ACADEMIC STAFF WORK ENVIRONMENT AND WORK ORIENTATION AS CORRELATES OF THEIR JOB SATISFACTION IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated academic staff work environment and work orientation as correlates of their job satisfaction in Colleges of Education in South East, Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlation research design was employed for the study. The population of this study comprises all the 2,819 academic staff in all the colleges of education in South East, Nigeria. The sample size for this study consisted of 800 academic staff of Colleges of Education drawn using proportionate stratified sampling technique. Three sets of instruments titled ‘‘Questionnaire on Work Environment (QWE); “Questionnaire on Work Orientation (QWO)” and “Minnesota Questionnaire on Job Satisfaction (QJS) were used for data collection. The instruments were duly validated by three experts in Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University.  The instruments were subjected to test of internal consistency using Cronbach alpha which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.91 and 0.88 for QWEand QWOrespectively. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to answer research questions 1-2 and t-test of correlation to test hypotheses 1 and 2, while multiple regression analysis was used to answer research question 3 and test hypothesis 3. The findings of the study revealed among others that. It was also found out thatthere is very high positive relationship existing between academic staff work environment and their job satisfaction in colleges of education in South East, Nigeria. It was also found out that there is a significant correlation between academic staff orientation and their job satisfaction in colleges of education in South East, Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that Government should build a supportive work environment for academic staff of Colleges of Education through professional development, mentorship and modeled teaching opportunities to increase their job satisfaction.