Research Article (DOI: http://doi.org/10.15580/GJER.2016.6.092416146)

Evaluation of Staff Personnel Administration in Tertiary Institutions in South Eastern Nigeria from 2007 to 2012

¹Ejeh Emeka Ifeoma and ²Dr. Okoro Pius

¹Department of Educational Foundations,  Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki.

²National Examinations Council, (NECO) Ebonyi State Office, Abakaliki.

²Email: honpiusokoro@yahoo.com; phone: 08063310562

*Corresponding Author’s Email: ejehifeoma@ gmail. com; Phone: 08038793759

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to evaluate staff personnel administration in tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria, with a view to finding out the extent to which the guidelines on staff personnel administration are adhered to. The instruments used include; Staff Personnel Administration Questionnaire (SPAQ).The SPAQ was used to collect relevant data from 358 tertiary institutions officers sampled from 6 out of 10 of the tertiary institutions in the region. Standard deviation and means were used to answer the research questions, while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed among others that to a large extent, tertiary institutions adhered to the approved guidelines in staff recruitment, motivation and welfare and to a low extent in orientation practices. This situation cut across Federal and State tertiary institutions. Some of the implications of the study are that the tertiary institutions should not be blamed for any unrest or job dissatisfaction since they complied with the regulations governing staff personnel administration. The study recommends that there may be a need to review the current conditions of service in tertiary institutions as it has lasted for many years and might have become obsolete in view of the global economic changes. This might help to reduce brain drain. Also, the need for proper orientation becomes apparent as new staff might have very high expectations. It also recommends that tertiary institutions should produce and make guidelines available.

Keywords: Staff, Personnel, Administration, Tertiary Institutions and South Eastern Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION          

Personnel administration is used interchangeably with Personnel management, manpower management, or human resource management and they refer to the management of people at work in an organisation. Therefore, staff personnel administration as a specialised field of management is concerned with the development and effective utilisation of human resources so as to achieve organisational objectives. The American Management Association (1999) defined staff personnel administration as a responsibility of all those who manage people. It is part of management which is concerned with people at work and with their relationships within an enterprise. It applies not only to industry and commerce but to all fields of employment.

Personnel administration, according to Obi (2003) can be viewed from different angles. One angle is to view personnel administration as a function or responsibility of every manager or supervisor who has people under him all of whom are working towards the achievement of desired goals. The second angle is that Personnel Management may be seen as a function in an organisation which is performed by a department, the personnel department. Sharing a similar view, Ajayi and Ayodele(2001:15) stated that "personnel administration is a basic function of management.

The most elaborate and comprehensive definition of staff personnel administration is that given by Flippo (1990:65). The study showed that there are two categories of functions: management and operative. Summing up these managerial and operative functions, Flippo define personnel administration as the planning, organising, directing, and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organisational and societal objectives are accomplished. Ogunsaju (2006) did not differ much from Flippo when he defined staff personnel administration as the effective mobilisation of human resources based upon appropriate recruitment, selection, training and placement of appointed staff in order to achieve the organisational set down goals and objectives. He also viewed it as the effective utilisation of human resources in an organisation through the management of people and related activities.

            From these definitions, personnel administration may be viewed as a set of functions and activities used in the management of human resources in a non-discriminatory, affirmative, and effective manner for the benefit of the organisation, the individual and the society. Nwachukwu (1992:73) identified the traditional functions or activities with which staff personnel administration is concerned. These are: Staff recruitment, orientation, motivation and welfare, training and development, manpower planning, job analysis, health and safety, wages and salary administration, Industrial relation, collective bargaining, discipline, performance appraisal, personnel audit, employee communication, human resource research and employee retirement.

The critical functions of staff personnel administration highlighted by Nwachukwu (1992) is examined in the context of the general practice in organisations particularly in tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria. For the purpose of this study, the following staff personnel functions were focused on. They are: staff recruitment practices, staff orientation, staff motivation/welfare, staff training, and retirement practices.

