Implementing Talent Management in Culturally Diverse Organisations: The Case of an Educational Organisation in Qatar

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory research was to investigate the practices
that human resource managers use in Qatari multicultural educational organisations
to implement talent management strategies with reference to the case of one of such
institutions. Another aim was to determine challenges associated with talent
management in such organisations. This study applied a qualitative methodology
based on social constructionism as an interpretive and epistemological framework
guiding a case study approach selected for this research. Thirty-two employees
working at different positions in the same educational institution in Qatar were invited
to participate in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the interviews
revealed three themes related to talent management in the selected organisation:
talent management strategies, talent management in multicultural organisations, and
the current state of talent management in multicultural organisations. The employees
of the culturally diverse organisation named some of the challenges influencing talent
management: a poor recruitment strategy, the attraction of talents based on monetary
rewards, the lack of motivation and recognition for talents, and the lack of stability and
training. The contribution of this research to theory is important: it was deduced how
the implicit personality theory, the EPG (ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric)
model and Adler’s strategic model could be applied to explaining talent management
in organisations. The contribution of this research to practice is also significant: a
customised model (framework) for implementing talent management practices in a
multicultural organisation in Qatar was developed with reference to the study findings.
To support the results of this study, further quantitative research on the topic of
implementing talent management practices in a specific national context of Qatar was
recommended.