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European Journal of Educational Studies Volume 3, Issue 1 February 2011 WORK ENVIRONMENT AS CORRELATE OF ACADEMIC STAFF JOB PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AJAYI, ISAAC A., AWOSUSI, OMOJOLA O., AROGUNDADE, BUKOLA B., EKUNDAYO, HAASTRUP T. PARENTS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND ITS EFFECT IN STUDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL VALUES AND VOCATIONAL CHOICES G. I. OSA-EDOH, A. N. G. ALUTU INTERNET-BASED PRONUNCIATION TEACHING: AN INNOVATIVE ROUTE TOWARD REHABILITATING TURKISH EFL LEARNERS’ ARTICULATION PROBLEMS MURAT HISMANOGLU and SIBEL HISMANOGLU PERSONALITY TRAITS, SEX AND AGE OF INMATES IN NIGERIAN PRISONS TENIBIAJE DELE JOSEPH UNMASKING THE EARLY DEPARTURE PUZZLE IN AN EDUCATION PROGRAMME OF THE ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY THROUGH SHORT MESSAGE SERVICES (SMS). CHIOME CHRISPEN, CHAKANYUKA SHARAYI and RAPHINOS ALEXANDER CHABAYA MANAGING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES CHIKA JOSEPHINE IFEDILI and FELICIA OFOEGBU USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN SOCIAL STUDIES: IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL LEAVING EXAMINATIONS IN BOTSWANA AGREEMENT LATHI JOTIA and ONTIRETSE JUBI MATLALE AN OVERVIEW OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN TURKISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE ON HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES SÃœLEYMAN Ä°NCEKARA and FÄ°KRET TUNA SCHOOL SAFETY AND RESPONSIBILITY IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND IMPLICATIONS TO RELATED ISSUES IN THE GAMBIA BABOUCARR NJIE SCHOOL-BASED TEACHER SUPERVISION: A VITAL TOOL FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN KENYA JANE IRENE A. DAWO HIGHER EDUCATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION AMONG YOUTH IN THE SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA MATTHEW BORODE EVALUATION OF ASSESMENT-EVALUATION METHOD, TECHNIQUE AND INSTRUMENTS OF CURRICULUM OF PRIMARY EDUCATION VISUAL ARTS COURSE (CLASSES 1-8) WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH EYLEM TATAROÄžLU PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG TRAINEE TEACHERS IN NIGERIA: ASSOCIATION WITH RELIGIOUS PRACTICE CORNELIUS ANI, JOSEPH KINANEE and BOLANLE OLA GENDER DIFFERENCE AND PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS OLUWATAYO, JAMES AYODELE ROLE EXPECTATIONS, THE ACTUAL ROLE PERFORMANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS FADEKEMI FUNKE OMIRIN and ISAAC ABIODUN AJAYI USING COUNSELLING AND BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION TO CURB CULTISM IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING E. O OSAKINLE and B. A FALANA RUDOLF STEINER AND THE OXFORD CONFERENCE: THE BIRTH OF WALDORF EDUCATION IN BRITAIN JOHN PAULL PROBLEMS OF FACILITIES IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AND THE WAY FORWARD AROGUNDADE, BABATOPE BUKOLA INVESTIGATING TECHNICAL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN SPEECH WORK IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE OYINLOYE. G. O and AJAYI BEN BABATUNJI European Journal of Educational Studies A PEER REVIEVED INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ———————————————————————————————————————————————- Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2011 ISSN 1946-6331 ———————————————————————————————————————————– ———-Managing Editor Ali Ozel, Dumlupinar University Publication Coordinator Taskin Inan, Dumlupinar University Editorial Board Gerald S. Greenberg, Ohio State University, USA Hakki Yazici, Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey Hayati Akyol, Gazi University, Turkey Hayati Doganay, Ataturk University, Turkey Laurie Katz, Ohio State University, USA Mihai Maxim, Bucharest University, Romania Ibrahim Atalay, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey Ibrahim S. Rahim, National Research Center, Egypt Janet Rivera, NOVA University, USA Mehmet Bahar, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey Lisandra Pedraza, University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico Lutfi Ozav, Usak University, Turkey James F. Petersen Texas State University San Marcos, TX USA Ramazan Ozey, Marmara University, Turkey Petra Juzlová, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Samara Madrid, Northern Illinois University, USA Samia Abdel Aziz-Ahmed Sayed, National Research Center, Egypt Thomas M. Kontuly The University of Utah USA Ildar S. SAFUANOV, Pedagogical Institute of Naberezhnye Chelny, RUSSIAN FEDERATION Borislav V. TOSHEV, University of Sofia, BULGARIA Anjum HALAI, Aga Khan University, PAKISTAN Mustafa Aydgodu, Gazi University, Turkey Pavol Prokop, Trnava University, Slovakia Milan Kubiatko, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Web: http://www. ozelacademy. com E-mail: editorejes@gmail. com Copyright © 2008 Ozean Publication, 2141 Baneberry Ct. 43235, Columbus, Ohio, USA European Journal of Educational Studies A PEER REVIEVED INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ————————————————————————————————- ————————— Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2011 ISSN 1946-6331 ————————————————————————————————- ————————–WORK ENVIRONMENT AS CORRELATE OF ACADEMIC STAFF JOB PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AJAYI, ISAAC A., AWOSUSI, OMOJOLA O., AROGUNDADE, BUKOLA B., EKUNDAYO, HAASTRUP T. PARENTS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND ITS EFFECT IN STUDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL VALUES AND VOCATIONAL CHOICES G. I. OSA-EDOH, A. N. G. ALUTU INTERNET-BASED PRONUNCIATION TEACHING: AN INNOVATIVE ROUTE TOWARD