The choice of these administrative functions was based on two reasons. First, the practices fall in line with Edwin Flippo's operative functions of procurement, development, compensation, integration and separation. Each of these variables correlate with those already listed for the study; for instance, procurement is related to recruitment, compensation to motivation, separation to retirement, integration to orientation and' development to training. The second reason for the choice of these functions was that they are the activities or functions which the tertiary institutions have in common in their regulations. Because these functions have common regulations among the tertiary institutions, they form the benchmark for this study.

This study determined to what extent the tertiary institutions in South Eastern states of Nigeria adhered to the guidelines. This was done by looking at the tertiary institutions both as an entity and on the basis of ownership i.e. Federal and State Tertiary Institutions. In order to achieve the objectives, carefully selected instruments such as questionnaire were used on the principal officers of the tertiary institutions, the head of units and the senior Registry staff of the tertiary institutions selected for study. The main technique was evaluation.

Evaluation is the process of delineating, obtaining and providing useful information for judging decision alternatives. It is, in the opinion of Alkin (2008) to mean to judge, appraise, conclude, describe, justify, support, etc the planned programmes or activities. Evaluating administrative practices is necessary when one consider the essence of evaluation. According to Akem (2012) educational evaluation is a continuous process where a value judgment or decision is made by an evaluator in a given programme or activity. It is therefore necessary to evaluate administrative functions identified in the tertiary institutions in South Eastern in order to determine whether the practices require review or not, whether the objectives of the practices are being achieved or not and which areas of the practices require strengthening or to be removed. This evaluation therefore covered the period 2007 to 2012. (5 years). This period was considered appropriate for the evaluation because it witnessed remarkable transformations in the tertiary institutions both in terms of curriculum development, that included introduction of new programmes such as entrepreneurship studies, classification of federal and state tertiary institutions, introduction of new policies by legislation such as the increase to 70 years from 65 years retiring age of Professors and senior administrative staff from 60 to 65 years, review of appointment procedure, management and e-learning delivery services as well as pegging the tenures of principal officers of the tertiary institution to a single term of 5years, world class assessment of tertiary institutions, among others. These transformational and technological changes led to global and national competitiveness among tertiary institution staff. It made staff of tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria became aware and sensitive to staff personnel administration in other higher institutions world over.

It has become necessary for the practices to be evaluated because of the fact that, in the current tertiary institution system, it is observed that certain manifestations in the behaviour of some staff leave much to be desired such as poor service delivery. This may be explained from the manner many of them were recruited into the system. Therefore, there is need to find out if the tertiary institutions followed the approved staff personnel administration guidelines of the National Universities Commission (NUC) by evaluating the extent to which the tertiary institutions adhered to recruitment practices.

The summary of general guidelines from the National Universities Commission and adopted by the tertiary institutions for new entrants shows that in respect of any vacancies that are to be filled, the Head of Department in consultation with the Dean shall submit a request to the Registrar for advertisement stating the requirements for the posts. The Registrar in turn, shall advertise the posts in at least two national newspapers locally and may request accredited agencies elsewhere to put out the advertisement overseas, where necessary.

According to the guidelines, the Personnel Department of the tertiary institution headed by the Registrar plays a key role in recruitment of employees. The tertiary institution personnel department is at an advantage because it knows the manpower needs of the Tertiary institution and it is its duty to provide the required manpower needs. To be able to do this, Ogunsaju (1998) explained that the personnel department should prepare a concise job Description and specification stating clearly the title of the job, and the responsibility required. The Registrar as the head of the personnel unit is saddled with this responsibility to prepare this concise job description. The demand for and the process of recruitment is often initiated by the Unit Heads which comprises of the Deans, Directors and Heads of Department. They were to make known vacant posts that existed and forward them to the Establishment Unit through the Vice Chancellor. The Registrar and other Senior Staff in the Registry  receive  mandate  from  the  Vice  Chancellor  and  proceed  to  commence  the  process  of recruitment. The physical condition required for the job and other information such as the qualification required, experience, salary and the condition of service are also provided. The Registrar then proceeds to advertise for suitable candidates who meet the requirement of the job, through advertisement, interview and objective selection.

