Oil and gas industry business leaders who fail to implement adequate talent retention strategies experience reduced profits and sustainability challenges. During the first 2 years following downsizing, 67% of organizations using excuse-based downsizing reflected reduced sales and profitability, and 11% of such organizations experienced financial losses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that successful Calgary medium size oil and gas businesses implemented to retain talented employees after downsizing. The population for the study included business leaders of 3 medium oil and gas businesses in Calgary, Canada, who had successfully implemented talented employee retention strategies. Data were collected from interviews with the leaders and from artifacts such as the company websites and social media pages. Inductive analysis was guided by the transformational leadership theory and human capital theory, and trustworthiness of interpretations was bolstered by member checking. Five themes emerged: transformational leadership, training survivors, establishing trust, rewarding and recognizing surviving employees, and competing for survivor employees with other industries. The application of the findings from this study could contribute to positive social change by providing insights for medium oil and gas business leaders on the strategy implementation for talent retention that increases workplace stability and employees supporting their families as well as contributing positively to their communities.

Master thesis is focused on the topic of talent management. It is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part defines basic terms of talent, talent management, talent management processes - acquisition, development and retention of talented employees in the organization. The second part of the thesis focuses firstly on the introduction of Unicorn and analysis of the current state of talent management in the company. Information was obtained by interviewing concerned people and by study of methodological materials of the company. Furthermore, the practical part presents an evaluation of the current state of work with talented employees in Unicorn and suggests improvements of the situation. The final section summarizes the outcomes and recommendations for Unicorn.

Syfte: I en kunskapsintensiv ekonomi blir den talangfulla medarbetaren med sin kompetens och erfarenhet allt viktigare att bibehålla inom företaget, vilket inte alltid kan motiveras med en högre lön. Istället kan organisationskulturen innefatta en central roll i bibehållandet av talangfulla medarbetare. Syftet med studien är att få en djupare förståelse för hur talangfulla medarbetare upplever organisationskulturens påverkan på intentionen om att stanna kvar i organisationen. De forskningsfrågor som studien avser att besvara är:  F1: “Hur upplever de talangfulla medarbetarna att en bibehållande organisationskultur uppkommer?” F2: “Varför upplever de talangfulla medarbetarna att vissa betoningar inom organisationskulturen är av vikt för intentionen om att stanna kvar i organisationen?” Metod: I studien har en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer använts för insamling av empiriska data. För att analysera insamlade data har en tematisk nätverksanalys gjorts. Det empiriska materialet och det analyserade materialet presenteras i separata kapitel med en efterföljande slutdiskussion. Resultat & slutsats: Resultaten från studien visar på att fyra olika grundläggande antaganden: “Tillhörighet”, ”Professionalism”, “Inga hemligheter” och “Frihet” är centrala att betona i en organisationskultur för att bibehålla talangfulla medarbetare. Studien visar även att de grundläggande antagandena verkar som egna teman men att de även har samband sinsemellan då de kan möjliggöra varandra eller verka som motpoler. Uppsatsens bidrag: Studien bidrar med utveckling av befintlig teori då frågor om varför och hur en bibehållande organisationskultur kan uppkomma har besvarats. Den medför även ett djup då en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi har använts för att undersöka ett fenomen som tidigare forskare har undersökt kvantitativt. Studien lämnar även ett praktiskt bidrag till företagsledare vars anställda kan ses som talangfulla medarbetare. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: De begränsningar som finns med föreliggande studie är att organisationskulturen och dess påverkan enbart har undersökts i en specifik kontext i ett företag. Framtida forskning rekommenderas därför att utföra samma typ av studie i en annan kontext. Vi har inte kunnat bekräfta de samband som presenteras då de framkom genom analysen och därav bör framtida forskning studera sambanden vidare. / Aim: In a knowledge-intensive economy, talented employees with their skills and experience, are becoming increasingly important in the company, and this can’t always be justified by a higher salary. Instead, organizational culture can play a central role in maintaining talented employees.The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how talented employees experience the influence of organizational culture on the intention to remain in anorganization. One research question that the study intends to answer is: ●F1: "How do talented employees experience that a retaining organizational culture occur?" ●F2: "Why do the talented employees feel that some emphasis in the organizational culture is important for the intention of staying in the organization?" Method: In this study, a qualitative method of semistructured interviews has been used to collect empirical data. To analyze collected data, a thematic network analysis has been made. The empirical material and the analyzed material are presented in separate chapters with an accompanying enddiscussion. Result & Conclusions: The results from this study show that four basic assumptions: "Affiliation", “Professionalism”, "No Secrets," and "Freedom" are central to emphasizing in an organizational culture to maintain talented employees. The study also shows that the basic assumptions appear as their own themes, but that they also relate to each other as they can enable each other or act as counterparts. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to the development of existing theory, as questions about why and how a retaining organizational culture can occur has been answered. It also implies a depth when a qualitative research strategy has been used to investigate a phenomenon that former researchers have quantitatively investigated. The study also provides a practical contribution to business executives whose employees can be seen as talented employees. Suggestions for future research: The limitations of this study are that organizational culture has only been investigated in a specific context of a company. Future research is recommended to carry out the same type of study in a different industry than the IT industry. We have not been able to confirm the relationships presented when they emerged through the analysis, and future research should further study the relationships.