Talent conceptualisation and talent management practices within the banking sector in Vietnam
Creators: name: DANG, Nhan
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 350503
subject: Human resources management

description: Talent management (TM) is still an emerging issue in Vietnam. Generally, recent human resource managment studies have found that human resource (HR) development is associated with key stages of the country's economic development. Conversely, limited research has focused on TM in the country's context. A few studies investigated ways of attracting and/or retaining Vietnamese talent without a clear focus on the conceptualisation of talent and TM or influencing factors for TM flow. This gives rise to a need for an empirical study which explores the relevant talent concepts, TM practices and the challenging factors influencing TM flow (the process from talent conceptualisation to TM outcomes) in the Vietnamese banking sector. Based on this gap, this research study explores the concepts of talent and TM, differentiates how diverse types of banks conceptualise talent, investigates challenges related to TM practices and evaluates the relationship between TM practices and talented employees' performance in the Vietnamese banking sector. The research adopts both qualitative and quantitative research methods, as mixed methods, to fulfil the objectives and triangulate the research findings. The qualitative research, as the main approach, involves semi-structured interviews and documentation analysis to serve the purpose of exploring talent concepts and issues related to TM practices. The quantitative research, as the supporting approach, has involved the distribution of survey questionnaires to serve the objective of examining the relationship between TM and talented employees' performance. The mixed methods enabled concurrent triangulation in order to cross-validate the research findings related to evaluation of the relationship between TM practices and talented employees' performance. Notably, the research presents a proposed conceptual framework of the factors influencing TM in the Vietnamese banking industry. The incorporation of relevant management theories/principles as a justifiable foundation in building the proposed conceptual framework for TM can be viewed as a response to the call for more sound empirical study of conceptual models and ideas related to the TM area. One of the most notable research findings is about talent concepts: talent identifiers such as the combination of skills and abilities; talent as related to sales; talent as high performers/high potentials rather than all employees; and talent as acquired ability which is more context dependent than transferable. Regarding the conceptualisation of TM, the studied public banks identified TM as a key HRM practice, while the private and foreign banks defined TM as various activities for the management of talented employees. Also notably, although the ways that foreign banks, private banks and public banks have implemented their HR building strategies are diverse according to their natures, cultures and strategies, they all appreciated the importance of internal workforce growth and the necessity of following long-term HR strategic plans (TM as succession planning). Additionally, the main challenges facing TM in banks have been analysed and categorised into four levels: macro-contextual; industrial; organisational; and individual. Considering such challenges, it is highly recommended for banks to strengthen their talent mindsets and frequently conduct contextual analysis for effective strategic planning. The quantitative findings have shown that while TM practices positively support employee performance (task, contextual and adaptive), they also reduce counterproductive work behaviours. Besides, affective commitment partially mediates the relationship between TM and the four dimensions of employee performance. This research has also generated a revised conceptual framework specifically related to Vietnamese banking sector, based on details of the research findings and analysis. This revised version of the framework could be a useful reference for both academics and practitioners who have interest in this field of study.