Proceedings of ‏The 2nd International Conference on Research in Teaching and Education

Year: 2020

DOI:

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The Impact ofNon-FinancialIncentives on Academic Staff RetentionatHigher Education Institutions:AnExploratory Study inOman

Amal Al-Qarshoubi

ABSTRACT: 

Staff retention isan important issue forany organisation wishing to function well. This paper will focus on the drivers of academic staff retention at Omani higher education institutions, where this issue is still under-researched. Factors affecting academic staff retention can be classified tofinancial and non-financial incentives. However, the focus in this paper will be on non-financial incentives and the findings revealed from the qualitative approach. Non-probability sampling techniques were used to select the participants, and consequently face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 academic staff members.The selection criteria considered including academic staff with different demographic characteristics to ensure effective comparisons could be made between the different groups of the sample and to enrich the study with a broader range of perspectives. The findings revealed thatseveral types of non-financial incentives, such asleadership and supervision skills, academic growth, autonomy, teachingresources, and recognitioncan influence the retention of academic staff.

Keywords:academic growth;autonomy; leadership; recognition; resources