Retention in service: a case study of academic staff at Ugandan universities. International journal of academic research in business, arts and science (IJARBAS.COM)

David Waigolo (Phd Economics)

Selinus University of Sciences and Literature

Email: davidwaigolo2017@gmail.com

Abstract

The study explores the determinants of academic staff retention in private and public universities in Uganda. Since universities in Uganda are operating in a highly competitive environment, one of the challenges they face is employee retention. Universities have been occasioned by globalization which has intensified competition and increased the mobility of highly skilled employees, yet universities depend on these staff for success and sustainability. Literature was reviewed in line with specific objective of the study as it established the impact of remuneration on academic staff retention in university A and university B. The study was conducted through a survey research design. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were employed to collect data; from the population. The target population of the study was 771 and the sample size was 186 from both universities. The sample size was calculated, using Slovene’s formula, stratified random sampling technique was employed. Data was collected using questionnaires and public literature such as journals, articles and text books.

Data was analyzed quantitatively, using a logistic regression model and using SPSS version 22 and stata version 15 soft wares. Validity index was computed at (0.89). Reliability was computed and established at 79%. The study found out that remuneration and academic staff retention was established at 0.61 level of significance. The study recommended that academic staff retention policies should base on remuneration and recommended that remuneration of staff be addressed in order to make universities prosperous. Another recommendation was that universities should conduct exit interviews with quitting members of staff so as to identify the major reasons for quitting.

 

Introduction:

Globally, university teaching jobs are considered, prestigious, competitive and lucratic in nature. In Africa, teaching at university has been regarded as a noble job for many individuals (M. Mihyo and O. Makhoka, 2007). Ugandan universities have been failing to attract and retain highly qualified individuals for their teaching jobs. This has resulted into acute shortage of academic staff that appears to be already affecting the quality of university education within the country. Historically, the problem of low retention of employees is not a new phenomenon, in universities; this problem is gaining ground in many countries (Yousa, 2010). In America around 20 % of public university faculties leave their jobs annually. Executives are finding it difficult to retain highly experienced employees as they are being attracted by competitors with various types of incentives (Lee, 2009) unless universities identify and apply suitable retention strategies, they will continue experiencing frequent turnover of key staff and hence losing their skilled man power to competitors.

Academic staff retention has been a pertinent issue in higher education institutions for the past three decades (Ng’ethe, Iravo and Namusonge, 2012). High academic staff turnover has severe problems on the quality of academic graduates produced by the universities. It can also have negative effects on students who receive poor services when teaching positions are vacated and then filled by inexperienced staff (Masaiti and Naluyeke, 2011).

While academic staff retention continues to be a challenge across the globe, the state of affair in many African countries seems to be particularly urgent (Tetty, 2010). There is inadequate teaching capacity in African universities because, much of the expertise base of these institutions has been eroded (Havenga, 2011). If something is not done urgently; African universities will lose their ability to protect the quality of intellectual life in the African region (Obayako, 2012).

In Uganda , prevailing evidence suggests that there is high rate of academic staff turnover. Ugandan institutions of higher learning are facing major challenges in retaining experienced and talented academic staff (Zhou, 2015). These institutions are failing to cope with huge exodus of senior academic staff that has extensive research skills and teaching experiences (Mushonga, 2015). High academic staff turnover has given rise to a large number of unfilled posts, understaffing, reliance on part-time lecturers and high student to staff ratios (Zhou, 2015). The performance of Ugandan universities in the world ranking is very pathetic with the University of Makerere being the only university to appear among the top 3000 universities in the world (Webometrics, 2017). The study therefore, seeks to establish the determinants of academic staff retention in Ugandan universities with particular reference to two universities from Busoga region (university A and university B). The study involves general investigations into the factors which influence academic retention in Ugandan universities. It specifically seeks to ascertain whether remuneration has an influence on academic staff retention.

The conceptual framework:

The study adopted the conceptual framework developed by Shan and Burke (2013). The conceptual framework suggests that employee retention (dependent variable) is determined by remuneration (independent variable). The study analyzed the extent to which the explanatory variables influence employee retention (D.V).

Literature review:

This chapter presents the theoretical orientation of the study with literature related to the variables and objective of the study. It’s an established fact around the globe that a person with a high pay has a positive attitude towards the job as compared to those with less pay who are characterized with poor levels of education. Poor pay has been cited by many researchers worldwide as the major cause contributing to the exiting of staff. (Tettey, 2010) reported that dissatisfaction with salaries is a key factor undermining commitment of academicians to their institutions and careers.

Many scholars hypothesized about relationship between remuneration and retention in service. According to the reinforcement theory (Aswathappa, 2005) the implication of remuneration is that, high employee performance followed by a monetary reward is more to make future employee performance and thus consequently increasing retention in service, while the equity theory (Adam, 1963) suggests that employees who perceive inequality in remuneration seek to restore equality by changing employers and jobs which negatively implicates retention in service. Both propositions highlight the importance of remuneration to retention in service. This however, does not show the remuneration form that has greater influence on retention which is very vital. Such information would clarify where employers should focus in an effort to improve employee’s retention in service. (Kanamwagi, 2005) investigated factors that affect employee retention in Makerere University using a sample of lecturers and found out that salaries for academic staff in Makerere were very low, a fact that has prompted many of them to forsake their academic calling. The education policy review commission of 1989 also carried out similar study and then reported in the white paper on education reform (Uganda government, 1992) that among other factors, poor salaries led to the exodus of the academic staff from Makerere University and other institutions of higher learning. Gilpin (2012) in his study established that teachers aptitude is positively correlated with teacher salaries, thus academic staff with higher pay have higher intentions to remain in service. This correlation supports the equity theory of Adam discussed in the conceptual framework as academic staff will need that their skills be highly rewarded. This agreed with Amutuhaire (2011) who found out that the lecturer intention to retain their jobs are positively co-related with remuneration. All these studies indicate that as one’s (academic staff) realizes that his or her remuneration can’t provide them with acceptable standards of living, they are prompted to pull out of lecturing to look for better remuneration elsewhere. All these work against their motivation to remain lecturing thus, affecting their retention in service. The above facts notwithstanding, there has been no study particularly carried out in both private and government universities found in Busoga region to establish how the remuneration situation and its relationship with academic staff’s retention in service. Tettey (2006) reported that dissatisfaction with salaries is a key factor undermining commitment of academics to their institutions and careers and consequently their decision to leave but the study did not exactly show how the two variables relate particularly in university A and university B found in Uganda in Busoga region and hence the significance of this study.

METHODOLOGY:

Sources of data:

Data for the study was gathered from primary sources. The data used in this study originated from quantitative survey of academic staff from two universities. The target population of the study compromised of 771 academic staff members in the two universities. The size of the sample was 186 respondents from both university A and university B. 105 lecturers were selected from university A and 81 lecturers were selected from university B. The sample size was calculated using Slovene’s formula, N=N/1(Ne)2.

Sampling design

The study was conducted through a survey design. Simple random sampling was used to choose respondents in order to ensure that members stand equal chance of being selected. Data collection instruments Due to the fact that the study applied a quantitative research approach, questionnaires served as the means of gathering data. A pilot test with sample size of 20 respondents was carried out before the actual distribution of questionnaires. These were distributed to the respondents at the university A who were not included in the final study.

Theoretical research model:

Binary logit model

The study analyses how much the hypothesized factor is related to academic staff retention in Ugandan academic institutions. The dependent variable is a dummy, thus it takes a value of zero or one depending on whether or not an academic staff member intends to leave his or her job. However, the logistics regression (logit) model was adopted for this study. This model is not restricted by the normality assumption which is a basic assumption in the ordinary least squares regression analysis (Maddala, 2009). The model specification:

The logistic model was estimated and given as; INTENT= β0 + β1, remun + μ………….(i)

The dependent variable is called INTENT and is a binary variable which is used to determine if a lecturer intends to leave (INTENT=1) or intends to stay (INTENT=0) current employment. The explanatory variable is remuneration and the error term μ represents all other possible determinants of academic staff retention which are not explained by the model. Discussion of results:

Data gathered through the questionnaire approach was first fed into Ms. Excel version 2019. It was then exported to stata version 15 and SPSS version 22 software packages for analysis as seen in the correlational and regressional tables below.

Conclusion, recommendation and area for further research

Conclusion:

Studies reveal that employee retention positively significantly contibutes towards the success of organizations because it reduces the cost and time of hiring new employees, long tenure employee are usecd to the culture of the organization and tenured employees experience satisfaction. In addition, employee rentention leads to effective planning, maintains creativity, leadership, learning potential and autonomy in production, keeping critical skills and intellectual capital. Hence , this study being concluded that positive remuneration relating to employee retention was important.

Recommendation:

In view of the fact that remuneration significantly inflences academic staff retention, there is need for academic institutions of higher learning to adopt to salary structures which reward employees in accordance with their performance. Secondly, some academic departments experiecne higher employee turn over than others, hence there is need to use a reward based system which takes such differences in turn over into consideration. Thirdly salary packages of academic staff in both private and government universities should be enhanced and made relevant to prevailing economic circumstances by reviewing them periodically to promote academic staff retention. Another recommendation was that universities should conduct exit interviews with quitting members of staff so as to identify the major reasons for quitting.

Areas for further research:

There is a need to find out whether academic staff that quit university A and University B join other universities or other employment sectors. Apart from the variable that the researcher concentrated on, further research using primary data should be done to assess whether working environment influences employees for their retention in service