Uncovering Key Elements and Components for Crafting a Talent-Risk Management Framework in the Aviation Sector

Abstract

The aviation sector has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. Lockdown procedures, traffic limitations, and a decline in passenger demand all led to a notable decline in aviation traffic. Several airlines faced financial difficulties, with some declaring bankruptcy and suffering enormous losses. The industry encountered an increase in flight frequencies, route cancellations, and grounded aircraft. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on talent risk management in the aviation sector. Findings from this particular study revealed that a systematic framework for talent risk management whose aim is to attract, develop, and retain talent, is needed for Managers to excel in acquiring specialized knowledge and abilities needed to manage talent in critical times. Participants in this study were from two airlines: Qatar Airways, based in the Middle East, and SAA based in South Africa. Twelve human resource managers—six from each airline, freely participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using Microsoft Teams as part of a qualitative research methodology, which enabled the participants to provide subjective evaluations of their experiences. To display the frequency of code words, data were manually analysed using code matrices and a wall of code. The code words were then used to create themes.
The study's conclusions showed that the chosen aviation firms lacked a systematic talent-risk management framework. The primary addition to the body of knowledge was the development of a talent-risk management framework for the chosen aviation firms based on the data collected, the literature, and the theoretical underpinnings of this study. This article thus looks at the critical factors involved in the development of a talent-risk management framework for the aviation industry.