Impact of Mentoring On Staff Retention through Knowledge Transfer: An Empirical Evaluation of Four Private Universities in the North Central Zone of Nigeria (Published)
This research study explored the impact of mentoring on staff retention through knowledge transfer with specific reference to selected private universities in Nigeria. Mentoring is a natural one-on-one, mutual, committed relationship formed between a mentor and mentee designed to promote personal development beyond any particular institutional goals. However, Knowledge transfer seeks to build, systematize, otherwise distributes knowledge and guarantees its accessibility for future users. In an organizational setting, the goal of employers is usually to decrease employee turnover, thereby decreasing training costs, recruitment costs and loss of talents and organizational knowledge. Employers can improve retention rates and decrease the associated costs of high turnover with the aid of mentoring and knowledge transfer. The material used for this investigation was sourced from both primary and secondary data such as text books, management journals and internet. A well-structured open ended questionnaire was the main tool for data gathering. The questionnaire was designed for all the selected employees of private universities in the North central zone of Nigeria. The data through which responses were given in the questionnaire was analyzed and interpreted with the use of students‘t’ distribution test in the analysis of data. The findings indicate that mentoring improves staff retention in private universities in Nigeria and transfer of knowledge enhances staff mentoring and retention in Nigerian universities. The review of literature suggests that knowledge transfer and conceptualization of mentoring is required for staff retention in organizations. For effective staff retention and knowledge transfer, it was recommended that mentoring should be utterly deliberated and not forced on the participants ‘‘the mentors and the mentees’’ and privacy should be indispensable in this relationship. Conclusively, knowledge transfer encompasses a wide variety of activities to sustain mutually beneficial collaborations between mentors and the mentees, universities, and the public sector. It is all about the transfer of tangible and intellectual expertise, skills and learning between academic and the non-academic community.
Keywords: Knowledge, Mentoring, Retention, Staff, Staff Retention and Knowledge Transfer.