REHABILITATING TURKISH EFL LEARNERS’ ARTICULATION PROBLEMS MURAT HISMANOGLU and SIBEL HISMANOGLU PERSONALITY TRAITS, SEX AND AGE OF INMATES IN NIGERIAN PRISONS TENIBIAJE DELE JOSEPH USING COUNSELLING AND BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION TO CURB CULTISM IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING E. O OSAKINLE and B. A FALANA RUDOLF STEINER AND THE OXFORD CONFERENCE: THE BIRTH OF WALDORF EDUCATION IN BRITAIN JOHN PAULL PROBLEMS OF FACILITIES IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AND THE WAY FORWARD AROGUNDADE, BABATOPE BUKOLA INVESTIGATING TECHNICAL COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN SPEECH WORK IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE OYINLOYE. G. O and AJAYI BEN BABATUNJI UNMASKING THE EARLY DEPARTURE PUZZLE IN AN EDUCATION PROGRAMME OF THE ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY THROUGH SHORT MESSAGE SERVICES (SMS). CHIOME CHRISPEN, CHAKANYUKA SHARAYI and RAPHINOS ALEXANDER CHABAYA MANAGING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES CHIKA JOSEPHINE IFEDILI and FELICIA OFOEGBU USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN SOCIAL STUDIES: IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL LEAVING EXAMINATIONS IN BOTSWANA AGREEMENT LATHI JOTIA and ONTIRETSE JUBI MATLALE AN OVERVIEW OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN TURKISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE ON HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES SÃœLEYMAN Ä°NCEKARA and FÄ°KRET TUNA SCHOOL SAFETY AND RESPONSIBILITY IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND IMPLICATIONS TO RELATED ISSUES IN THE GAMBIA BABOUCARR NJIE SCHOOL-BASED TEACHER SUPERVISION: A VITAL TOOL FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN KENYA JANE IRENE A. DAWO HIGHER EDUCATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION AMONG YOUTH IN THE SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA MATTHEW BORODE EVALUATION OF ASSESMENT-EVALUATION METHOD, TECHNIQUE AND INSTRUMENTS OF CURRICULUM OF PRIMARY EDUCATION VISUAL ARTS COURSE (CLASSES 1-8) WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH EYLEM TATAROÄžLU PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG TRAINEE TEACHERS IN NIGERIA: ASSOCIATION WITH RELIGIOUS PRACTICE CORNELIUS ANI, JOSEPH KINANEE and BOLANLE OLA GENDER DIFFERENCE AND PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS OLUWATAYO, JAMES AYODELE ROLE EXPECTATIONS, THE ACTUAL ROLE PERFORMANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS FADEKEMI FUNKE OMIRIN and ISAAC ABIODUN AJAYI Web: http://www. ozelacademy. com E-mail: editorejes@gmail. com Copyright © 2008 Ozean Publication, 2141 Baneberry Ct. 43235, Columbus, Ohio, USA http://ozelacademy. com/ejes. htm European Journal of Educational Studies 3(1), 2011 European Journal of Educational Studies 3(1), 2011 ISSN 1946-6331 © 2011 Ozean Publication WORK ENVIRONMENT AS CORRELATE OF ACADEMIC STAFF JOB PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES AJAYI, ISAAC A.*, AWOSUSI, OMOJOLA O.**, AROGUNDADE, BUKOLA B., EKUNDAYO, HAASTRUP T. *Dept. of Educational Foundations and Management, University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria **Registry Department, University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria *E-mail address for correspondence: isaacabiodun2005@yahoo. com ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________ Abstract: This paper examined the relationship between work environment and the job performance of academic staff in South West Nigerian Universities. In all, 1500 respondents selected from 8 universities constituted the sample of the study. The respondents were selected using Multi stage, stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Two instruments were used to elicit relevant information from the respondents. The data collected were analysed using frequency count, percentage and pearson product moment correlation. The study revealed that there was significant relationship between the work environment and job performance of academic staff in the universities. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the management of the universities should make work environment more conducive by giving more attention to the provision of physical facilities, information services, motivation, authority-staff relationship, participation in decision making and staff development in order to facilitate better job performance of the academic staff. Key words: work environment, correlate, academic staff job performance, Nigerian universities ____________________________________________________________ __________________________________ INTRODUCTION Universities contribute much to social, political and economic development of a nation and that is why every government is making efforts to budget a huge amount to that sector. In Nigeria, the university system faces a lot of problems that may not allow the system to make the expected contribution to social, political and economic development of the nation. Among the numerous problems confronting university in Nigeria is the perceived poor job performance of some academic staff. In recent years, stakeholders in the education industry complained about the job performance of academic staff in the Nigerian universities. It has often been expressed by the public that academic staff are no longer dedicated and committed to the job. It appears the academic staff who are trained and expected to produce a host of cherished societal virtues such as honesty, humility, fairness, integrity, punctuality, dedication and patriotism are not dedicated and committed to their job. It appears teaching