MECHANISMS FOR MONITORING STAFF RETENTION STRATEGIES IN ZIMBABWE’S PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES: RETURNEE LECTURERS’ PERSPECTIVE

This multiple case study [1], examinable in November 2014 explored mechanisms for monitoring staff retention strategies in Zimbabwe’s public and private universities using seven criterion sampled returnee lecturers’ lines of thought. Face-to-face open-ended interviews were used to gather data from the participants. The study established that public and private university lecturers were not involved in the formulation and monitoring of staff retention strategies. The study revealed that various mechanisms have been used by public and private universities to monitor staff retention strategies. One of the study’s conclusions was that non-involvement of public and private university lecturers in the formulation of staff retention strategies disempowered the academics and undermined the effectiveness of staff retention strategies in the universities. Another conclusion was that Human Resource (HR) and senior management were not effectively communicating with lecturers in some private universities. The study’s major conclusion was that the HR needs to recruit, recognise, reward and promote the right people through Faculty and Departmental recommendations in a bid to retain staff. Also, staff appraisal assessment should be meaningfully used to reward lecturers according to their performance. A further recommendation is that large-scale studies need to be conducted nation-wide to generate more knowledge to influence higher education policy decisions regarding staff retention.