Chapter 4: Findings
This chapter contains the results of a qualitative study that was undertaken to
better understand the phenomenon of the engineering talent shortage and the global talent
management strategies practitioners are using to address this shortage. The implications,
recommendations and conclusions related to this study will be discussed in detail in
chapter 5. Understanding gained from the perceptions of practitioners engaged in global
talent management strategies for engineering talent will aid organizations in the creation
or modification of global talent management strategies for use within their respective
organizations. There were a total of ten cases included as part of this study. The data were
collected using semi-structured interviews with participants. The ten case studies
included individual contributors, managers, senior-level managers, and executive
employees at a large multinational corporation. The research resulted in a high volume of
raw data for analysis. Cases were selected and included in the study in order to
understand the perspectives of a diverse population. Case studies were spread across
different age, ethnicity, gender, and experience level. The results are organized and
presented as themes that were generated during the course of the qualitative study.
The research conducted answered the primary research questions: (1) why have
organizations consistently faced a shortage of engineering talent? (2) Why do
organizations currently face a shortage of engineering talent? (3) What strategies do
individual practitioners use to address the engineering shortage?
There were a total of eighteen questions (Appendix B) developed for the semistructured
interviews. Although these questions were used as a guide, the nature of a
semi-structured interview process allowed the researcher to gain insight by asking