Staff recruitment refers to "the process of attracting the right calibre, quality and quantity of personnel to achieve the organisational goals, particularly the goal of high productivity" (Denga, 2003:35). The process involves identification, selection, appraisal and appointment of prospective employees from within and outside a work organisation. Effective human resource development kicks off with staff recruitment. The recruitment of the right quality of staff is an essential first step because it greatly impacts on the quantity and quality of productivity. Initial mistakes in staff selection could prove fatal subsequently in terms of productivity and industrial peace. One of the primary activities before recruitment is to determine the manpower needs of the organisation and to plan the appropriate types of jobs for which specific skills are required. Prospective employees with skills are then recruited to fill the existing vacancies. The issue of timely advertisement of available vacancies is also necessary to consider.

Usually, the following criteria are taken into consideration and scored during the interview process: mental ability of the applicants, physical characteristics of the applicants especially their health and mental adjustment, professional qualification including academic attainment, work experience including cognate experience, demographic data such as date of birth, sex and marital status, and any extra information, relevant to the recruitment process that might favourably influence the candidates. This study evaluated the general recruitment practices in tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria between 2007 and 2012 to determine the extent of adherence to the guidelines on staff recruitment.

Orientation as another function in personnel administration is defined by Dash (2007: 56) as "the process by which new employees are introduced to their tasks, colleagues, work groups, superiors and the organisation in general". He also notes that orientation activities are formal procedures organised to facilitate the adjustment of new employees to their new environment. Orientation of newly recruited staff into the Tertiary institution working environment appears to be given less attention. This may be due to crowded programmes of the Tertiary institutions, logistics or lack of funds to execute the programmes. Given the importance of orientation programme to new staff, it is necessary for the tertiary institutions to consider this personnel function as essential in the adjustment of the new staff to their work environment.

An orientation programme covers various activities and provides information on numerous issues. The topics covered in orientation programmes vary from one organisation to the other; and even within an organisation depending on the categories of employees (skilled, unskilled, clerical,' and managerial). There is need to find out why the tertiary institution system has not made adequate provision for staff orientation in their schemes of service/guidelines for appointments? This suggests that it is not given adequate attention. Staff orientation is necessary not only for newly recruited staff but for old staff who should be oriented to new innovations introduced, or into higher positions of leadership arising from promotions and also to new materials or equipment for proper handling.

This study therefore investigated how newly recruited staff in the tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria receives orientation to their jobs, and to find out if the guidelines on orientation practices were adhered to, during the targeted period.

The next personnel function considered in this study is motivation/welfare. The term motivation according to Middlemist (2000) is the force acting on and coming from within a person that account, in part for the willful direction of one's efforts towards achievement of specific goal. Mines (2006) defined motivation as the process within an individual that stimulates behaviour and channels it in ways that should benefit the organisation as a whole. Lussier (2009) on the other hand sees motivation as a desire to satisfy an unsatisfied need. Motivation can be defined as the encouragement, willingness and persistence to put in extra efforts towards the achievements of organisational objectives and the satisfaction of personal needs. The above definition of motivation clearly covers not only salary payments but other incentives which the tertiary institution provides for their staff in order to make them happy to put in their best for the attainment of organisational objectives. Such incentives as provided in the guidelines include loans and advances, salary advance, motor vehicle loans, furniture loans, housing loans, allocation of quarters etc. Although the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices are clear in the Condition/Scheme of service of the tertiary institutions, it was not too sure to what extent the tertiary institutions adhered to it hence this study.

Statement of the Problem

Staff personnel administration in tertiary institutions in general and South Eastern Nigeria in particular between 2007 and 2012 deserve to be evaluated. It was necessary because evaluation is supposed to be done on a continuous basis to find out how well a programme is faring. From casual observation, as well as committee reports, there appeared to be sharp practices in staff recruitment such as recruitment without following due process, recruitment of unqualified staff that were sometimes imposed on the administration and over recruitment of staff from certain catchment areas at  the  expense  of  others .  Similarly ,  there  appeared  to  be  inadequate attention given to staff orientation and motivation. This study investigated these practices in the tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria with a view to establishing whether they conformed to the approved guidelines or not.

