UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

BRM681 – BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

ARTICLE CRITIQUE

TALENT MANAGEMENT AND SUCCESSION PLANNING

Prepared For:

ASSOC. PROF DR. NORLIDA ABDUL HAMID

Prepared By:

Nurul Izzah Binti Muhamad Arif (2016395911)

Noral Elissa Binti Ahmad Latffi (2016976965)
Farid Nazrin Bin Md Hafiz (2016746549)

Date of Submission:
15th November 2017
1) Bibliographic Information

i. The authors are Ali Akbar Ahmadi, Freyedon Ahmadi and Javad Abbaspalangi
ii. Article title: Talent Management and Succession Planning
iii. Source is from Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business

This journal was published by Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research (IJCRB) in Business.
During the publishing process, one of the requirement are for the journal to be reviewed by experts
in that sector. IJCRB practices Double Blind Peer Review (IJCRB,2015) whereby the reviewers of the
paper would not get to know the identity of the authors, and the authors would not get to know the
identity of the reviewer (J.Wiley, 2016). Thus, from our point of view, yes the journal is peer
reviewed due to its accomplishment of being published in Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary
Research.

This article was published in 2012 and is current as the journal was within 5 years of research.
Whereas IJCRB has been incorporated since 2009 and its current status is International and has
members in Editorial Board from USA, UK, South Africa , European and Asian Countries with HQ at
Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom.

2) Problem Statement/ Research problem

This research intend to investigate the talent management as well as succession planning (SP)
processes for talent absorption, retention and development by use of descriptive and inferential
statistics and its statistical community included managers and experts of the Iranian Refahe Kargaran
Bank branches within Tehran province.

They also state that, based on the statistical findings of its assumptions, the present research implied
that the talent management and succession planning within government organizations, presently,
do not meet the requirements so some recommendations produced within the same respects. The
present research tried to shed more light on the existing talent management as well as the
succession planning status within the Iranian Refahe Kargaran Bank.
Referring from this article, the current problem is well explained but it could be further elaborated
into a brief and complete Problem Statement. Due to its intention to investigate the talent
management in what way, we feel that there are so many things to be investigated and measured
yet the intention needs to be specific and clear. The author also stated their methodology in the
problem statement, which is a good thing as it does provide good argument for significance later on.
Thus, we proposed a new Problem Statement for the author that goes on with, “To investigate the
talent management process and the success rate of succession planning within the Iranian Refahe
Kargaran Bank”.

Nevertheless, this research is relevant to business and management as banking operations are a
standard process where everyone in this world are currently doing. However, Talent Management in
a banking sector is indeed needed as every sector needs to be well equipped with the understanding
of it. As Talent Management is a new norm, society needs to understand and improve on each of the
Talent Management Process.
3) Objectives of the study

Based on the research, the only mentioned objective is “The present research tried to shed more
light on the existing talent management as well as the succession planning status within the Iranian
Refahe Kargaran Bank”.
The objective are not clearly stated as it is very general in regards to shed more light on the existing
talent management. Prior to our discussion, a new objective are to be proposed as the following:

i. “This research aims to review and measure current process on existing

talent management process within the Iranian Refahe Kargaran Bank”
ii. “Improve the success rate of succession planning within the Iranian Refahe
Kargaran Bank”

4) Literature Review

In this part of the research, the Author briefly explained the history of talent management and how
it deviates from Human Resources’ in (Cheese, 2007:83). Also, the author explained the current
perspective of talent management in five kinds of perspective which are Culture, Process, The
Human Resources Planning, Competitive and Change Management in page 214 of the Journal. Upon
looking at research Developing Future Leaders: The contribution of Talent Management, (Bryan
2006) we could see that the Author did briefly explained the Literature View part of his research.

In this research, we found that the Author did explained the relationship between Talent
Management and Meritocracy as per page 215 of the journal and found out that (Tabatabaei and
Ansari, 2006) was not cited in the references. Instead, Meritocracy theory was explained by H.
Ahmadi Orkami, H. Dorjani & M. Eslami (2015) in A Comparative Study of Meritocracy System in Iran,
Britain and the US was not cited in this journal whereby it is more applicable to be used. Also, the
Talent Management Dimension was not cited from where the Author got it’s source.

