Research purpose: This research aims to investigate the relationship between talent management and job satisfaction, innovative work behaviour, work engagement and career orientation amongst registered nurses in public hospitals of Malawi.
Motivation of the study:The development of a structured model will contribute to new knowledge in human resources management because no relationship of this kind exists. The model illustrates the interactive relationship between talent management, job satisfaction, innovative work behaviour, work engagement and career orientation.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative research (cross-sectional) was conducted in public hospitals of Malawi by administering the adapted Human Capital Index Questionnaire, Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), the Innovative Work Behaviour Scale (IBS), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and the Career Orientation Inventory (COI). The Spearman's rank correlation (r) was used to determine the connection between the study variables.
Main findings:The results demonstrated a strong positive relationship between talent management and job satisfaction (r = 0.501, p < 0.001) but a weaker relationship with innovative behaviour (r = 0.408, p < 0.001), dimensions of work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and career orientation (r = 0.488, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the results showed that job satisfaction was strongly positively associated with innovative behaviour (r = 0.567, p < 0.001), career orientation (r = 0.599, p < 0.001) and work engagement. There was a constructive relationship between innovative work behaviour, work engagement (r = 0.631, p < 0.001) and career orientation (r = 0.633, p < 0.001). Career orientation was strongly associated with work engagement (r = 0.696, p < 0.001).Practical/managerial implications: Talent management impacts skill demands placed on the workforce for the kind of hired staff and how they are trained, assessed and rewarded. It also stimulates employees' job satisfaction, innovative work behaviour, work engagement and career orientation. This study highlights the need for hospital management to give proper attention to the effective implementation of talent management practices and strives to resolve the challenges of implementing those practices.
Contribution/value-add:This study offers the opportunity for health sector leaders to reflect on how they manage talent in hospitals, giving them the best practices of implementing talent management practices. Furthermore, there exists a lack of research illustrating the relationship between talent management and job satisfaction, innovative work behaviour, work engagement and career orientation. This explains the significance of this study.