Unrests in tertiary institutions occasioned by staff dissatisfaction required to be known in terms of what was responsible. Could it be ineffective or inefficient staff personnel administration? Or non-compliance to guidelines or obsolete guidelines? This study therefore investigated these variables and particularly the extent of adherence by the tertiary institutions to the approved guidelines.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate practices in staff personnel administration in tertiary institutions located in South Eastern Nigeria between 2007 and 2012. Specifically, the study investigated:

i.          whether the tertiary institutions adhered to guidelines on recruitment  practices.

ii.         the   extent  new  staff     are  given  orientation  to  their jobs according to established guidelines,

iv.        if motivation/welfare packages are implemented in accordance with the NUC guidelines on conditions of service,

Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:

1.         To what extent do the tertiary institutions in North South Eastern Nigeria adhere to the NUC approved guidelines in staff recruitment?

2.         What is the extent of compliance of the tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria to the NUC guidelines on staff orientation practices for newly recruited staff?

3.         To what extent do tertiary institutions adhere to the NUC guidelines on staff motivation/welfare practices?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated for this study.

Ho₁:     There is no significant difference in the perception among the Principal Officers, Unit Heads and Senior Registry staff with regards to tertiary institutions compliance to the approved NUC guidelines on staff recruitment.

Ho₂.     There is no significant difference in the perception among the Principal Officers, Unit Heads and Senior Registry staff as regards the extent the Tertiary institutions adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices.

METHODOLOGY

This study adopted an evaluative research design. Welss (1998) defined evaluation as the systematic assessment of the operation and/or the outcomes of a programme of policy, compared to a set of explicit or implicit standards as a means of contributing to the improvement of the programme or policy. She further defined evaluation research as “an elastic word that stretches to cover judgment of many kinds.” This design is most appropriate to be used for this study because it is assessing the implementation of policies thereby making judgments about its compliance with the standards set by NUC. This study was conducted in the South East Nigeria, which comprised four state Universities and two federal Universities with a total of six tertiary institutions made up as follows:Anambra State university Igbariam, Nnamdi Azikiwe University,Awka, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Abia State university Uturu, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, and Imo State University.The population of this study involves six tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria made up of two federal and four states tertiary institutions. This study adopted the multi-stage proportionate sampling techniques with a total population of 980. According to Akem (2012), the multi-stage proportionate sampling is used when the distribution of the target people cut across a set of groups. It is also used in a situation where the population is distributed into a number of first stage sampling units and a sample of the unit is taken. There may be three or more stages depending on the necessity. The sampling technique is more comprehensive and is a representative of the population. In this study, a sample fraction of 40% of the population was used in line with the sampling guide provided by Nwanna (1982). The guide provides that sample fraction of 40% can be used on a population that is in thousands and below while 10% can be used for population that runs into millions. This study used tow instruments to facilitate the evaluation of the personnel practices being  investigated  namely :  the  questionnaire titled “Staff Personnel Administration Questionnaire” (SPAQ). Staff Personnel Administration Questionnaire (SPAQ) was face validated by presenting the initial draft of the instruments to two experts. One expert from Educational Foundations and one from Science Education Department all from Faculty of Education, Ebonyi State university Abakaliki.  The SPAQ was trial tested on 40 staff comprising principal officers, Deans, HODs and Senior Registry Staff of the Akanu-ibiam Federal Polytechnic Uwana which was outside the tertiary institutions that were being studied. The SPAQ was personally administered to the respondents by the researcher and assisted by Research Assistants. The completed copies of the questionnaire were collected on the spot as much as possible. The personal contact and on-the-spot collection ensured a high rate of participation of the subjects and optimal return of the instrument. However, where the completed questionnaires could not be collected on the sport repeat visits were made. Data collected for this work was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance.

RESULTS

Research Question 1: To what extent do staff recruitment practices in the tertiary institution in South Eastern Nigerian conform to the approved guidelines?

