Abstract:
Academic staff retention is a global issue that affects both industrialized and developing
countries. Talent management practices should be used by businesses to identify, attract,
integrate, develop, and motivate employees to stay with them. The study's overall objective was to determine the moderating effect of perceived organizational support on the relationship between talent management practices and academic staff retention. The specific objectives included: to establish the effect of training, succession planning, career management, mentoring and coaching on retention of academic staff in Kenyan universities; and to determine the moderating effect of perceived organizational support on the relationship between talent management practices and academic staff retention. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. The sampling frame for this study was 13,441 academic staff teaching in thirtyone (31) public universities and thirty-two (32) private universities in Kenya. The sample size comprised 388 academic staff. 308 respondents filled and returned the questionnaires making a response rate of 79.3%. Data was analysed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the data analysis. Training, succession planning, career management, mentoring, and coaching were all found to be significant positive indicators of academic staff retention in the study. The combined effect of talent management
practices (training, succession planning, career management, mentoring, and coaching) was also found to be a significant positive predictor of academic staff retention. Finally, the research found that the perceived organizational support has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between talent management techniques and academic staff retention. The study contributed to Herzberg's two-factor theory, theory of work adjustment, and three-stage model of talent management by arguing that employers have a responsibility to improve the retention of their best employees, which can be accomplished by effectively managing talent within the organization. As a result, university presidents should establish policies that support talent management, which will help academic staff retain their jobs. Finally, the study suggests that future research should investigate into the effect of talent management techniques on other work attitudes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and organizational citizenship behavior.
