ABSTRACT
Societies expect that colleges of education produce graduate teachers whose job performance will help to better the educational system, but this development depends upon qualified and competent staff of the colleges of education. Retaining this resource is of paramount importance for colleges of education. The present study investigated human resource management practices as correlates of business educationists’ perceived job performance and retention in Edo and Delta States. Four research questions were raised and answered; while two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at .05 level of significance.
The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The population of the study comprised all business educationists in colleges of education in Edo and Delta States numbering 128 business educationists. The sample size of the study comprised 128 business educationists. The instrument used was a questionnaire titled ‘Human Resource Management Practices, Job Performance and Retention of Business Educationists’ Questionnaire (HRMPJRBEQ)’. The questionnaire was divided into seven subsections that measured the variables. The instrument was validated by two experts and the cronbach alpha was used in ascertaining the reliability and the following coefficients of .952, .955 and .861 were obtained respectively for human resource management practices items, job performance and retention cluster. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using frequencies, mean and standard deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression analysis
the findings revealed that the level of job performance and retention is high. The study showed that human resource planning has positive and low correlation with job performance and retention. The findings indicated that there exist a relationship among HRM practices (human resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal and reward) and business educationists’ perceived job performance and retention in colleges of education in Edo and Delta States. The findings also showed that HRM practices are significant predictors of business educationists’ perceived job performance in colleges of education in Edo and Delta States (R2 = .193, F (5, 103) = 4.916, P <. 05). The findings also revealed that HRM practices are significant predictors of business educationists’ perceived retention in colleges of education in Edo and Delta States (R2 = .115, F (5, 103) = 2.669, P <. 05). It was concluded that human resource management practices to a large extent predict business educationists’ perceived job performance and retention. Based on the findings, it was recommended that institutions should continue to plan for their human resource needs in order to guarantee the employment of competent educationists and to retain them as well. Institution of higher learning should make conscious effort to ensure that their recruitment and selection process is fair in order to engage competent educationists that can perform well. Government should continue to invest in the training and re-training of educationists in order to boosts their performance and to retain them in the institution.
