Role of Smart Organization

This paper aims to investigate the direct effect of talent management practices on organizational excellence, and the role of the smart organization as a mediator. The empirical research is based on a convenience sample total of 370 employees working in the Egyptian university hospital located in Assiut. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) indicate that talent management practices experienced a partial mediation effect of organizational excellence in the presence of the smart organization. However, there is no mediation effect on the relationship between reward, and organizational excellence. Finally, the study finds that talent management practices create a smart organization that leads to enhance organizational excellence in the Egyptian university hospital.


Literature Review & Hypotheses Development 2.1. Talent management (TM)
The term talent management (TM) emerges in the 1990s after the study of McKinsey 'War for Talent ' (Michaels et al., 2001). Lately, Talent management is defined as a process of confirming that the organization has a talented employee. But recently it recognizes as a major resource of the organization (Armstrong 2009). Talent practices help in recruiting and retaining talent that will work towards accomplishing success and sustainability for organizations. And to continually develop new capabilities due to the changes in the environment (Wright et al., 2001). The most important component is identifying, managing, and developing staff by the strategy of recruiting talents to enable an organization to achieve excellence (Rowland, 2011). From another point of view Hansen, (2007) refers that talent management to core employees and leaders who drive the business ahead. From this perspective, we specific a talented employee as a person with high performers and high potential talents to be managed.

Practices of talent management:
This study adopts four practices of talent management as follows: -Identification of critical talent positions (ICP): Talent identification includes the concept of talent attraction, planning, finding, supplying, and recruiting talents (Zadeh & Ahmadi, 2017). In unpredictability crisis times Talent management must be positioned to be productive during crisis and in an immediate position (Mathur & Parashar, 2020). -Competence training (CT): meaning involves invest time and money in a continuance way for talents to enable them to acquire specific competencies for current and future jobs (Collins & Clark 2003).
-Development (D): means develop employees to be creative, to gain knowledge, and desire to work (Hana & Lucie, (2015). It is necessary for the continuous improvement of employee skills (Kagwiria, 2013), and minimize gaps for providing opportunities for top talents to become future leaders. -Reward Management (RM): consists of intrinsic rewards on the job contain learning and career growth and feeling of self-esteem, interesting and challenging work, and a supportive work environment. and Extrinsic rewards consist of competitive salaries, pay raises, incentive bonuses, and variable pay and the social climate (Hamad ,2019).

Organizational Excellence (OE)
Organization excellence is a source owned by an organization without the others (Abu Naser1& Al Shobaki, 2017). This includes distinguished human resources, distinguished partnerships, distinguished operations, and outstanding products (Qawasmeh & Bourini, 2013). By reviewing several studies in the field of Organizational excellence dimensions we can mention the five main dimensions are leader excellence, subordinate excellence, operation excellence, culture excellence, finance excellence (Kandule, 2002;Hesseblin & Johanston, 2002). Grote, (2002) defined an organizational excellence as the ability of the organization to provide opportunities and the appropriate environment that seeks to stimulate, correct, and effectively address problems. Al-Rashaida, (2007) addressed that organizational excellence is the superiority of the organization over others, through an integrated system because of interaction with the elements of its internal and external environment, which has a positive impact on Organizations to reach their goals. Martensen et al., (2007) defined it as the ability to collect, manage, and use information from the organization to ensure the achievement of goals. According to Al-Qurazi, (2018) organizational excellence is a modern philosophy that has undertaken the task of searching for the best way for upgrading the organization and enhancing it to accomplishing all stakeholder's satisfaction.

Smart Organization
We can define Smart organization as a pattern and a new way of organizational rethinking in the knowledge age. Today, creating a smart organization is one of the basic requirements of most knowledge-based organizations to be able to obtain and analyze available data to raise their capabilities and gain knowledge (Maccoby, 2015). A smart organization could make smart decisions and adapt quickly to changes in the environment to reach a competitive advantage (Al-Kasasbeh et al., 2016). A smart organization has many characteristics such as a clear strategic vision, a culture of merit, a supportive incentive system, and enhanced learning, all to adapt to the environment (Schafer, 2009). Also, the smart organization has the power to identify and solve problems before they turn into crises and to re-engineer internal processes, products, and services to increase customer satisfaction (Eckerson, 2003).

