RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC STAFF WORK PRESSURE AND RESEARCH/PUBLICATIONS EFFECTIVENESS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between academic staff work pressure and their research/publications effectiveness in Nigerian universities. The research was prompted by the need to verify the claim by academic staff that heavy workloads affect their research/publication effectiveness. This is with a view to enhancing academic staff research/publications effectiveness. The study was a descriptive survey, and stratified random sampling technique was used to select sixty-seven academic staff from 12 universities. Research and Publications Effectiveness Questionnaire (REQ), with a reliability coefficient of .82, was administered on respondents to collect data. Percentages and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) were used to answer the questions and test the hypotheses respectively. The study revealed a low level of academic staff conference attendance, moderate level of publications, moderate level of work pressure on staff. There was no significant relationship between work pressure and academic staff attendance at conferences, between work pressure and frequency of publications and between work pressure and overall research and publications effectiveness. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that; accomplished senior academic staff should mentor young and upcoming ones to master the research function, universities should develop mechanism to detect academic staff weaknesses in research activities and help them to overcome same.