Translating Social Capital into Ubuntu to Retain Academic Staff in Emerging Universities in Ghana

Abstract

Universities in developing countries are often engaged in competition for academic staff. Universities are recognised for the quality of their teaching and high research outputs, and this leads to a “war for talent” in terms of experts in teaching, research and community engagement. This article assumes that poor conditions of service and strained relationships between academic staff and university authorities may cause attrition of academic staff in emerging universities. Therefore, institutions of higher learning seeking to retain their best academic staff need to foster a good social relationship with the academic employees based on African indigenous practices to ensure a reduction in staff turnover. This paper explores how the translation of social capital into the indigenous practice of Ubuntu can reduce academic staff attrition in the new public universities in Ghana. A purposive sampling approach was used to select two new public universities that suffer from frequent academic staff attrition. The qualitative study employed interviews involving 30 participants (from two new universities) and observation as data collection tools. The study revealed that emerging universities in Ghana do not develop social capital or practise African indigenous practices and this alienates academic staff, hence they often look for greener pastures elsewhere. The study also revealed that good human relationships based on African values of mutual respect, cooperation, compassion and love are important ingredients for the retention of academic staff in any institution of higher learning. The findings validate the assumption that poor human relationships are a catalyst for academic staff attrition in emerging universities.