The results presented on Table 1 indicate the mean ratings of respondents on the extent staff recruitment practices in the tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria, conform to the approved guidelines. The table shows that to a great extent, the tertiary institutions advertisement precede staff recruitment, qualification for appointments as advertised are usually the criteria for recruitment. This is shown in item 1 which has a mean of 2.89 and SD of 0.99. Appointment of staff to established post of Nigerians below the age of 50 are on pensionable basis with a mean of 3.43 and SD of 0.93, interviews and assessment panels with mean of 3.32 and SD of 0.83 are usually constituted by the vice chancellor to interview shortlisted candidates for various senior staff positions, recommendations for all appointments are forwarded through A and PC to council for approval and confirmation of staff with a mean of 3.34 and SD of 0.86, appointments are done after two years of satisfactory service. These are shown by the mean ratings of 3.48 and SD of 0.82. The cluster mean of 3.22 further lend support that to a great extent, the tertiary institutions in the South Eastern Nigeria conform to the guidelines approved for the recruitment of staff. The standard deviations which are less than 1.00 suggest small variation in the ratings of the respondents as their scores clustered around the mean.

Research Question 2: To what extent do the tertiary institutions adhere to the guidelines on staff orientation practices for newly recruited staff?

Results on Table 2 show the mean ratings of the respondents on the extent tertiary institutions in the south eastern Nigeria conform to the guideline on staff orientation practices for newly recruited staff. The data shows that to a great extent new staff receive orientation by under studying their senior colleague only. This is shown by the mean rating of 2.63 and SD of .02. The data showed that to a little extent (mean 2.43 and SD 1.02) the tertiary institution guidelines provide information on orientation for newly recruited staff, department provide orientation to new staff posted to them, new staff receive orientation through training outside the tertiary institution, staff promoted to higher positions of responsibilities receive orientation for new office and new staff do not receive orientation at all. The cluster mean of 2.15 indicate that in overall, the tertiary institutions to a little extent conform to the guidelines on staff orientation practices for newly recruited staff.

Research Question 3: To what extent do tertiary institutions adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation/welfare practices?

Data presented on Table 3 shows the mean ratings of the respondents on the extent tertiary institutions in the south eastern, Nigeria adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices. The data indicates that the tertiary institutions to a great extent ensure that staff salaries are paid on monthly basis as and when due, responsibilities allowances are usually paid to deserving staff and no one is entitled to draw more than one responsibility allowance, local travelling allowances are provided to all staff travelling within Nigeria on approved official duty, senior staff members are offered tertiary institution accommodation or are paid housing allowances and members of staff on tenure appointment receive tertiary institution loan scheme. These are shown by the mean ratings that range from 2.82 – 3.44 which indicate that they are adhered to a great extent. Item 17 which expressed that, members of staff draw professional association allowances, the respondents indicated that tertiary institutions adhere to that to a little extent as shown to by the mean rating of 2.42. However, the cluster mean of 2.94 shows that in all, the tertiary institutions in the south eastern Nigeria adhere to a great extent to the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices.

Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference in the perception among the Principal Officers, Unit Heads and Senior Registry Staff on the extent tertiary institutions conform to the approved guidelines on staff recruitment.

Results presented on Table 4 above shows that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of principal officers, unit heads and senior registry staff on the extent tertiary institutions conform to the approved guidelines on staff recruitment. This is shown by the f-value of 1.685 which is not significant. This is because the p-value of 0.187 is greater than 0.05 a-level. Thus, the null hypothesis of no significant difference in the mean ratings of principal officers, unit heads and senior registry staff was accepted.

Hypothesis 2: There is no significant difference in the perception among the principal officers, unit heads and senior registry staff with regards to the extent the tertiary institutions adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices.

Results on Table 5 above show that there was no significant differences in the mean ratings of principals officers, unit head and senior registry staff on the extent the tertiary institutions adhere to the guideline on staff motivation and welfare practices. This is shown by the f-value of 2.602 which is not significant. This is because the p-value of 0.076 is greater than 0.05 a-level. The null hypothesis of no significant difference in the mean responses of principal officers, unit heads and senior registry staff was not rejected.