Apart from that, the Author did a great job in detailing out Literature Review where the Author
covered Cunningham, 2007 in Talent Development (page 216), Herzberg theory in Talent Retention
(page 217), Hamnet 2008 in Succession Planning (page 217), and Lardner LLP and Foleys, 2009 in
Succession planning Management (page 218)

References made by Author are combination of current and classic due to the oldest citation is made
from Hooghiemstra, 1992 in Talent Diagnosis and Absorption (page 215) and the latest citation is
made from Taiwan, 2010 regarding Talent Management and Succession Planning (page 219)

First - Identification of key posts or groupings for now and future: For this purpose we need
to attend to two key criteria including critical risk and retention risk Second – identification
of required competence for different posts and groupings: All posts require a set of
knowledge, abilities and skills for carrying out their expected responsibilities. Third-
Identification and assessment of the potential candidates: Main purpose is to create an
opportunity for learning and development in favor of future roles of individuals within the
organization. Fourth-Learning and Development Program: This program is focusing on
bridging the gap among the employees’ knowledge and information, learning development
and the strategic policy Fifth- Implementation of the Relevant Strategy and Assessment of
the Effectiveness: Making assessments every 6 months to one year.

Has there been a balanced and critical review?

5) Theoretical Framework (TF)

The only framework found in the Journal is from Newfoundland Laboratory where a study on
Succession Planning Process has been made (page 218) but the Author did not put up any
citation regarding this study. Therefore, it is arguable that Newfoundland Laboratory had
conducted the research. After further digging, we found out that this journal is a descriptive
research studies where a Theoretical Framework usually is not derived from the research. It is
just a study to see community’s perception on the Dependent Variable or the end state itself.

Although there is no Theoretical Framework derived in this journal, the Author did come up
with five key questions of the research (Paragraph 2, page 219) which are:

1. How the talent management and succession planning within the Refah bank is
evaluated?
2. How do the existing methods used in promoting the Refah Bank capacity in
absorbing and recruiting talented individuals work?
3. How do the methods used in Refah Bank in identifying and selecting talented
workforce work?
4. How do the methods and mechanisms used in favor of growth and development of
the employees within the Refah Bank work?
5. How the responsibilities of the senior managers of the Refah Bank in the field of
succession planning are shouldered?

Therefore, with those five key questions, our team decided to propose a Theoretical
Framework as to support future research that may be in descriptive or empirical. It is very
difficult to find the relationship between Dependent Variables and Independent Variables
without a proper Theoretical Framework as it is the backbone and acts as a guideline for the
research. Shall a researcher deviate from a research, Theoretical Framework will keep the
research back on track. Without it, a research would be very hard to be referred from.
 Talent Management Process

Succession Planning Process Desirable

Result
Recruitment Process

Growth & Development

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

Figure 1: Proposed Theoretical Framework

Upon looking in the Analysis segment, their end results is “desired result” which we found is
vague and not clear. The Author should define their “desired result” to what state they want
their result to be. In addition, the Author should have a clear Dependent Variable where the
result is measurable so that improvement actions can be taken.
Therefore, we came up with the proposed theoretical framework (Figure 1) where it shall
govern this research and the results of this research are in proportional with the theoretical
framework proposed.

6) Measurement of the variables

From Literature Review and Theoretical Framework sections, we could see that the variables
are not clearly identified, as there are no theoretical framework derived from this research.

Variables in the study is appropriate but need a bit of revision as per our proposed
Theoretical Framework above.

Variables are relevant to business and management such as Talent Management Process
would be a good reference later on for companies or entities to improve their Talent
Management Processes. Same goes on with Succession Planning Process, Recruitment
Process and Growth & Development.

