Perceived heads of departments’ power sources, subjective professional distance and work-related compliance among private and public university lecturers in Nigeria.

Abstract

Studies on teaching and learning that exist between private and public universities in Nigeria is paramount to government and private owners of universities. Factors such as funding, teaching aids and staff motivation have been implicated in work-related compliance by workers. However, factors like heads of departments’ power sources and subjective professional distance that could influence work-related compliance more, have been neglected. This present study therefore, examined the perceived head of departments’ power sources, subjective professional distance and work-related compliance in private and public universities in South-west, Nigeria. The study is cross sectional utilizing a multi-stage sampling technique to select 900 hundred lecturers from 16 universities (federal, state and private). Data obtained for the study were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics while the hypothesis was tested at 5% level of significance. The study revealed that there existed no significant difference in work-related compliance between lecturers in public and private universities t= -.969, df 499, p>.05(37.015; 37.58). Also, there existed no significant interactive effects of lecturers’ perception of their heads of department’s power sources, subjective professional distance and their level of work-related compliance in private and public universities (F (1,388) = 2.062, P>0.1, 0.05) ; (F (1,153). 097, P>0.05). The study concluded that, perceived heads of departments’ power sources and subjective professional distance (similar or dissimilar) did. not influence lecturers’ compliance to assigned duties and responsibilities. The implication of this study is that, the management of universities should make effort in creating committed lecturers needed by their heads of department always, in order to continue to gain their compliance.