among the expected roles of academic staff has not been accorded the necessary priority as expected. There are instances where some lecturers do place too much emphasis on writing of papers for publications that are more likely to fetch them promotion than concentrating on teaching that can benefit students. There are reported cases of academic staff that are in the habit of rushing their lectures when examination has drawn nearer and 1 European Journal of Educational Studies 3(1), 2011 students also complain of delay in their examination results. Some of the lecturers also have been alleged of using graduating students to lecture students, record scores and computing student results. Also, there are observed cases of arbitrary award of marks, examination malpractices and students tell stories of academic staff that abandon their students to chase contracts and political appointments. All these perceived problems seem to have negative effect on the quality of graduates produced into the labour market. In apparent reaction, the former Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure, Professor Albert Ilemobade, observed in the Punch newspaper of 30th April, 2004, page 18. There are in the system a number of parasites that should not find a place in academics, yet universities are stocked with them. The various factors responsible for the poor academic staff job performance appear to be both internal and external to the universities. Internal factors include strikes, lack of employees’ motivation and weak accountability for educational performance and poor work environment. External factors comprise academic staff shortage, corruption, inadequate funding of the university system by government and admission based on quotas rather than merit. Afe (1995) pointed out that teaching task is done through conscious and deliberate effort. But for an academic staff to carry out this conscious and deliberate effort, he needs a conducive environment devoid of strike, inadequate motivation, weak accountability for educational programmes, inadequate personnel, corruption, inconsistent funding by the government among others. In the universities, it has been expressed that academic staff lack conducive work environment devoid of required resources needed for their job performance. However good the university programmes may be, if the necessary resources are not there, the staff cannot perform, no matter how much they are induced. These, therefore raise question about how to identify the determinants of academic staff job performance. Opatolu (1995) had found experience, conducive work environment, possession of teaching qualification, disposition, interest in the job, dedication and commitment, among others, to be more important in academic staff job performance. In the education system, the major element among the elements mentioned that is capable of influencing academic staff job performance and subsequently educational development appear to be lack of good work environment. There had been a common belief among the scholars, researchers, educational planners and administrators that teaching as a profession deserves priority attention. It seems that no concrete efforts have been made to actualise this free opinion in the South West Nigerian universities. Academic staff seems not to be enjoying work environment in terms of physical facilities, information services, participation in decision making process, authority-staff relationship, motivation and staff development. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between work environment and academic staff job performance in the South West Nigerian universities. The study will also find out whether the work environment of the universities is favourable as well as the extent to which the academic staff perform well on their job. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. 2. Is the work environment of academic staff in the universities favourable? To what extent do academic staff in the universities perform well on their job? 2 European Journal of Educational Studies 3(1), 2011 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS HO1: There is no significant relationship between the work environment and job performance of academic staff. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE To redress the falling quality of our present day university education as observed by Adesina (1983), it is wholesomely agreed that prominence should be given to the element of the university work environment. This would create an endearing intellectual atmosphere which fosters attitude to teaching and learning. Adaralegbe (1983) and Akuegwu (2005) ascertained that, without a good socio-psychological, physical and intellectual environment, the teachers and students cannot perform well in their academic activities; that is, if the work environment is bad, poor or unconducive, it may have a great negative and lasting effect on the performance of the students academically. Adesina (1995) asserted that quality of working life affects human activities in all its visceral beyond mere basic needs. A school of scholars who adopted the resource approach to the studying of organisational structure believed, in varying degrees, that the quantum of resources and the conditions upon which their availability of the resources are based, in a given organisation, is a major factor in explaining the quality of working life of the employees in the said organisation (Emerson, 1962; Preffer, 1972a, 1972b; Aiken and Hage, 1968; Rus, 1978). Okuoka (1996) investigated the influence of work environment on students’ scholastic achievement in Lagos State tertiary institutions and found out that conducive and