Abstract
The present study investigated the impact of talent management on organizational commitment with the mediating role of organizational justice among the employees of Farhangian University of West Azarbaijan Province. The present study is applied in terms of aim and descriptive of survey-causal type in terms of nature. The statistical population of the study included all 96 employees of Farhangian University of West Azarbaijan Province. They were selected using the census method. The field method was used for collecting data. Cunningham's standard talent management questionnaire (2007), Niehoff and Moorman's (1993) organizational justice questionnaire, and Dick and Metcalfe's (2001) organizational commitment questionnaire were used as research tools. The data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (SEM) in Smart PLS Software. The analysis of the collected data revealed that talent management affects organizational justice by 83% and employees' organizational commitment by 42% Organizational justice has a 48% effect on organizational commitment. Also, the Sobel test revealed that talent management with the mediating role of organizational justice affects employees' organizational commitment by 4.21. Thus, based on the statistical results, all research hypotheses were confirmed and it was concluded that organizational justice plays a mediating role in the relationship between talent management and the organizational commitment of employees.
Extended abstract
Introduction
Employees are considered the most significant human capital or property in achieving the goals of the organization. Investigating the behavior of employees in an organization is significant since retaining and developing employees is a difficult task. Increasing employees’ commitment to the organization is one of the organization's strategies to retain its employees (Handayani et al, 2022). Organizational commitment is considered a key principle in accepting the organization's values and preparation to make a significant effort in line with the interests of the organization and willingness to maintain organizational attachment (Alzeer et al, 2020). Talent management is one of the variables related to organizational commitment. Talent management involves attracting, retaining, and managing top talents. Talent finding in today organizations is one of the most difficult challenges of human resource directors. Therefore, it is crucial to attract and retain the talent in order to success in this "talent fight". (Lokhande, 2023).
Organizational justice is another issue that can be investigated regarding organizational commitment. Organizational justice reflects the perception of employees or members of the organization about the extent of fair and equal treatment based on the expected ethical standards in the workplace and the way these perceptions affect organizational outcomes such as commitment and satisfaction (Romi et al, 2022). An organization's growth and success depends on the commitment of its employees. A committed employee remains in the organization and contributes significantly to the development of the business. For this reason, training the sense of commitment and self-sacrifying among the employee is essential for develop, stability and life of the organization. Additionally, the talent management system is an organizational activity that is a part of the human resource management strategy to acquire, maintain, and develop the best talents needed by the organization. Talent management system implementation is considered as an organizational challenge in order to achieve the higher performance and justice and commitment of the organization, and organization without human resourse is of no sense. Therefore, the management and leadership of human resources are highly significant in any business. Treating employees fairly and providing opportunities for their growth helps the organization achieve its goals. Thus, the primary question of the present study is whether talent management affects organizational commitment with the mediating role of organizational justice among the employees of Farhangian University.
Theoretical Framework:
 In today's organizations, some people may like their work but they may hate the organization they work in, or vice versa. Having positive and negative feelings about the job is only a part of the whole perspective of the person toward his or her job. Moreover, a person can have either positive or negative feeling towards the whole organization. Such an attitude is mostly called "organizational commitment". It reflects the extent to which a person identifies with his or her organization and belongs to it (Beiginia et al, 2013). A group of McKinsey consultants coined the term "war for talent" in 1998 and stated that talent is the key to organizational excellence. Since that time, talent management has been considered the key to organizational success and is essential for maintaining and sustaining organizations. Nowadays, talent management turned into an issue with increasing popularity and studied by the researchers (Guerra, 2023). For the first time, Greenberg defined the term organizational justice as an ethical and fair way of treating employees in their jobs (Krishnan, 2020). Organizational justice is a variable used to describe the justice connected directly to the job opportunities. It especially determines how employees should be treated so they feel that they have been treated fairly (Afrazi et al, 2022).
Majidi (2022) conducted a study entitled "Investigating the relationship between talent management and organizational commitment of education department employees in Sari". The results revealed a relationship between the of talent management and its four components (except reform component) i.e. attraction, selection, retaining, and envolving with the organizational commitment from the perspective of employees of the Sari education department. Ali et al.  (2022) conducted a study entitled "Investigating the relationship between talent management and organizational justice, and employee performance" among 22 top managers of three leading Pakistani banks in Karachi by means of a semi-structured interview. The results revealed a positive and significant relationship between talent management, organizational justice, and employee performance. Jameel et al. (2020) conducted a study entitled "Organizational justice and organizational commitment among secondary school teachers" in Hit City, Anbar province, Iraq. The statistical community included 210 teachers in 8 government secondary school, among which 98 people were selected as the statistic sample by stratified random sampling. The results revealed a positive and significant relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment.
