Talent Development and Talent Acquisition as an Approach to Core Talent Management in Uniformed Leadership in Sabah: ASystematic Literature Review

Abstract

Uniformed service leadership faces challenges in retaining good uniformed staff due to market competition and talent shortages, which forces uniformed leaders to improve their human resource  strategies. Organizations often look for talent development and acquisition exclusively rather than building talent inclusively. Exclusivity refers to the tendency of uniformed organizations to take top talent from outside the organization when needs arise, or if uniformed staff need to find candidates internally, only those identified as high performers within their elite group are chosen. Literature suggests that inclusive talent development and acquisition (that is, career development through training for all employees regardless of individual performance) can complement management in retaining staff. This study conducts a systematic review of articles published from 2015 to 2025  related to talent development and talent acquisition, especially inclusive building, to enable costeffective human resource management, that is, developing human talent inclusively. To what extent are talent development and talent acquisition represented in the broader talent management literature?; How do Talent Acquisition and Talent Development contribute to individual talent growth and organizational performance?; and what are the current research limitations on talent development and talent acquisition? A total of 30 articles on talent development, with 20 articles on talent acquisition, were analyzed to provide theoretical and practical insights. This review presents research gaps in inclusive talent development and talent acquisition and highlights future research directions, such as broader coverage to develop a more comprehensive scope.