Talent management (TM) and organizational excellence (OE)
Organizational Excellence is delivering sustained superior performance that meets and where possible exceeds the expectations of stakeholders (Oakland, 2001). According to Singh, (2012) the pro-active talent management system has become a necessity, and if the organizations do not adopt it will suffer to reach sustain organizational excellence. Similarly, in the study of Al-Lozi et al., (2017) the authors investigate the impact of Talent Management on enhancing Organizational Excellence in Arab Potash Company in Jordan, the results have confirmed the impact of talent management on organizational excellence. Augustine, (2018) highlighted the positive significant influence of factors of talent management on achieving organizational excellence in banking. Another study conducted in Amman by Alheet & Abdul'aal, (2018) found that talent management is the basis of organizational excellence and recommended that management should be adopting the culture of developing talent. From another point of view, McDonnell & Collings, (2011) stressed the talent management role in obtained organizational success. Kaleem, (2019) in his work that conducted in the public sector in UAE explored the TM practices such as Training which is used to upgrade skill, and Development which enhances individual skills through the results of a learning experience. And reward system that is used to ensure the outcomes of the organization's objective is corresponding to all of them enhance the performance of the employees. Therefore, this paper proposes that (TM) with its practices may enhance (OE) and the researcher developed the hypothesizes: H1: (ICP) has a positive significant effect on (OE). H2: (CT) has a positive significant effect on (OE). H3: (D) has a positive significant effect on (OE). H4: (RM) has a positive significant effect on (OE).

Talent management (TM) and Smart Organization (SO)
The smart organization is a mixture of individual s intelligence and using modern technology (Al-Faraj & Al-Zubayr, 2011). A successful organization always using the staff's thinking power effectively (Matin, et al., 2010). The study by (Whelan et al., 2010) shows that talented staff can stir knowledge flow and be creative in obtaining and disseminating knowledge throughout the organization. Also (Hamad ,2019) finds that performing TM may lead organizations to enjoy higher intelligence. Hence, the researcher developed the following hypothesizes. H5: (ICP) has a positive significant effect on (OE). H6: (CT) has a positive significant effect on (OE). H7: (D) has a positive significant effect on (OE). H8: (RM) has a positive significant effect on (OE).

Smart Organization (SO) and Organizational Excellence (OE)
A study conducted in Jordan by Al-Abadi, (2012) shows that smart organizations are only able to succeed and excel in the environment of business with high competition, additionally, that organization provides their individuals the tools of success, to make their work easier, and makes the organization more resilient in the changing business world. According to Al-Kasasbeh et al., (2016), there was an effect of intelligent organization characteristics: a clear strategic vision, a culture of merit, and a supportive incentive system on social and environmental performance. Hence, the researcher developed the following hypothesizes. H9: (SO) has a positive significant effect on (OE).

Smart organization mediates the relationship between Talent Management (TM) and Organizational Excellence (OE)
Ingram, (2016) pressured on that through talent management the organizations establish a climate supporting individual innovation of its employees to enable organizations to gain high performance. Khaki et al., (2017) reported that the innovative behavior of employees increases as talent management increases, and the study of (Bahrami et al., 2016) confirmed that Smart personnel and proper technology make organizations enjoy higher intelligence and agility. Thus, it seems that we have a sequential relay beginning from talent management practices that create smart organization and lead to organizational excellence. Based on the above debates, the researcher predicts that the effect of the talent management practices on Organizational Excellence can be mediated by Smart organization, and developed the following hypothesizes. H10: (ICP) mediates the effect of (TM) on (OE). H11: (CT) mediates the effect of (TM) on (OE).

Methodology Methodology 3.1 Measures and instrumentation
The 24-item scale talent management (TM) section is based on Integrated Talent Management Scale (ITMS), (Chen, 2012;Hung, 2013). There were four items measuring identification critical position (ICP), five items measuring competence training (CT) four items measuring development (D), and eleven items measuring reward management (RM). Sample items are "My Company identifies the critical positions aligned with business strategies" (ICP). "The training activities for the identified talent are focused on required competencies" (CT)," Development needs are identified for talent" (D)." My company provides financial recognition such as cash, paid travel, incentive bonus variable pays, etc" (RM).
The 19-item scale smart organization (SO) section is based on Schafer, (2009). Sample item "My organization s vision describes the efforts required to achieve its objectives ".
The 28-item scale of organizational excellence (EX) section is based on (kandula, 2002;Hesslbein &Johnston, 2002). Sample item "management towards achieving a good competitive position ".