Methodology:
The present study was conducted using a causal-descriptive method. The statistical population of the study included all 96 employees of Farhangian University of West Azarbaijan Province (both males and females). The census method was used given the small size of the statistical population. In this study, three standard questionnaires including Cunningham's (2007) talent management questionnaire, Niehoff & Moorman's (1993) organizational justice questionnaire, and Dick and Metcalfe's (2001) organizational commitment questionnaire were used to collect data. The content validity of the questionnaires was examined and confirmed based on the opinion of educational science professors. The reliability of the questionnaires was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability. The results showed high and significant reliability for the questionnaires.  The research data were analyzed using SmartPls3 and Spss22 statistical software at two descriptive and inferential levels. At the descriptive level, indices such as mean, standard deviation, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were used. At the inferential level, structural equations were used based on the research hypotheses.
Results:
At the level of descriptive statistics, the mean of all variables was higher than 3, indicating the desirability of these variables from the respondents' viewpoint. Also, the significance level of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for all studied variables was greater than 0.05. Thus, the distribution of all variables is normal. Therefore, parametric tests can be used to test research hypotheses. Also, at the inferential statistics level for the first sub-hypothesis of the study (talent management significantly and directly affects organizational commitment), based on the results of structural equation modeling; the T-value was obtained at 3.26, which is greater than 1.96,. The path coefficient was also obtained at β=0.42. Hence, talent management explains 42% of changes in organizational commitment. In the second sub-hypothesis of the study (talent management significantly and directly affects organizational justice), the T-value was obtained at 11.74, which is greater than 1.96. Also, the path coefficient was obtained at β=0.83. Thus, organizational justice explains 83% of changes in organizational commitment. In the third sub-hypothesis of the study (organizational justice significantly and directly affects organizational commitment), the T-value was obtained at 3.93, which is greater than 1.96. Also, the path coefficient was obtained at β=0.48. Thus, organizational justice explains 48% of changes in organizational commitment. Finally, in the primary hypothesis of the study (talent management significantly and indirectly affects organizational commitment with the mediating role of organizational justice); the Sobel test was used to determint the mediating role of organizatioinal justice variable in the context of the effect of talent management on the employees' organizational commitment, based which the Z-value was obtained at 4.21, which is greater than 1.96. Thus, it can be stated that talent management indirectly affects the organizational commitment of employees with the mediating role of organizational justice.
Discussion and Conclusion
Regarding the first sub-hypothesis of the study, the T-value was obtained at 3.26, which is greater than 1.96. The path coefficient was also obtained at 0.42. In explaining the results of the first sub-hypothesis of the present study, it can be stated that talent management is a constant process that involves attracting and retaining high-quality employees, developing their skills, and motivating them continuously to improve their performance. It can be stated that the results of this study are consistent with the results of studies by Taher Khani (2022) and Majidi (2022).
Regarding the second sub-hypothesis of the study, the T-value was obtained at 11.74, which is greater than 1.96. The path coefficient was also obtained at 0.83. In explaining the result of the second sub-hypothesis of the study, it can be stated that talent management is a purposeful approach to attract, develop, and retain people with skills necessary to meet the present and future goals or needs of the organization. It can be said that the results of this study are consistent with the results of the studies by Ali et al. (2021) and Cetin and Erbay (2021).
 Regarding the third sub-hypothesis of the study, the T-value was obtained at 3.93, which is greater than 1.96. The path coefficient was also obtained at 0.48. In explaining these results, it can be stated that the fair treatment of employees by the organization results in their higher commitment toward the organization. Also, the results of the present study are consistent with the results of studies by Jameel et al. (2020) and Zarish et al. (2020).
Regarding the primary hypothesis of the study, the Sobel test was used to determine the effect of talent management on the organizational commitment of employees with the mediating role of organizational justice. Using the Sobel test, Z-value was obtained at 4.21, which is greater than 1.96. Thus, talent management significantly and indirectly affects organizational commitment with the mediating role of organizational justice.
Based on the results of the present study, the following recommendations are presented to the officials of Farhangian University and other universities:
- Attracting, identifying, and organizing a high-efficiency labor force and retaining them through appropriate training and developing skills and competence to increase the level of organizational commitment of employees
- The resources and benefits in the organization should be distributed fairly and everyone should be treated equally, and the promotion procedures in the organization should be based on predetermined standards and legal regulations and should be agreed upon by everyone.
- Increasing the emotional attachment of employees and involving them as much as possible with the goals of the organization, improving social communication networks at work, employee participation in decision-making, and eliminating discrimination and inappropriate relationships with people in the workplace.