Conceptualisation of Talent Management on Promotion of Competitiveness Among Five–Star Hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to explore the conceptualisation of talent management (TM) on promoting competitiveness among five–star hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya. There is a lack of unanimous conceptualisation of talent management. Organisations either lean to exclusive or inclusive conceptualisations. The exclusive approach has been touted as the source of competitive advantage; while the inclusive approach has been observed to lack the sharpness of influencing competitive advantage. Similarly, Kenya's hospitality industry faces TM challenges that impede it from acquiring, developing, and retaining high potentials, high performers, or talent with critical knowledge, skills, and abilities to create competitive advantage. There is insufficient literature about the nature of TM approach adopted in Kenya's hospitality industry and its relationship to competitive advantage. These aspects formed the basis of the cuurent study. Data analysis was done through thematic analysis with the help of the QSR NVivo 10 Analysis Package. Findings indicated that hotels did not have a unanimous definition of TM. This meant that TM was adopted differently across the hospitality industry in Kenya. Findings also revealed that approximately 58% of the five-star hotels in Nairobi City County conceptualised talent management based on the exclusive perspectives which TM researchers found to create competitive advantages for organisations. However, approximately 42% of the hotels that leaned towards an inclusive viewpoint were less likely to draw competitive benefits created by talent management. The majority of the informants who adopted the exclusive perspective approach of talent management indicated that they created competitive resources. In contrast, less than 50% of those that adopted an inclusive approach thought that talent management did not influence the competitiveness of the five-star hotels in Nairobi City County.

Keywords: Talent management, Exclusive approach, Inclusive approach, and Competitiveness

DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/54-03

Publication date: February 28^th 2021