Variables are measure appropriately whereby the Author uses Average Test (Paragraph 4
page 219) on assumptions of H0 and H1. Where H0 and H1 is based on few means and four
results happen to be H0 assumption rejected.
* Are each type of the variables clearly identified?
* Are the variables in the study appropriate to the problem?
* Are variables relevant to business and management?
* Are the means to measure the variables appropriate?

7) Hypotheses

According to the Author, there are four hypotheses (Page 219 – 222) derived from the
research that are clearly stated:

 H1 - Talent Management and Succession Planning Systems within the Refahe Bank
do produce desirable result.
 H2 - The existing methods and mechanisms used in the Refah Bank in absorbing and
recruiting talented workforce do produce desirable results.
 H3 - The existing methods and mechanisms used in the Refah Bank with respect to
the talent management are in line with the employees’ growth and development.
 H4 - The existing methods and mechanisms used in the Refah Bank with respect to
succession planning are in line with the employees’ growth and development.

All four hypotheses are rejected at the meaningfulness level (0/000) due to their value more
than 2.5. Apart from that, hypotheses are stated clearly but the Author did not provide
sufficient information pertaining to the calculations and the measurement of the hypotheses.
We propose that the Author should in fact insert the table of respondents, the type of test
done (e.g. Pearson correlation test) to support the results.

Also, one thing to mention is that the Author’s aim to find the relationship of variables that
produce desired end result. The terminology desired end result should be explained properly
and specifically of what kind desired end result are they mentioning about. If taken desired
end result as the dependent variable, it is not testable due to its vagueness as to what
extend should the next researcher do his/her research.

8) Research Design

(i) Purpose of study (Hypotheses Testing)

The purpose of the study was explained briefly during the Introduction part of the research
where the Author intends to investigate Talent Management and Succession Planning
processes (Paragraph 1, page 213) but in the Finding part (Paragraph last, page 219), the
Author mentioned about Talent Management and Succession Planning System, existing
methods in absorbing and recruiting talented workforce, existing methods of talent
management/succession planning in line with growth & development. Those items
contradict with each other where instead of looking into the process, the Author look upon
systems. Also, elements in the Talent Management and Succession Planning Processes are
not described in the Findings. Thus, we suggest that the Author to recalibrate their research
to meet the purpose of the study.

(ii) Types of investigation (Assumption study)

Types of investigation was to test the assumption where the assumptions made were own
made and no reference are made. Thus, the reliability of self-made assumption are
inapplicable in this research. If the Author provide some clear justification on the
assumptions, we might consider taking the assumptions as correct.

(iii) Study setting

The study was done at Tehran Province of Iran in an Iranian Bank called Iranian Refahe
Kargaran Bank (Paragraph 1, page 213) somewhere in 2012. The Author provide clear cut of
study setting in this research where we find banking sector is reliable in conducting research
as this sector in Iran does not emphasize Talent Management in their recruitment policy.

(iv) Unit of analysis

Unit of analysis is Individual

(v) Time horizon

Time horizon was not specified in this research but we could assume that this simple study is
conducted within 6-12 months from the Journal released. The study may be conducted
during May 2011. Nevertheless, the Author should specify briefly in its methodology their
time horizon for this study.

9) Sample

The only sample details provided in the research is the sampling frame where the study was
done by distributing questionnaire in the Iran Refahe Kargaran Bank (page 219). The Author
did not have proper justification on population size, sampling frame and sampling technique.
There should be one, so we are proposing that if the population is around 300 then there
should be around 30-50 respondent as per R. Sekaran & Bougie (2016).
Since there are no sampling frame, we proposed the sampling frame should be employees
from the management of Iran Refahe Kargaran Bank as to consistent with the data provided.
10) Data Collection

In this research, the existence of data collection is not present. Supposedly, the data
collection need to be described in proper details by the Author in the journal before research
is conducted. Therefore, we are proposing that there should be three separate ways of data
collection:

1. Pre-Test
A screening procedure that involve trial run with a group of experts. Draft of questionnaire
shall be reviewed by Academicians, Peers and Industry Experts according to the Face Validity
test.

