Cultivating Academic Excellence: Exploring The Ideal Leadership Approach For Retaining Talent In Higher Education Institutions

Talent retention in HE has become highly significant in recent years as HEIs find it challenging to attract and retain academic talent in a competitive environment. Academic leadership significantly impacts the promotion, attraction, and retention of academic talent in HEIs. This study aims to determine the optimum leadership style for talent retention within a faculty at a South African HEI. A qualitative descriptive research design with interpretivism as its foundation was employed to gain an understanding of the phenomenon of leadership and talent retention within a faculty in a HEI. Data were collected from eight lecturers within the faculty at the HEI using purposive sampling. Individual interviews were conducted using Microsoft Teams. The data source consisted of these interview transcripts. The population studied included lecturers from the faculty of the South African HEI. Data analysis was performed using thematic analysis to identify several major themes related to leadership and talent retention. These themes include the current leadership style of managers contributing to academics wanting to leave their current jobs, as well as the leadership style that academics prefer to prevent turnover. The findings revealed that the leadership style of current managers contributes to academics wanting to leave their current employment and that specific leadership styles were identified as factors preventing academics from leaving the organization. Based on the findings, pertinent recommendations for institution management concerning retaining talented academics within the framework of South African higher education could be made.