Promotion as an antecedent to retention of talented employees in the South African public service

Abstract

Globally, talent retention is a challenge, and this phenomenon of talent retention has global and local implications for human resource management. More specifically, the issues of talent management and talent reten- tion are complex in former colonial countries. The structural adjustments programmes and liberal competitive markets have led to higher informalisation. The colonial govern- ance had also been forced to compromise with local governance and decision making. Additionally, this compromise seems to have a negative impact on institutional develop- ment and human resource management. Following a qualitative research methodol- ogy, this study has critically reviewed the concept of "promotion" and talent retention in the global and local context of South Africa. The study follows the method of discourse analysis to understand how the concept of promotion and talent retention has been discussed from diverse geopolitical stand- points. This study argues that the notion of promotion has been defined by the universal standard definition as heralded in the West, with a very limited understanding of its

context-specific implementation challenges. Thus, the study argues that even though the South African Government has framed humane human resource legislation, it has paid limited attention to implementation challenges of such legislation.