Talent Retention and Organisational Innovation: Implications for the Sustainability of Public Sector in Southwest, Nigeria

Résumé

The public sector in Nigeria is still grappling with losing talents, low innovation, and poor institutional sustainability. This continuous drainage of seasoned staff has impeded administrative reforms, constrained the introduction of new governance practices and undermined institutional continuity of most government bodies. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between talent retention and organisational innovation and its implications for the sustainability of the public sector in Southwest Nigeria. The study focused on selected civil servants across Southwest Nigeria, particularly in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry of Works, and Federal Ministry of Education. The study was anchored on the Resource-Based View and the Public Value Theory. The study adopted a quantitative method with an explanatory research design. The population consisted of 2,360 civil servants across the three ministries in Southwest Nigeria, from which 341 respondents were selected using stratified sampling techniques. The structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and it was analysed with Structural Equation Modelling (SEM Partial Least Squares, version 4.0). The findings revealed that talent retention contributes greatly to organisational innovation by enhancing knowledge continuity, policy innovation and administrative problem-solving in the ministries.  It was revealed that the ministries that had better retention practices documented approximately 58 percent greater innovative work practices, and more sustainable programme implementation than the departments with large staff turnover. The research also concluded that the retention of skilled civil servants is the key to maintaining institutional knowledge, increasing innovation, and overall improving long-term governance performance in the Nigerian public sector. The study recommended the adoption of merit-based promotion systems, structured career development programmes, and competitive retention strategies for high-performing civil servants.