Talent Retention Strategies for MBA Faculty in Kerala

Abstract

In higher educational institutions, faculty retention becomes an essential issue, and, in the case of management colleges, quality of faculty and faculty retention are two faces of a coin. The paper analyzes the retention of management (MBA) faculty in Palakkad, Ernakulam, and Thrissur districts of Kerala by way of a survey with quantitative methodology by collecting data from a sample of 384 faculty. To examine retention factors and the influences of factors on retention intention, Multiple Regression Analysis and Cluster Analysis, in conjunction with Exploratory Factor Analysis, have been performed, and results showed that there are five important factors: Organizational Support & Work Environment, Compensation & Benefits, Career Development & Growth, Work-Life Balance, and Leadership & Institutional Policies. The multiple regression analysis indicated a very strong power of these factors to predict intention for faculty retention with an amount of explained variance of 70.9% (=0.709, p<0.001). The largest impact on faculty commitment was found to be Organizational Support & Work Environment. In order to cluster these faculties based on their level of overall satisfaction with the factors, a clustering analysis resulted in 3 groups, namely: Highly Satisfied (37.0%), Moderately Satisfied (33.3%), and Dissatisfied (29.7%). The significant differences in the three clusters indicated that there were significant differences in faculty expectations, and a unified retention strategy might be unproductive. It concludes that retention strategies require a comprehensive institutional response that integrates financial compensation with non-financial programs, and administrators can build greater engagement among faculty by focusing on individual faculty clusters with differing needs. The study provides important recommendations for policy-makers and managers at academic institutions, striving to increase the sustainability of management education in Kerala.