Impact of talent management practices on financial performance: evidence from GCC banking sector

This paper attempts to address less researched but important sector of the financial industry providing insight of talent management practices. The purpose of this research is to examine talent management (TM) practices in the banking sector of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Oman. A sample of 200 respondents was taken by using purposive sampling from national and multinational banks of both countries. The impact of three dimensions of talent management, i.e., competence training, development and reward management was measured on financial performance. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to measure the impact and Harman one factor/common method bias was performed for treating the biasness. It was revealed that competence training and reward management have positive impact on financial performance of banking sector. However, there is no effect of development on financial performance which is quite context specific. Findings have important implications for banking sector in the region. Banks should manage and deploy their talent appropriately for profitability, long term growth and sustainability.