Intention to leave of younger employees within an academic institution

Abstract

The higher education sector internationally and nationally is facing multiple challenges. Staffing South African universities is a challenge with which the academic sector is confronted. The current academic workforce, mostly at senior level, will be retiring within the next few years. The challenge that this brings is that there will be major loss of expertise if nothing is done to transfer the knowledge well in time, and develop the younger academic workforce to take over the reins in the future. Developing the younger academic workforce is a challenge in itself, as younger employees with potential are not attracted to the sector, and a majority of those within the sector do not stay long enough in the higher education sector. Competition from other sectors for younger talented employees means that academic institutions have to investigate methods to attract, develop, manage, and retain younger academic employees in academia. It is therefore imperative to manage employees that are currently employed by universities to ensure that quality education and stability are maintained in the sector. The research objective of the study was to explore factors that influence the intention to leave of younger academic employees in an academic institution. A qualitative approach was utilised in the study, a literature review and semi-structured interviews were conducted for the purpose of the research. The literature review focussed on conceptualising factors that influence younger academic employee’s intentions to leave. The second part of the study, on the other hand, utilised purposive sampling to identify participants that are relevant to the research topic. Semi-structured interviews were utilised to explore factors that influence the intention to leave of younger employees within an academic institution. A thematic analysis approach assisted the researcher in discovering the meaning behind the participants’ experiences. The findings of the study indicate that the phenomenon of younger academics is one that is not generally researched, with the focus of existing research mostly being on older academic employees. Some of the factors that were found to influence academics to stay in an academic environment include the environment, job satisfaction, rewards, and work engagement of these employees. Reasons influencing intention to leave include employment practices, the environment, support, expectations, and rewards experienced by younger academic employees. These are, however, not the only reasons for wanting to stay or wanting to leave the academic institution