Factors Influencing the Retention of Academic Staff at Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate the factors that influence academic staff at Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabumi (RMUTSB) to stay or leave the university, and to create a retention strategy model. This study applied a mixed methods research design. The participants, for both quantitative and qualitative methods, were randomly selected from academic staff working at four campuses. The researcher generated a questionnaire to obtain a quantitative representation of the data. There were 191 respondents who were 82.33% of all the University’s academic staff. Next, the researcher supplemented the quantitative data using in-depth interviews of 16 participants. Based on manual coding, there were 7 categories which were important criteria for staff in their decision to stay at or resign from RMUSTB. The retention strategy created from the quantitative data and supplemented by the qualitative data included four main components: (1) Benefits; (2) Organizational Culture; (3) Personal Satisfaction; and (4) Strategy. This study drew two implications: (1) Practical implications and guidelines for the university and campuses administrators and (2) Practical implications for educational policy makers.

Keywords : Retention, Turnover, Job Satisfaction, Retention Strategy, Academic Staff, Higher Education