Talent management in emerging economies : study in mining multinational corporations in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Governments are increasingly emphasising the need for multinational companies (MNCs) to invest in developing local talent in the pursuit of developing the sub-Saharan African region. The extractive industries, particularly mining, are under growing pressure to reduce their dependence on expatriates. As a result, many mining companies are adopting talent management as a strategic initiative to meet local content regulations and ensure long-term business sustainability in the region. While talent management practices are extensively studied and implemented in developed countries, their application in emerging economies remains under-explored. MNCs operating in these contexts must account for the unique local challenges and contextual factors. This study responds to the academic call to investigate whether the talent management frameworks developed in the Western context are sufficient to address the specific talent-related challenges faced by mining MNCs in emerging economies. The research uses qualitative methods to draw on the insight from HR executives, HR practitioners and operational leaders across six sub-Saharan African countries through a 14 semi-structured interviews. The outcome confirms that contextual variations factors including economic and market constraints, educational and skill development gap, regulatory and compliance requirement and infrastructure and security challenges influences local talent management practices. The study finds that talent management strategies is driven by local content law in sub-Saharan Africa offering a recommendation to management talent in sub-Saharan Africa.