Factors Affecting Staff Motivation And Services Delivery At Abia State University Library

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Motivated and sound academic staffs or teachers are the prerequisite of any educational system in the world. In Abia State there are inadequate and quality academic staffs in the educational system, Jokthan (2013). Also affirmed this in his study “In Nigeria and particularly Gombe State there are shortages of teachers in general. There is need to find and keep quality teachers as shortages exist in both urban and rural communities. The demand for quality teachers has become evident and profound now because students’ enrolments have also escalated. In the reports by several committees on education in Abia State recently the shortages of teachers were reported and run into several tens of thousands in all the levels of education or schooling. These shortages have corresponding effects on teacher-students’ ratios and provision of quality education to the students”.

Inamullah et. al (2008). Points out that “motivation of teachers has been a prime concern of school and college administrators. Every educator needs to be concerned about motivation. It is a quality that students, teachers, parents, school and college administrator, and other members of the community must have if our educational system is to prepare young people adequately for the challenges and demands of the coming century. University administrators need motivation to ensure that every facet of the schools, college and University they manage continues to improve”.

Education is the key to the development of people and society. Education helps individual, groups and nation to realize their worth, potential and value in the society and country at large. This explains why the governments of developing countries great importance on education for her citizens. Staffs are one of the most important components of any educational system, they contribute to the attitudes of the society, thereby shaping the nation (Abdulmumini, 2001). The quality of any education system depends on the way the skills and strategies of the staff in the system are developed. However, the importance and quality of staff can only be noticed when they are involved in staff development programmes. Thisis so because staff development focuses on professional growth, bringing about change in individuals’ knowledge, understanding, behaviour, attitudes, skills, values. The purpose of staff development is to further improve job performance, enhance the quality of work environment and foster personal growth and development.

Through staff development activities staff acquire knowledge about educational issues and problems, develop and utilize new or improved skills or work ethics and methods, clarify work-related attitudes and values, derive greater satisfaction from work with students, and develop more stimulation and supportive relationships with their colleagues (Ozurumba and Amasuomo, 2015). On the contrary, it has been observed that most stateowned universities are not adequately productive due to inadequate staff development programmes, training, conferences and availability of physical facilities. Physical facilities are essential tools to facilitate and stimulate academic programmes. Staff need them in an ideal working environment. Experience shows that if physical facilities are available, staff tend to have interest in impacting knowledge to students; this will invariably lead to high job performance. A close observation of the performance of staff perhaps could be traced to lack of physical facilities and a motivating learning environment. The success of any institution largely depended on its staff. For any institution to achieve its stated goals and objective in this competitive world, adequate and relevant training and development of staff could not be overemphasized. Staffs are the human resources which need development. This development would greatly depend on the outcome of constant training and re – training of staff. Training and development are very expensive. But universities continue to investment in training to attain goals.

Conference also enhances staff growth and development. It is a formal meeting of people with a shared interest, typically one that takes place over several days mostly held at educational level and at cluster level with thepurpose of reviewing and reflecting on practice on a regular basis. Conference comprise different personalities in the field of education with bountiful of ideas. Robinson (1996) discussing the form and use of conferences, which the researcher adopted as one of the elements under training recognized it strength for conveying a message to a large audience, while seeking opportunity to hear and comment on view of recognized authorities. Academic staff have access to a broad range of ideas through conference which lead to the enhanced performance.

Frequency in attending workshops is also an indicator of staff development. Workshop can be seen as a group of people engaged in study or work on a creative project or subject. It is meant to upgrade staffs’ knowledge and sharing of ideas. Workshop can be organized in institution cluster and university lecturers are invited to these clusters to serve as trainers and mentors. Such formal arrangement for staff development need to be supported by informal practices like team teaching and sharing of experiences and educational resources among staff, which greatly contribute to self-improvement. This approach has the advantage of stimulating healthy debates about various reform measures and innovations and encouraging collaboration, peer coaching, inquiry, collegial study groups, reflective discussion and action.

The knowledge, idea, skills and attitude at the educator must be developed through integrated and systematic way. One of the important components to improve the quality of education is through seminar for teachers. Seminar is a group meeting led by an expert that focuses on a specific topic or discipline. Seminars typically take place over the course of a few days and involve cooperative discussion, multiple speakers and opportunities to share perspectives and issues related to the topic. Attending a seminar has numerous benefits, including improving communication skills, gaining experts knowledge, networking with others and renewing motivation and confidence.

Most universities seems to lack the necessary facilities, training and scholarships that could enhance effective teaching and learning as a result little in term of productivity is expected from staff for proper delivery. Experience shows that inadequate physical facilities have some adverse effect on staff productivity. Academic staff have not lived up to their expectations due to inability of the state government and university administration to expose them to in-service training, conferences, research, community service and current practices in their fields. This has resulted in reduction of quality manpower. Thus, qualified manpower which would have emanated from staff development has decreased tremendously (Okebukola, 2005). When people talk about increase in productivity, they generally mean increase in output per person. Productivity refers to the output gained through the inputs of staff aimed towards attaining the overall objectives of both the any system and the employee. Also Productivity is defined as the efficiency with which things were being produced. Employee productivity however was the measure of output per unit of input economically. It was the log of net sales over total employees. Ogbunbamowo(2000) and Ohinmorin (2003) saw productivity as the relationship between output generated by the production of service and input provided to increase this output. Therefore, increase in productivity of any staff is measured in terms of more and/ or better construction of structures. Staff development provides growth in staff academic career and improved university organization. In other words, it assists in the promotion of academic staff from one level to another and encourages hard work amongst them. During the period of staff development, academic staff are privileged to be trained and retained. These outputs measure the extent to which university organizations achieve their goals, which is dependent on the acquisition of new skills, knowledge and experiences attributable to staff development programmes. One of the major problems confronting employers worldwide is the issue ofpoor productivity.