DISCUSSION

Extent staff recruitment practices in the tertiary institutions conform to the approved guidelines

The findings which sought to establish the extent to which staff recruitment practices in the tertiary institutions conform to the approved guidelines show that to a great extent the Tertiary institutions placed advertisement for staff vacancies before recruitment. The study also shows that qualification for appointments as advertised were usually the criteria for recruitment. In addition, appointment of staff of Nigerians below the age of 50 were on pensionable basis, interviews and assessment panels were usually constituted by the Vice Chancellor and recommendations for all appointments were forwarded through the A and PC to Council for approval and confirmation of staff appointment were done after two years of satisfactory service.

The fact that 100% level of compliance with approved guidelines on staff recruitment cannot be achieved, is supported by a Council Committee report on staff Audit in 2010 in one of the State tertiary institutions covered in this study. Another most probable reason for the level of compliance not reaching 100% is the ownership status of these tertiary institutions i.e. private tertiary institutions where the incentives including salaries are not attractive enough compared to government owned tertiary institutions. These tertiary institutions (private) hardly receive responses from candidates when positions are advertised; so recruitment is often done in these tertiary institutions whenever qualified candidates offered themselves. An important fact that arose from oral interview response showed that when tertiary institutions were faced with emergencies such as an accreditation visit, due processes of advertisement before recruitment were often not done. For example, one of the oral interview respondents is quoted as saying "Advertisement is sometimes not done when doing replacement of an appointment or when faced with a need for an emergency employment such as during NUC accreditation visits". This situation appears to be applicable to all the tertiary institutions investigated.

In order to collaborate the finding on the first research question, data in relation to hypothesis 1 show that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of Principal Officers, Unit Heads and Senior Registry staff on the extent Tertiary institutions conform to the approved guidelines on staff recruitment. In other words, the null hypothesis is not rejected. This finding is also supported by the oral interview result in which the respondents all agreed that to a large extent, the Tertiary institutions conform to the guidelines on staff recruitment.

            Conforming to the guidelines on staff recruitment will ensure selection of well qualified personnel. Dressier (2006) expressed the view that a good recruitment exercise will ensure that the right calibres of staff are recruited.

Also, Taiwo (1995) opined that the success of the Tertiary institution today depends on its ability to recruit and select high quality staff at all levels. One sure way of getting this high quality staff, Taiwo (1995), is by advertising the vacancies in both local and national media. While not compromising quality, it is important that quota allocation should not be undermined as all these contribute to harmonious and peaceful learning environment. This finding further lend credence to the work of Orubuloye (2006) which shows that a successful appointment can produce results which impact favourably on the wider tertiary institution community while a poor one can have damaging effects outside the Department.

There is no doubt therefore that a well planned and executed recruitment along approved guidelines offers the tertiary institution to present itself in a favourable light. It is therefore not surprising that the tertiary institutions today are enjoying relative peace, stable academic calendars and high patronage from stakeholders.

Extent tertiary institutions conform to the guidelines on staff orientation practices for newly recruited staff

As regards the extent tertiary institutions conform, to the guidelines on staff orientation practices for newly recruited staff, the findings show that new staff particularly administrative staff to a great extent receives orientation by understudying their senior colleagues only. The data collected show that to a little extent, the Tertiary institution guidelines provide information for orientation for newly recruited staff, Departments provide orientation to new staff posted to them, new staff receive orientation outside the Tertiary institution staff promoted to higher positions receive orientation and new staff (academic) do not receive orientation at all. The cluster mean of 2.5 indicate that in the overall, the tertiary institutions to a little extent conform to the guidelines on orientation of newly recruited staff. The result of the study of Rothman and Leonard (2005) who observed no difference in the behaviour and adjustment of two groups of new staff, controlled group and non-controlled group seem to give justification for Tertiary institutions not organizing formal orientation to newly recruited staff. The graphical presentation an figure 2 derived from oral interview further support the findings in this research question that to a less extent newly recruited staff do not receive orientation.

