Kabi, J. S.Zuzani, Zola Noble2024-02-092024-02-092023http://hdl.handle.net/11660/12400Thesis (Ph.D.(Education Studies))--University of the Free State, 2023This study aimed to examine how talent management, as a management concept, can be infused into the nGAP initiative as a driving force towards developing and mentoring black female academics. The study explored talent management's theoretical framework and functions for acquiring, assessing, developing, and deploying talent of early career academics. The talent management strategies implemented by companies in South Africa and internationally have been extensively explored. The study aimed to determine whether talent management could be incorporated into higher education during the development programme. Despite its successful implementation in the business environment and universities in Europe, talent management in African universities still needs to improve. The study presented essential lessons African universities could adopt to incorporate talent management in their development programmes for early career academics. As universities aim to attain a competitive advantage in their environment, they require the development of a talent pool of high-potential academics to take over from retiring academics and go through a rigorous mentoring support structure. To fully understand the success of talent management, an overview of talent management practices was done, followed by a discussion on the current possible challenges that could affect implementing successful talent management practices meant to retain talented academics. In order to understand the incorporation of talent management in various universities, this interpretative-qualitative phenomenological study analysed the lived experiences of black female academics in the new Generation Academic programme. It employed semi-structured interviews, document analysis and thematic analysis to generate data from the interviews with five (5) female academics i.e four black females and one coloured female. The interview participants' data revealed that universities still need an official and structured talent management programme, which is crucial in attracting, developing and retaining academics. Participants revealed other aspects that necessitated incorporating talent management in universities. The study concludes by presenting findings and recommendations which identified induction as a pertinent differentiator whether the nGAP lecturers felt "empowered" or not. Furthermore, a credible evaluation process of the nGAP lecturers was recommended. Some credible evaluation tools, such as CIPP, were recommended to benefit early career academics during the nGAP training. A recommended guiding policy for mentors and nGAP lecturers has been suggested to add more significance and depth to the nGAP training program.ennGAPtalent managementearly career academicsthematic analysisThesisUniversity of the Free State