EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES AND NORMATIVE COMMITMENT OF ACADEMICS IN SELECTED PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Tertiary educational institutions are facing a huge challenge in terms of retaining skilled human resource capacity, which has a debilitating effect on its ability to make strides in the areas of socio-economic and political development. The need for qualified academic staff in Nigerian tertiary institutions of learning is on the increase, while, majority of the tertiary institutions in Nigeria are experiencing dearth of teaching personnel due to poor remuneration, low motivation, low job satisfaction and lack of organisational commitment amongst the lecturers, which have created negative job attitudes and poor organisational commitment. This study therefore investigated the influence of employee retention strategies on normative commitment of academics in selected private universities in Ogun state, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 1,842 academics in the private universities (Covenant, McPherson, Babcock, Bells, Crawford and Crescent universities). Through a multiple sampling technique, 589 out of 1842 were sampled for the study. Data were analyzed using both descriptive, as well as inferential statistics. Findings revealed that employee retention strategies had a significant effect on the normative commitment of academics in selected private universities in Ogun state, Nigeria (R2 = 0.638, t = 169.039, p<.05). The study recommends among others that private universities should take into consideration the retention factors which impact on the employees’ commitment to the institution and improve on them so as to curb employees’ desires to leave the organisation.