2. Pilot Test
Questionnaire minimum of 30 sets should be distributed to the sampling frame. Also,
prepared questionnaire shall be send to experts and peers in the related field

3. Actual Test
Questionnaire shall be distributed according with specific sampling size (Roscoe, 1975)
towards sampling frame.

By doing so, the Author can assess the reliability of the questionnaire before sending it out
to the respondents. Also, the 5Ws and HOW are not even addressed by Author in this
research. Therefore, we suggest that Author should have a Data Collection model that enlist
as below:

What Survey either derived from past research or created from scratch and reliability
tested
Why To determine the talent management process, succession planning process,
recruitment process, and growth & development leads to desired result.
Where Iran Refahe Kargaran Bank
Who Management of the Iran Refahe Kargaran Bank
When 12 months
How Distribute questionnaire

11) Instrument
The author did not come up with instrument of the research, therefore further elaboration on
this part is not applicable.

12) Data Analysis

According to the research, they conducted data analysis by using Z-test where it is similar to
the t-test interpretation of data. A test statistic measures the degree of agreeableness
between a sample of data and the null hypothesis. It is to determine whether to reject or to
accept the null hypothesis.

Based on the research, the process used to analyse the data which is using Z-test statistic
is very clear and brief (Page 219-225) where the Author starts with the assumptions of
the research based of past research on every variables they analysed.

However, the processes for data analysis are not appropriate to answer the research
questions. This is due to the fact that the Author did not present evidence of the
Research Questions. That means no research questions are derived from this research.
Thus, the Author should come up with the instruments and Code Book as per U. Sekaran
& R. Bougie, 2016.

Whilst the statistical tools that was applied was descriptive analysis with the use of Z-test
statistic value, normal distribution value. Z-test value is a test statistic where it is calculated
from sample data during a hypothesis test.

Also, the author came up with good assumptions of the sample data and the analysis was
vivid clear. In the research, When the data show strong evidence against the assumptions in
the null hypothesis, the magnitude of the test statistic becomes too large or too small
depending on the alternative hypothesis. This causes the test's Z-value to become small
enough to reject the null hypothesis.

There are four assumptions and all were rejected by Author due to their result less than Z
value of 2.5:

1. Talent Management and Succession Planning Systems within the Refahe Bank do
produce desirable result.
2. The existing methods and mechanisms used in the Refah Bank in absorbing and
recruiting talented workforce do produce desirable results.
3. The existing methods and mechanisms used in the Refah Bank with respect to the
talent management are in line with the employees’ growth and development.
4. The existing methods and mechanisms used in the Refah Bank with respect to
succession planning are in line with the employees’ growth and development.
The Author came up with strong assumptions but sadly all of those assumptions were not
cited in the reference. The only source that may be linked to it was this journal conducted at
Iranian Refahe Kargaran Bank itself.

13) Conclusion

* Has the conclusion been clearly made based on the findings?

* Has there been explanations on how the findings contribute to new knowledge or
a new understanding about the research problem?
* Has new areas for future research been recommended?
* Has the researcher provide a synthesis of arguments so as to show how these
converge to address the research problem or study objectives?

14) Discussion and Interpretation of Findings

* Is the discussion logically based on the data & results presented?

* Are the findings discussed in regard to previous research?
* Are the findings discussed in regard to the theoretical framework?
* Does the researcher discuss implications to practice?
* Has the researcher identified clearly any problems (with negative results),
drawbacks and challenges encountered during the study so as to qualifying the
overall conclusions?
** Note: negative results refers to findings that are validated outside the research
context in which they were generated

15) Ethical Considerations

* Does the researcher indicate that approval was obtained from appropriate review
boards?
* Were there elements of confidentiality and freedom from coercion?

16) Application to the field of business and management

* How similar are the conditions of the study to your own practice setting?
* How far can the findings be applied, implemented and practiced in your country?
* How far do the findings benefit the society and the overall environment and
other related stakeholders?