Adelabu (2005). Also affirms that “The lack of clear overall responsibility for the management of teachers has seriously undermined teacher morale over the years. In fact, this is because Nigeria has a highly decentralised education system due to its federal system of government. As a result, no single tier of government in Nigeria has absolute control over public education. Primary education is on the concurrent legislature list while secondary education is managed and financed by the state government with the exception of 96 federal government colleges”. Victor and Babatunde (2014). Explain in their studies how African academic staff emigrating to developed countries searching for a better working conditions, they affirmed that “According to the World Bank Report (2004), 23,000 qualified academic staffs are emigrating from Africa each year in search of better working conditions, and it is estimated by the report that 10,000 Nigerians are now employed in the United State Universities alone. Lack of good working condition and motivation mechanism has no doubt, translated into lecturer’s low morale which in turn translated into student’s poor academic performance”.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

It is obvious that productivity is germane to prestige and career progression of academic staff in the universities. In spite of the relevance of productivity in education, it is observed that the level of productivity of academic staff in Nigeria universities especially in south – south is abysmally low. This has been attributed to lack of programmes and facilities required to increase productivity. Most of the people employed are unmotivated in terms of due entitlement, such as promotion, salary, conferences, scholarship and training. It takes time for academic staff to acquire the necessary training which enhances academic development and adequate productivity. Most of the people employed are not opportuned to have these academic entitlements. In most universities in south-south of Nigeria, academic staff are not adequately productive due to inadequate or non-availability of conducive learning environment and staff development programmes. Academic staff cannot live up to expectation particularly in preparation of lecture delivery, impacting knowledge to students, taking proper evaluation of their performance and conducting research. This problem has been of concern to stakeholders in the university system. Moreover, some graduates that are turned out from these universities can hardly write memo or communicate effectively and meaningfully. They cannot defend their qualifications or degrees.

On the part of the academic staff they have very low morale, poor attitudes particularly towards embracing opportunities such as in-service training, ICT training, conferences, seminars and workshops (learning new learning physical facilities to impact knowledge to students). They lack academic staff sponsorship towards enhancing academic staff output. Could it be that the resources are not available or are not enough for thenecessary requirements needed for the productivity and motivation of academic staff in our tertiary institutions?
Higher education institutions in Nigeria particularly Abia State faces a lot of challenges, among which is insufficient motivated lecturers, Kamoh et. al (2013). Expatiate on this, as they postulate in their study “In Nigeria, our educational system is currently faced with behave of challenges impacting negatively on the quality of graduates. Prominent among these challenges, is the shortage of sound and motivated teachers. This is largely because teaching in Nigeria is still considered a vocation instead of a profession thereby offering many the opportunities to engage in it without going through the requisite professional training”. Kamoh et. al (2013). Further summarize “the under listed challenges

1.3 Objective of the Study

The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting staff motivation and services delivery atAbia State University Library.

Specific objectives include:

To assess the motivational level of academic staff at Abia State University.

To identify the factors of motivation of academic staff in Abia State University.

To measure the strength of the motivating techniques of academic staff in Abia State University.

1.4 Research Questions

What is the motivational level of academic staff at Abia State University?

What are thefactors of motivation of academic staff in Abia State University?

What is the strength of the motivating techniques of academic staff in Abia State University?

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study will be of benefit to the academic staff in public universities in Abia State with particular reference to Abia State University, universities management and authority in Abia State, students in public universities in Abia State, researchers and the larger society. The outcome of this investigation could serve as a basis for policy formulation by the Abia State government or her agencies, for the effective management of academic staff in public universities in Abia State. In addition, this study will expose researchers to the extent which public universities in Abia State in general, and, the Abia State University in particular manages her academic staff to maximize efficiency and effectiveness for maximum performance. This study will also serve as a guide to those scholars who may wish to carry out further research into any areas related to staff development and performance by providing relevant literature for consultation and reference.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This study is focused on investigating the factors affecting staff motivation and services delivery atAbia State University Library. The study also covers the motivational level of academic staff at Abia State University, the factors of motivation of academic staff in Abia State University as well as the strength of the motivating techniques of academic staff in Abia State University.

1.7 Limitation of the Study

This study was constrained by some factors. Firstly, the time frame allocated for the completion of this study was not enough for the researcher to extensively carry out research based on the theme of this research work. On the other hand, the research participants were not willing to participate in responding to the administered questionnaire of this study. Also, the required materials like journals and articles needed for the proper completion of this study were not readily available online and offline. All these constraint put together, ultimately determined the extent to which researcher was able to go in this study.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Motivation:

The reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behaviour at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-directed behavior.

Employment:

A relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services.

Productivity:

The efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production process, i.e. output per unit of input, typically over a specific period of time.

University:

An institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

1.9 Organizations of the Study

This research work is categorized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows.

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), background to the study, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms.

Chapter two encompasses the conceptual review theoretical review and empirical reviews on which the study is based.

Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study.

Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.

Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.