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Talent management has been viewed both as a relatively new phenomenon that can deliver competitive advantage and as the latest management fad that is nothing more than a sub-section of human resources. Much has been written on the subject, albeit predominantly by consultants, so there is little academic rigour on the subject. Moreover, the majority of the literature focused on highlighting the diminishing supply of talent and providing advice to practitioners around recruiting, retaining, developing and rewarding talent. This thesis reviewed the existing literature to provide a holistic view on talent management in order to add value both at the academic and practitioner level. It focussed on what conditions an organisation is advised to put in place in order to leverage the performance of talent and whether talent can have a significant impact on organisational performance. The secondary research suggested that talent could act as a lever for organisational performance. This was tested through primary research, from the organisational and individual perspective, and resulted in the identification of four conditions that impacted on the performance of talent. These conditions were grouped into a model, which was tested both by the case study organisations and by organisations that had not been involved in the research. The findings were used to adapt the model and this is offered for subsequent researchers to further develop in order to explore generalisability for all organisations.

Thesis (MScIng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.Sc.)(Project Management)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliography. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Talent management has been viewed both as a relatively new phenomenon that can deliver competitive advantage and as the latest management fad that is nothing more than a sub-section of human resources. Much has been written on the subject, albeit predominantly by consultants, so there is little academic rigour on the subject. Moreover, the majority of the literature focused on highlighting the diminishing supply of talent and providing advice to practitioners around recruiting, retaining, developing and rewarding talent. This thesis reviewed the existing literature to provide a holistic view on talent management in order to add value both at the academic and practitioner level. It focussed on what conditions an organisation is advised to put in place in order to leverage the performance of talent and whether talent can have a significant impact on organisational performance. The secondary research suggested that talent could act as a lever for organisational performance. This was tested through primary research, from the organisational and individual perspective, and resulted in the identification of four conditions that impacted on the performance of talent. These conditions were grouped into a model, which was tested both by the case study organisations and by organisations that had not been involved in the research. The findings were used to adapt the model and this is offered for subsequent researchers to further develop in order to explore generalisability for all organisations.

Research has not explicitly examined the link between key components of terror management theory (TMT) and body image without the use of mortality salience. This project explored the link between cultural worldview, self-esteem, body image, and death anxiety. Multiple measures were used to create a structural equation model examining relationships between body image and death anxiety as mediated by body image in the context of TMT. The proposed model did not fit the data. Minor modifications were made to the model keeping within the proposed theoretical perspective. In the modified model the relationships between cultural worldview and death anxiety as mediated by body image were either non-existent or weak. Hierarchical regression analyses did suggest that some aspects of body image indeed did predict some, but not all dimension of death anxiety in this sample of young adults.

Terror management theory (TMT) seeks to understand religious worldview adherence, positing that worldview beliefs can abate existential threats such as mortality salience. Most research on TMT has employed young samples, so influences on older adults' experiences of mortality salience are unclear. Simultaneously, research on death anxiety shows that older people may view their own death more favorably than younger individuals do. Guided by the lifespan development perspective, I investigated whether the range of life experiences and interpretation of them might account for perceptions of death in old age. A multi-phase content analysis of in-depth interview transcripts from 16 adults aged 65+ focused on narratives of life events, religious worldviews, and death. The findings suggested how lifespan adversity, such as the death of a loved one, promoted growth in self and religious belief that enhanced participants' reported relationship with the sacred. In turn, participants' views of and beliefs about death were without fear, indicating the influence of highly individualized and deeply spiritual religious worldview beliefs on the abatement of death fear. These findings support extension of TMT to older people by identifying the impact of lifespan experiences with trauma and adversity as contributing to less superficial, more individualized conceptions of religious worldviews. Such worldviews, contingent upon growth from adaptation to lifespan experiences, may indeed lead to less death anxiety and reduce the effects of mortality salience in old age. / Master of Science

Abstract This study investigates the organization design and interactive marketing of the industry of system integration, using the fundamental organization management theory (organization design, organization reform, organization efficiency and organization study), knowledge management theory, marketing management theory, by utilizing individual case studies to discuss study types, through studying the encouragement system, organizational design, preservation of core competitiveness, marketing strategy of the staffs from the individual case companies, in order to verify the associated theories and actual operation conditions of the companies. The subject interviewed used to be the pioneer in the system integration business field, the corporate development record showed rise and fall, but was able to carry on business high peak through importing of new product with innovative designs. But while the organization expands, highly divided by business tier and separation of workload, the management felt the new organization design and organization management limited the overall development, the ability of the organization to respond became evidently sluggish to meet up with the fast pace ever changing market demand, and the expansion of the industry service category requirement. On top of that, due to the recent decline in market prosperity, this resulted in the decline of business net profit. The interviewees from the case study all have different background, helding various different positions in the business organization. The commonality among all the interviewees are that they all served a certain period of time in their current position, most of them even witnessed the stages of rise and fall of their company. I thank them for sharing of their valuable time and personal opinion that allows the result and discussion of this study to be of significant value. The result of this study showed the subject should adjust in the area of encouragement system, organization design, preservation of core competitiveness and marketing strategy, particularly in the area of 1. delegation of authority ¡B2. differentiation of competitive strategy ¡B3. organization trait is highly efficient but incapable of reaching the goal of innovation ¡B4. integration of organization study and marketing ¡B5. the scale of organization increase gradually while the business is stuck with the unnecessary and over elaborated formalities; the results found from the case study matches with the phenomenon found in the applied theories. Through the preliminary result of this study and the author¡¦s observation from the long term involvement, the cases have been identified as the total solution supplier of information equipments, skills and services, the management should particularly focus on the core fundamental nature of service and serve the clients. Organization design should focus on the preservation of core skills and experience, enhance system design in the area of delegation of authority and encourage innovation, in order to promote the overall competitiveness of the business. The application of relevant theories would be of significant consultation value to the business in this field.¡C