This practice is contrary to the views expressed by Mgbodile (2004), Akpakwu (2012) that newly recruited staff should be properly oriented into their jobs so that they can effectively function in that institution.

The findings of this study show that staff orientation practices are not embodied in the guidelines of the Tertiary institutions which confirm the earlier observation of the researcher. Okendu (2001) in his study of new employee orientation found that a formal orientation process for newly recruited staff would result in higher organizational commitment. This finding seems to be undermined by Tertiary institutions by not organizing formal orientation for new staff. According to the author, the new comers will feel more positive to their employer if they participate in formal employee orientation process. The most probably reason(s) why Tertiary institutions have not considered orientation of new staff important stem from the findings of Rothman and Leonard (2005) earlier pointed out, where no significant difference was found between the controlled group and non-controlled group. Also, from the oral interview results, there were these common answers which showed that staff orientation were not given serious attention: "Very little of this practice is done", "Academic staff do not need orientation", "Only administrative staff move round departments etc.

Extent Tertiary institutions Adhere to the Guidelines   on Staff Motivation/ welfare

Findings on the extent tertiary institutions adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation/welfare practices showed that to a great extent the tertiary institutions ensure that the guidelines on staff motivation/welfare practices are followed. The data further confirms that tertiary institutions to a great extent, ensure that staff salaries and allowances were paid on monthly basis as and when due, local travelling allowances were paid to all staff on approved official journeys, Senior Staff members were offered tertiary institution accommodation or paid housing allowances and Senior Staff members on tenure appointment received loans from the. tertiary institution at minimal interests.

High cluster mean shows that, in all the tertiary institutions in the South Eastern Nigeria, to a great extent adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices.

This finding is further supported by the result of oral interview with Registrars and Deputy Vice Chancellors which showed that all the tertiary institutions under study representing 100%.agreed that the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare services were fully complied with.

It is most probable that the tertiary institutions were guided by the principles of scientific management by Fredrick Taylor which conceived money as the most important factor in motivating workers to achieve higher productivity. Adams (1972) in his version of the equity theory espoused the idea that the feeling of a worker that he is being adequately rewarded for his labour and services can motivate him. The findings of the work of Ologunde (2005) on the phenomena of labour turnover among tertiary institution staff in South Western Nigeria showed that the motivation strategies available  for  tertiary  institution  staff  in  Nigeria  are  inadequate  for  their continued stay in the tertiary institution system. The study therefore recommended that economic and non-economic forms of motivation be employed to keep the tertiary institution staff on their jobs. If the present attention given to staff motivation/welfare by the tertiary institutions are sustained, the ugly trend of tertiary institution staff moving out to greener pastures would be mitigated.

In order to further verify findings on the above research question, it was hypothesized that there will be no significant difference in the mean ratings of Principal Officers, Unit Heads and Senior Registry Staff with regards to the extent the tertiary institutions adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices. The results showed that, there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of Principal Officers, Unit Heads and Senior Registry Staff on the extent the Tertiary institutions adhere to the guidelines on staff motivation and welfare practices. The null hypothesis of no significant difference in the mean responses of Principal Officers, Unit Heads and Senior Registry Staff was therefore accepted. As interesting as the result of the responses showed, Sanda (2001) in her work on causes, of brain drain in Bayero University kano  noted that the low morale, poor attitude to work, dampened    linkage,    deteriorating environment among other factors have rendered current motivational factors inadequate in keeping lecturers on their job. There is need, therefore, for the tertiary institutions to integrate both economic and non economic incentives at the level that they are favourably comparable with those obtainable elsewhere to ensure sustenance of the system.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion that have been drawn from this study clearly show that contrary to the speculation that sharp administrative practices were rampant in the tertiary institutions, it was found that not only are the tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria doing well in implementing the guidelines, they are also updating the implementation of the guidelines in line with new administrative policies introduced by legislation. Tertiary institutions however, need to brace up to some few challenges posed by the non compliance by staff to certain provisions in the guidelines. This they can do by ensuring the reproduction of the guidelines and make them available to every senior staff.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made:

1.         The tertiary institutions should as much as possible sustain the practice of advertising before recruitment and also ensure that quota system is maintained but not at the detriment of standards.

