The Mediating Effect of Organizational Culture Between Talent

Management and Employee Retention of University Staff

Nor saidi Mohamed Nasir, Nik Hasnaa Nik Mahmood, Gamal S. A. Khalifa, Saif Ali, Ain
Farha Salahuddin

University staff consisting of senior management and academic staff are knowledgeable
and highly skilled. Group developments are time-consuming and expensive. However, the staff
that has been developed can be lost from the organization via a transfer to another
organization. The aim of this study is to assess the influence of talent management and
organizational culture in retaining employees. This study employs the talent management
approach practiced in human resource management while the organizational culture is
reflected by the working practices within the organization under study. Employee retention is
also used as the dependent variable where the tendency of workers to remain longer in the
participating organization is used as the proxy. The population of this study is from the
academic and non-academic staff of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Keywords: Talent management, organizational culture, employee retention.

1. Introduction
Highly skilled workers are very important to help an organization to achieve its goal. The
services sector, for instance, the public universities have a lot of skilled workers. Attracting
and retaining employees are crucial elements for a country to achieve higher level 1. Talent
management for skilled workers like lecturers and senior management become priority within
the university administration. It is an important task for an organization to make these skilled
workers feel they are being appreciated to ensure that they will remain in the organization.
Organizational culture that is practiced in a university should make them feel loved thus
making them want to stay. Responding to this scenario, this study will look at the relationship
between talent management, organizational culture, and the retention of skilled workers in a
public research university in Malaysia. According to the definition given by 2, talent
management is seen in terms of human resource management practices adopted by an
organization. Organizational culture refers to the working practices 3 and retention of talent on
the other hand, will look at the tendency of workers to remain in the organization.

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2. Problem Statement
Global migrant stocks suggest that 215 million people live outside their country of birth
and from the developing countries alone the total is 171 million, accounting for 80 percent of
all migrants. For every ten skilled Malaysians born in Malaysia, one of them opts to leave the
country. This is doubled the world average 4. Following the interviews carried out among top
management of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, the University always gives high attention on
employee retention issues and talent management policies due to the pivotal role played by
their staff in achieving the University’s goals. Talent management approach is less efficient
due to weak labor approach and is not compatible with the needs of the organization 5. Talent
management can be implemented effectively and in line with the role of the organization when
it involves a change in the culture of the organization 6. Therefore, the study will look at the
impact of talent management and organizational culture in retaining employee at a public
University.

3. Literature Review
Talent management
Figures 1a and 1b show the reverse polarity operation within bipolar resistive switching. There
is confusion over the definition and term of talent management 2, 7. The perspective of the
definition used in this study is the practices in human resource management2. This is in line
with the findings of interviews conducted by the human resources department at the University
under study.
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture can be measured from the dimension of values and practices8. This study
measures the organizational culture in term of the practices based on empirical studies 3, which
outlines five dimensions containing autonomy, external orientation, coordination between
departments, an orientation of human resources, and improvement orientation.
Employee retention
Employee retention , particularly in the academic field is influenced by several factors associated
with social needs in Maslow 's theory9. Employee retention is not only influenced by more than
just wages and compensation received , it has to skip to the construction of culture , practices and
processes that are practiced in the organization that provides space for individuals to be
successful10, One of the main strategies for managing talent remains is to keep talented
employees11, where employees who have been taken in and developed have a high desire to stay
longer in the organization and establish a talent pool. Items that are developed in these variables
are adapted from few views and theory 12, 13.

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Based on the literature review, this study uses the approach of Baron and Kenny to examine the
impact of cultural intermediary organizations with talent management and employee retention 14.
Several hypotheses have also been built to examine the relationship between the variables:
Hypothesis 1
Ho : There is no significant correlation between talent management and employee retention
Ha : There is a correlation between talent management and employee retention
Hypothesis 2
Ho : There is no significant correlation between talent management and organizational culture
Ha : There is a correlation between talent management and organizational culture
Hypothesis 3
Ho : There is no significant relationship between organizational culture and employee retention
Ha : There is a significant relationship between organizational culture and employee retention

4. Research Method
This study employs a questionnaire survey method that has been tested for validity and
reliability. The interview was conducted to verify the talent management approach that is being
used, the practice of organizational culture and the importance of talent retention from the view of
the senior management of the University. The findings of interviews act as the basis for building a
questionnaire items. The data obtained from the survey questionnaires were analyzed using
analyses of reliability, validity, correlation analysis, simple and multiple correlation analysis.

5. Result
The findings showed that the means of all the variables studied are high which are more than
4.0. The linear regression between talent management and employee retention is significant
with the p-value lower than 0.01. The beta coefficient is positive and has a high value of 0.988.
The null hypothesis 1 is rejected. The linear regression between talent management and
organizational culture are significant with the p-value lower than 0.01. Beta coefficient was
0.985. Therefore the null hypothesis 2 is rejected. The linear regression between organizational
culture and employee retention is significant with the p-value lower than 0.01. Beta coefficient
is 0.994. Therefore, the null hypothesis 3 is rejected. In conclusion, all variables surveyed
display high significant relationship.

The results of multiple regression analysis are significant with p-value for talent management and
organizational culture is lower than 0.01, the beta coefficient was 0.321 and 0678. When
compared with linear regression analysis, the beta coefficient for talent management becomes
lower when the predictor of organizational culture is included. Therefore, there is a partial
mediator effect of organizational culture on the relationship between talent management and

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employee retention as the p-value for talent management after the multiple regression analysis is
conducted is still significant.

6. Discussion
The findings of the relationship of all variables studied are consistent with many studies
conducted previously15-22. The results showed that organizational culture plays an important
mediator role in employee retention. Although there's a partial mediator, it still affects the process
of talent management to retain employees. Factors affecting employee retention seem very
complex and do not depend on one element only. It involves a number of variables organizations,
including the impact of remuneration, career development opportunities, working conditions,
employee satisfaction with work and works culture 23. Finally, research on talent management must
be carried out in line with the understanding of talent management in term of local area
perspectives.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express heartfelt thanks to the Registrar Office of the Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia and Registrar Office of Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn for their
permission in doing this research. We also appreciate the respondents among the academic staff
and non-academic staff for their commitment in giving us useful information and responses.

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