The aim of this study is to explore the institutional challenges shaping talent management (TM) within the public healthcare sector in Saudi Arabia. Drawing on the institutional theory, we aim to examine how coercive, normative and mimetic pressures interact to influence and constrain TM from the perspectives of internal actors within the healthcare sector.
A qualitative, multi-case study design was adopted to gain in-depth insights across four public healthcare institutions in Saudi Arabia. We conducted 81 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, including senior leaders, HR professionals, line managers and frontline healthcare staff. The data were analyzed both within and across the four cases.
The study reveals that TM within Saudi Arabia’s public healthcare sector is shaped by multilayered institutional challenges and pressures – coercive, normative and mimetic. Coercive pressures, driven by policies such as Vision 2030, emphasize workforce localization and talent development but exacerbate reliance on international training, prolong recruitment processes, and create critical talent shortages, particularly in rural areas. Normative pressures stem from underdeveloped TM infrastructures, gaps in managerial expertise and limited access to professional development for high-performing employees, hindering strategic growth and professionalization. Mimetic pressures involve the adoption of international TM models, which enhance training quality but reinforce dependency and fail to address regional workforce disparities. Importantly, we highlight tensions between these institutional pressures – as national reform goals clash with weak institutional readiness, and global emulation conflicts with local constraints – ultimately constraining TM and limiting its impact.
This study places institutionalism at the core of its analysis and provides novel contextual insights into the institutional complexities of TM within Saudi’s public healthcare sector – a unique context shaped by Vision (2030)s transformative goals of workforce localization and human capital development. It addresses a significant gap in the literature, which has often overlooked non-Western and public sector contexts where TM is influenced by unique institutional dynamics and sector-specific challenges. In doing so, it surfaces overlooked tensions in attracting, developing, and retaining talent. The study advances a context-sensitive view of TM, offering practical insights into how localized strategies can support national transformation agendas.
