TALENT MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN GHANAIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: EVIDENCE FROM PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

Talent management is increasingly recognised as a strategic mechanism through which higher education institutions can strengthen employee and organisational performance, yet empirical evidence from Ghana remains limited. This study examined the relationship between talent management practices and organisational performance in one public and one private tertiary institution in the Bono Region of Ghana. A positivist, cross-sectional survey design was employed. From an accessible population of 587 academic and administrative employees, 240 questionnaires were proportionately distributed and 207 usable responses were obtained, representing an 86.3% response rate. Data were analysed using Pearson correlation and simple linear regression in SPSS version 27. Talent management was strongly and positively associated with organisational performance (r = .767, p < .001). The regression model was statistically significant, F(1, 205) = 292.856, p < .001, and explained 58.8% of the variance in organisational performance (R² = .588; adjusted R² = .586). Talent management was a significant positive predictor of performance (B = .420, SE = .025, β = .767, t = 17.113, p < .001, 95% CI [.372, .469]). The findings indicate that institutions reporting stronger talent management practices also reported substantially higher organisational performance. Because the design was cross-sectional, the findings support predictive association rather than definitive causation. The study contributes evidence from an under-researched regional higher education setting and recommends that tertiary institutions integrate talent attraction, development, deployment, appraisal, succession, recognition, and retention into a coherent and measurable institutional strategy.