EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ON ACADEMIC STAFF RETENTION IN SELECTED TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

This study examined the effect of knowledge management on academic staff retention in selected tertiary institutions in South East, Nigeria. The study was guided by five main objectives which sought to ascertain the factors that affect employees’ knowledge management in selected tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria., determine the effect of reward on academic staff retention in selected tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria, examine the role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in knowledge management and academic staff retention in selected tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria, and find out the challenges associated with the implementation of knowledge management in selected tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria. The research design adopted was a cross-sectional survey design. The sources of data, were primary and secondary. The main instrument used for primary data, was questionnaire and oral interview. The secondary data were sourced from journals, text books, internet, and libraries. The population of the study was 6,856 academic staff of the 10 selected institutions in the South East Nigeria. A total sample size of 522 was determined from the finite population formula. The instrument was checked for reliability using test-retest method. The result gave reliability co-efficient of 0.915 showing high degree of item reliability. The total number of questionnaire distributed for this study was five hundred and twenty-two (522) copies, while four hundred and thirty five (435) copies was completed and returned. The data generated from the field survey were presented and analyzed using percentage tables, pie chart, mean and standard deviation. The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis for hypotheses 1,2 and 3, friedman chi-square statistic was used for hypotheses 4 and 5. The findings indicate: that organization structure and culture significantly affects employees’ knowledge management in selected institutions; rewards to a large extent has significant impact on academic staff retention in selected tertiary institutions; there is significant positive relationship between the role of ICT in knowledge management and academic staff retention; there is positive significant challenge in knowledge management implementation and academic staff retention in selected tertiary institutions. The study concludes that enabling environment should be built into tertiary institutions so as to prevent academic staff from leaving the institutions. Based on the results of the study, the following recommendations were made: process of organizational structure and culture, as highlighted in the findings , must be adhered to strictly by the decision makers and top management in our tertiary institutions; there is need for prompt payment of salaries and other incentives, since they are very important ingredients in ensuring employee commitment; also career development should be put in place for all cadres of academic staff; and there is need for the instituting of ICT data base with the state-of-art-equipments to enable staff source useful material from any part of the institution; the study propounds an effective knowledge management system of our tertiary institutions so as to curb attrition rate among academics in tertiary institutions.