Abstract:
There is a notable poor quality of teaching, research, and ranking in Nigerian public universities, and this is exacerbated by a shortage of talented professionals, poor motivation, and an incentive scheme that signifies poor performance. The adoption of talent management strategies to address these challenges has not been completely effective in improving institutional performance. This study examines the mediating effect of motivation on the relationship between talent management strategies and public universities performance in Northeastern Nigeria. The study used quantitative research methods for the investigation, and primary data were collected through questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed to 359 academic employee selected using cluster and stratified random sampling techniques across faculties and schools in the surveyed institutions. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between talent management strategies (recruitment, career advancement, and training) and institutional performance. The findings also revealed that motivation partially mediates the relationship between recruitment, training, and institutional performance. However, motivation has no mediation on the relationship between career advancement and institutional performance. The implication is that, for public universities to become more efficient, authorities should continue to invest in talent recruitment, career advancement, and training strategies. The authorities should ensure that academic talents are widely selected based on qualifications, experiences, and competences; and their qualifications and experiences are adequately incentivized and remunerated to get them to perform at their best in teaching, research, and service to improve performance. The authorities should implement promotion guidelines meritoriously, improve talent welfare; and operationalize talent seminars, conferences, and workshops’ sponsorship across all cadres to promote quality teaching and research output.
