Document Type : Original Article
Author
Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management & Accounting, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The growing trend of digitalization across organizations worldwide, coupled with intensified competition among organizations to attract, recruit, and retain key human capital, particularly those with digital skills, has highlighted the need for more extensive research in this field. In such conditions, and due to the fierce competition between the private and public sectors in attracting and retaining specialized talent, along with financial and legal constraints, the issue of talent retention becomes particularly critical for public sector organizations. The aim of the present study is to identify and prioritize organizational capacities for retaining digital talent in the public sector. This research was conducted based on an exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design. In the first phase, a systematic review of 41 studies (published between 2005 and 2026) was carried out to identify the dimensions and components of organizational capacities for digital talent retention. In the second phase, the Best-Worst Method (BWM) was applied to weight and prioritize these dimensions and components. The findings reveal six main dimensions, ranked by weight as follows: organizational cultural and psychological capacities (w=0.212), learning, growth, and adaptability capacities (w=0.199), digital human resource capacities (w=0.173), strategic and governance capacities (w=0.158), structural and work flexibility capacities (w=0.136), and institutional and external capacities (w=0.122). These represent the most important organizational capacities for retaining digital talent in the public sector. This framework can provide a solid foundation for managers, public policymakers, and researchers in the field of human resource management.
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