Talent management in government organizations: identification of challenges and ranking the solutions to address them

Purpose - The main aim of this research is to rank and prioritize the solutions to address the challenges for the successful implementation of talent management (TM) in government banks in Iran. Design/methodology/approach - This paper has identified the challenges of TM implementation in government banks and proposed the solutions to address these challenges through a review of the extant literature. The identified challenges and solutions were ranked using two multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods called PROMETHEE and VIKOR based on the insights from 20 senior managers of government banks in Iran. Findings - The challenges and solutions were categorized into cultural, managerial, human resources and environmental-related factors. “Building culture of TM in organizations”, “making TM as an ongoing process in organizations”, “commitment of senior managers to TM process”, “managing TM pipeline” and “focusing on meritocracy in recruitment and selections” were ranked as the top solutions to address cultural, managerial, human resources and environmental challenges, respectively. Research limitations/implications - The findings can provide a comprehensive view of different types of challenges and solutions in the TM process for government organizations and institutions. It also provides helpful insights for top managers to define their organizations' strategies effectively and to implement the TM process by ranking and prioritizing the solutions to address their challenges. Originality/value - The main contribution of this study is to develop a comprehensive framework in which, identification of different types of challenges in the implementation of TM processes can be addressed and the approaches to remove or mitigate the effects of these challenges are ranked by using two well-established MCDM techniques.