EFFECT OF WORK ETHICS ON PERFORMANCE OF ACADEMIC STAFF OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the effect of work ethics on performance of academic staff of public universities in North-Central, Nigeria, addressing the declining academic staff performance of public universities due to unfavorable work conditions and ethics as evident in severally extant studies. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design which included the administration of structured questionnaire among the target population. The population of the study comprised academic staff among 13 universities in North Central, Nigeria. A sample of 501 was determined using Yamane sample size model with an attrition of 30%. Data were analyzed using both descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (simple and multiple regression) for hypotheses testing. After questionnaire administration, a total of 381 questionnaire were returned and used for the analysis representing 76% response rate. The Findings indicate that, for every ethical improvement measure taken on academic staff conduct, their performance level is likely to improve by 91.4% as indicated by the beta value of 0.914. The study therefore concluded among others that, work ethics contribute significantly to improving performance of academic staff of public universities in North Central, Nigeria. It was recommended that, University management should encourage work ethics such as hard work, morality, leisure, centrality of work, time management, self-reliance, non-delay of gratification that improve employees morale or motivation to be self-reliant and independent to take decisions that will ultimately improve performance of staff