Data collection and sample
The study data were collected from a sample of employees in The Egyptian university hospital located in Assiut, the researcher targeted various categories of staff in the three levels of management positions which include heads of departments, line managers, and junior staff. A convenience sample was employed. Three hundred seventy questionnaires were distributed and 302 were returned, with a response rate of 82 %.

Data analysis
To test our hypothesis, we used SEM analysis with AMOS 23 which involves two stages; first, we used CFA test then, the Goodness-Of-Fit (GOF) indices to reveal estimates and confirmed the fit of the model.

Findings 4.1 Measurement model 4.1.1 Validity and ratability
To assess the measurement model, it is necessary to indicate convergent validity and construct validity (Hair et al., 2010). To determine convergent validity, the loading of each item on its associated variable, average variance extracted (AVE), and composite reliability (CR) were employed (Hair et al., 2010). Table 1 shows The indicators loadings for the three models represent that factor loadings was higher than 0.5 after deleted items(R3,R4,R6,R9,R10,R11,SO10,S12,S13,S14,OE6,OE10,OE13,OE16,OE17) that had factor loading lower than the cut-off value (0.5). All the items exceeded the recommended value of 0.7. Furthermore, to assess construct validity, CR higher than 0.7 (Chin, 1998) was determined. Table 1 shows that values were acceptable.  Table .3. It is apparent that the values of the absolute intercorrelations among the six constructs were a high correlation, which is lower than the corresponding inter construct correlation estimates and is hence acceptable (Fornell & Larcker,1981).

Indirect impact of variables (mediate analysis).
Hypotheses 10,11,12,13 had been proposed to study the role of the mediating factor (SO) on impact exerted by the independent variable of (TM) on dependent variable (OE) by performing mediation analysis. Table 5 shows the outcomes of these hypotheses testing and presents the standardized effect of different paths. Not supported Testing the mediating effect of (SO) is an important object in this study. The relationship between (TM) practices (Identifying critical position, Competence training, Development, Reward management) and (OE). In this study, the indirect effect of Identifying critical position, Competence training, Development on organizational excellence via smart organization was found to be significant thus, H10, H11, H12 were supported, Whereas the indirect results of (SO) between Reward management and Organizational excellence was found to be not significant, thus H13 was not supported.

Discussion and conclusion
The main goal of this study was to enhance Organizational Excellence and Talent Management literature by providing empirical evidence from the Egyptian context. The research outcomes imply that (OE) in the Egyptian health sector in Assiut government affected by (TM) and (SO). And it was revealed that (TM) used (SO) indirectly to enhancing the (OE). The finding indicates that three practices of talent management were found to have a significant effect on organizational excellence, this finding is partially consistent with the previous research (e.g., Al-Lozi et al., 2017;Alheet & Abdul'aal, 2018), and similarly, the smart organization was also found to have a significant effect on organizational excellence which is concluded from the previous finding (Al-Abadi, 2012). Finally, the mediating impact of the (SO) on the relationship between (TM) and organizational excellence is a partial mediate. This shows the interest of the Egyptian health sector in adopting talent management practices and transforming into a smart organization.

Theoretical and Practical Implications
This study contributes to the HRM literature by providing a deeper insight into the mediation role of the smart organization in the relationship between talent management practices and organizational excellence that is revealed the lack of studies, which addressed this relationship, and indicate that talent management practices create a smart organization to enhance organizational excellence. From the practical aspect, the finding of this current study expands its scope of exploration of the current orientation of the Egyptian health care sector to adopt the new trend to transform into a smart organization, and to readjust these human resources strategies to fit the orientation to benefit of every talented employee.

Limitations and future directions
This research is required to address several limitations. First, the present study has a relatively small sample size. Besides, the results of this study are based on the Egyptian university hospitals located in Assiut government Therefore, the same constructs cannot be applied in the whole Egyptian context. Another limitation was that the study was applied to the heads of departments, line managers, and junior staff only with no consideration to the perspectives of other employees. Thirdly, the results indicate that (RM) not mediate the relationship between (TM) and (OE), which maybe mediate this relation in another context. Future research can include other organizational outcomes (e.g., sustainability, engagement, successes, resilience).