2.         The tertiary institutions should ensure that guidelines for orientation of newly recruited staff are included in their regulations. This will compel the tertiary institution to implement the guidelines and ensure quicker adjustment of new staff to their new environment.

3.         Tertiary institutions should not only stop at providing adequate living and office accommodation to their staff, they should, from time to time maintain them to ensure that staffs are living in conducive environment. A situation where staff houses are deteriorating below expectation is not enough motivation for them.

4.         The council of each tertiary institution in this region should, from time to time, set up monitoring committees to assess the level of compliance to the guidelines on staff personnel administration.

REFERENCES

Adams, J.S (1972) Equity in social change: Advances in experimental social psychology. Edited by L. Berboritz, New York Academic press.

Ajayi&Ayodele.(2001) Fundamentals of educational management. Ado-Ekiti: Greenline Publishers.

Akem, J.A. (2012) Research and statistics for higher education.Makurdi: Destiny Ventures.

Akpakwu, S.O (2012) Human resource management in educational organisations: Eagle prints, km2, Gboko road, Makurdi.

Alkin,   M.C   (2008)   "Evaluation   theory   development'¹:   Evaluation comment(2(l), 2-7.

Dash (2007:56) Organisational engagement, recruitment selection and orientation, McGraw Hill Ryerson limited, Toronto.

Denga D.I. (2003). "Tertiary institution teachers, administrators and students."In priorities in education in Nigeria.The proceedings of the tenth annual seminar on the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Tertiary institutions.Owerri: Ihem Davis Press Limited (p.257).

Flippo, E. (1990) Personnel management: Kogukusha: McGraw.

Lussier  R.N   (2009) Management fundamentals.   Massachusetts   S.W carigage learning

Mgbodile, T. O. ed. (2004) Fundamentals of educational administration and planning.Enugu: Magnet business enterprises.

Nwanna, O.C. (1982). Introduction to educational research: Theory and practice in Ofo, I.E. (Ed) Methods and statistics in education and social sciences, Lagos, JOJA Press Ltd.

Obi,   E (2003).Educational management: Theory and practice. Enugu: Jamoe Enterprises, Nigeria

Ogunsaju, S. (1998).Introduction to educational supervision.He Ife: Tertiary institution of Ife Press Ltd.

Ogunsaju T.O. (2006) Human capital management for effective corporate governance.Paper presented, at a. Workshop titled: Corporate Governance for Sustainable National Development. April 2006.

Okendu J.N (2001) Personnel administration in education, Port-harcourt, Nigeria.Horizon concept publication.

Olugunde A.O(2005) Motivation and labour turnover among tertiary institution teachers in south-west Nigeria.Unpublished M. Phil Thesis, Department of Management and Accounting, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-lfe, Nigeria

Orubuloye, S. A. (2006) Personnel administration in secondary school.education. AKMTQ: Tonygay (Educational Publishers) Ltd.

Rothman, L.K. & Leonard, D.G. (2005)."Effectiveness of freshmen orientation".The Journal of College Student Personnel 8(5), 300.

Sanda, A.O (2001) Understanding higher education in Nigeria, Ibadan, Fact finders international.

Taiwo C.O. (1995). The administration of a Nigerian tertiary institution^;.Lagos: Oxford University  Press.

Welss,  S.(1998)  Evaluation: Methods  for studying programmes  and policies:2'^ld ed., Upper Saddle River: NJ:Prentice Hall Publishers.

Cite this Article: Ejeh EI and Okoro P (2016). Evaluation of Staff Personnel Administration in Tertiary Institutions in South Eastern Nigeria from 2007 to 2012. Greener Journal of Educational Research, 6(6): 213-222, http://doi.org/10.15580/GJER.2016.6.092416146