responsive work environment significantly influence students’ scholastic achievement. On the other hand, Durotolu (2000) revealed that there was no significant relationship between the entire work environment and academic staff job performance. This finding seems to be at variance with the contention of Hoy and Miskel (1989), Nkom (2000), Ariyo (2000) and Aiyegbusi (2000) who identified the various components of work environment that are determinants of job performance. In view of the contradictory findings, the study attempted to determine the relationship between the work environment and job performance of academic staff in South West Nigerian universities. METHODOLOGY This study is a descriptive research of the survey type. The population of the study was all academic staff and students of the 10 public and 9 private universities in the South West Nigeria. The sample for this study was 1500 subjects, comprising of 500 academic staff and 1000 students selected from 8 universities. Multistage, stratified, purposive and simple random techniques were used to select the sample. In the first stage, the universities were stratified according to types (private and public). Eight universities: four private and four public universities were sampled. At the second stage, four public universities: two federal-owned and two state-owned universities were purposively sampled to take care of the variable of ownership. At the third stage, proportional stratified random sampling techniques was used to select the lecturers, while purposive sampling technique was used to select students being taught by the lecturers sampled in order to rate the job performance of the lecturers. Two sets of questionnaire were constructed for the study, these are Work Environment Questionnaire (WEQ) for academic staff, and Job Performance of Academic Staff Questionnaire (JPASQ) for students. The respondents were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement on the items in the questionnaire. The two sets of questionnaire were validated by experts in Educational Management and Tests and Measurement. The questionnaires were also pilot-tested using 180 subjects consisting of 30 academic staff and 150 students. The instruments were administered twice within an interval of two weeks. The two sets of responses were correlated using Pearson product moment correlation. The WEQ and JPSAQ had reliability coefficients of 0. 88 and 0. 89 respectively. These coefficients were considered high enough for reliability. The data collected were analysed using frequency count, percentage and Pearson product moment correlation. The hypothesis formulated was tested at 0. 05 level of significance. 3 European Journal of Educational Studies 3(1), 2011 RESULTS Question 1: Is the work environment of academic staff in the universities favourable? In answering this question, the responses to items in WEQ were used Table 1: Suitability of work environment of academic staff in the South West Nigerian universities Frequency S/N 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Items Physical facilities Information services Motivation Authority-staff relationship Participation in decision making Staff development Mean Favourable 289 343 342 341 341 356 335 Unfavourable 195 141 142 143 143 128 149 Percentage Favourable 59. 7 70. 9 70. 7 70. 5 70. 5 73. 6 69. 3 Unfavourable 40. 3 29. 1 29. 1 29. 5 29. 5 26. 4 30. 7 Table 1 shows that the work environment of academic staff in the universities is favourable in terms of physical facilities (59. 7%), information services (70. 9%), motivation (70. 7%), authority-staff relationship (70. 5%), participation in decision making (70. 5%) and staff development (73. 6%). On the average, the table shows that 69. 3% of the respondents indicated that the work environment of academic staff was favourable while 30. 7% of them indicated that the work environment was not favourable. Therefore, the work environment of academic staff in the South West Nigerian universities is favourable. 80 70 60 Percentage 50 40 30 20 10 0 PF IS MN ASR PDM SD Work Environment Key: PF: Physical Facilities IS: Information Services MN: Motivation ASR: Authority-Staff Relationship PDM: Participation in Decision Making SD: Staff Development Favourable Unfavourable Figure 1: Work environment of academic staff in South West Nigerian universities 4 European Journal of Educational Studies 3(1), 2011 Figure 1 shows that work environment of academic staff was favourable in the South West Nigerian universities during the period under investigation. Question 2: To what extent do academic staff in the universities perform well on their job? In order to answer this question, the responses to items in JPASQ were used. Table 2: Extent of job performance among academic staff in universities Frequency S/N 1. 2. 3. 4. Teaching Relationship with students Evaluation Counselling Mean Items Well performed 657 499 675 518 587 Not well performed 311 469 293 450 381 Percentage Well performed 67. 9 51. 5 69. 7 53. 5 60. 7 Not well performed 32. 1 48. 5 30. 3 46. 5 39. 3 Table 2 shows the extent of job performance among academic staff in the area covered by the study, the result shows that the academic staff performed well in the areas of teaching (67. 9%), relationship with students (51. 5%), evaluation (69. 7%) and counselling (53. 5%). On the average, 60. 7% of the respondents indicated that the academic staff performed well in the universities sampled for the study. This means that to a large extent, the academic staff in the universities performed well on their job. 80 70 60 Percentage 50 40 30 20 10 Key: Well performed Not w ell performed 0 Tch RWS Eva Cou Job Performance Tch: RWS: Eva: Cou: