TALENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES, ORGANIZATION CULTURE AND SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN CHARTERED UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Universities contribute to economic development of a country. However, Universities experience scarcity of academic staff due to tremendous increase in student enrolment yet little attention is given to attraction and retention of staff for sustainable performance. This study determined the relationship between talent management practices (TMP), organization culture (OC) and sustainable organizational performance (SOP). Correlational and retrospective longitudinal designs were adopted and 51 Registrars purposively selected from 51 Chartered Universities responded to questionnaires. Secondary data was from accredited Government records. Reliability was confirmed by Cronbach Alpha coefficient 0.960 from pilot study on 5 Universities. Data was analyzed descriptively and inferentially. The multiple regression findings revealed varied results with SOP; talent attraction (β=0.342, p=0.000), talent development (β=0.128, p=0.118), talent retention (β=0.035, p=0.696), career management (β=-0.203, p=0.007) and succession planning (β=0.134, p=0.020). Talent attraction and succession planning found positive significant influence on SOP, Career management found negative significant influence on SOP while Talent development and Talent retention found positive insignificant influence on SOP. The R²⁼ 0.691 implied that 69.1% of variation in SOP explained by TMP. The model was significant as shown by (F=17.861, p=0.000). The moderated multiple regression results found that organization culture was a significant moderator; Int.(TMP*OC) = [R²Δ=0.012, β=0.197 and p=0.005]. The R²Δ=0.012 implied 1.2% variation in SOP explained by interaction between TMP and OC hence conclusion that moderator strengthens the relationship between TMP and SOP. The study concluded that effective TMP are critical contributors to SOP under positive organization culture. The study recommends adoption of innovative talent management practices that ensure the right talents are attracted to the right jobs and deliberate steps towards creation of supportive institutional culture for adoption and implementation of TMP to ensure SOP.