The Role of Strategic Talent Management (STM) to Enhance Jobs Performances in Oil & Gas Companies in the UAE: A Conceptual Framework

Workforce related issues have sustained to fuel the war for talent in Oil & Gas sector, in which the UAE is one of the main players in this industry globally. Most of the local companies are heavily depending on the knowledge and skills of foreign experts for its competitive advantage. In this case, jobs roles localization (Emiratization) has become an imperative and efforts need to be done to lure the local workforce to be part of the local companies. Therefore, there is a need to propose a Strategic Talent Management (STM) so that the local employees can contribute productively to the economic growth of the country. This study aims to address the issues of the shortage of the skilled domestic workforce by proposing a STM practices to enhance job performance among local employees for achieving the competitive advantage of the Oil & Gas companies in the UAE. As the initial stage of the investigation, this paper presents the conceptual framework, highlighting the constructs of the variables to be investigated in this study. Drawn from the analysis of the existing literature, this study is framed by four concepts, which are the STM, job motivation, job retention and job performance. Positioned within a positivist paradigm, eight hypotheses have been formulated in the study. It is expected that the development of the conceptual framework of this study will guide the investigation of the role of strategic talent management that can enhance the job performance of the local employees in the oil and gas companies at the UAE.