LEADERSHIP ROLES AND MOTIVATION IN NIGERIA’S UNIVERSITIES: A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY OF BENIN, BENIN CITY, EDO STATE
ABSTRACT
The research study was meant to investigate the leadership roles and motivation in Nigeria’s Universities especially University of Benin and carefully trace the reaction of the subject heading to the productivity of the employees in these institutions. And to this effect, a research statement of problems poses as follows.
The problem of leadership roles and motivation in Nigeria Universities has been identified as the major reason why these institutions have not measured to the exact expectation of the good people of Nigeria in the area of goal achievement. Effectiveness and efficiency in performance of the Nigeria’s Universities would highly depend among other things on the leadership roles and motivation of workers in the institutions. Assuming the leaders of these institutions exhibit the most excellent leadership roles coupled with the motivation of the human resources to higher productivity in these institutions, the story would have been positively different.
The alarming problem of inefficiency in Nigeria’s Universities calls for a research study of this nature to reduce if not totally eliminating the problem.
The methodology adopted throughout the research programme was the survey method construction and administration of questionnaires to respondents was embarked upon. The findings were tabulated and sometimes in figures. The revelation was that much is needed to achieve success in employee satisfaction and productivity in Nigeria’s Universities especially the University of Benin, Benin City.
Conclusively, one would recommend that the leaders in these Universities should perform their roles effectively to the expectation of all consumers of University services and in addition, should step up the amount of motivation given to the human factors of the institutions to induce these workers to higher productivity.
The researcher has decided to present the research study in five chapters to ensure a successful research study.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In the words of Prince Joh Okojie in his book (Organizational Behaviour and Management) 2001, page 168, he said and I quote “…in the world of business, leadership is a key ingredient in corporate effectiveness”. From the above statement, leadership can therefore be translated to mean a very important but useful element or variable in any organization.
In the same vein, Keith Davis, (1981), in his book (Human Behaviour at Work) defined leadership as “the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and motivates it towards goals”.
According to Management Study Guide (2012), leadership is “a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation”. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence and zeal.
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (6th edition) best defined leadership “as the potential to influence behavior of others”. It also defined leadership “as the capacity to influence a group towards the realization of the goal”. Leaders are required to develop future visions, and to motivate the organizational members to want to achieve the visions.
In general, it is clear that leadership and leadership roles are important in all human organizations considering what different books have said about the definition of leadership.
Good leadership roles have led many nations of the world out of the bondage of colonial rule to independence. Looking at the issue from another angle, poor leadership role have plunged many nations of the world to ruins. A good example is the leadership role played by German’s Hitler during the First and Second World Wars of between 1918 and 1945.
The tenure of Professor Adamu Baiki as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin could be admitted by all workers of University of Benin to be good. The Vice Chancellors that came after him could not perform to the expectations of the generality of the University of Benin workers.
Today, be it public or private sector of the economy, good leadership role is a necessity for a radical but positive change. Institution of higher learning like the University of Benin is dare need for caliber of persons with excellent leadership quality to lead the institution to glory in areas of goal achievement.
In addition to other qualities of leadership that any leader should have is the ability to motivate the followers or subordinates to achieve higher productivity. This is good for the universities in particular and for the whole nation in general. A leader who cannot motivate the workers has no place I modern development. The above facts agree with Professor R.O.F> Ola”s definition of motivation in his script titled (motivating others to greater productivity) delivered at a Senior Supervisory Development Workshop (1993). His definition goes as follows: motivation was defined as “the will to work and contribute action to a given process without being forced to do so”. Professor Ola also defined productivity as “the ratio of input to output”.
From the above submission, one can truly conclude that there has been the problem of poor leadership over the years in the University of Benin. The general concern here is that the workers accuse the University of Benin Management or leadership as the sole cause of their low productivity while the management on its part accuses the workers for the decline in productivity in the institution.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF UNIVERSITY OF BENIN
The University of Benin was established in the early 1970s through the military administrative leadership of the then Brigadier Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia as the governor of the then mid-western region of Nigeria.
As applicable to other Universities in Nigeria, the Vice Chancellor is the executive head of the University of Benin, while the Registrar is the administrative head of the institution. The University of Benin is a line and staff organization. All administrative staff and indeed all staff from the Registrar level down are responsible to the Registrar administratively while in the final analysis, all staff including the Registrar are answerable to the Vice Chancellor.
Chancellor
Pro-Chancellor
Vice-Chancellor
Deputy-Vice-Chancellor
Administrative and Services
Academic Affairs
Registrar
Bursar
Librarian
Deans of Faculties/Schools
Heads of Academic Department s
Deputy Registrar
Deputy Bursar
Deputy Librarian
Director Phy Plan
Director of Works
DEPUTIES TO ADMIN. HEADS
Assistant Registrars and Others
Principal Officers
Organizational Chart of University of Benin
An organization chart is a diagrammatical expression of the structure of an establishment to show the status of the organization boss and his position. A chart also indicates the flow of authority in an organization between the supervision and the subordinates and among all staff of the organization. Above all, organization chart shows and demonstrates the formal relationship among the various officials levels of the organization.
The above organization chart of the University of Benin shows and indicates the flow of formal authority between the superiors and subordinates in the establishment. It is an expression of the University of Benin structural design, performance objectives of the institution can now be easily discussed in line with the structural design in view. One can therefore conclude that the organizational structure of the institution is a multi-structural design comprising may structural sub-systems working harmoniously towards the achievement of the general goal of the organization. According to Keith Davis (1981) in his book (Human Behaviour at Work) “a system implies that there are a multitude of variables in organizations and that each of them affects all the others in a complex relationship. An event appears to affect one department usually may have significant influence elsewhere in the organization. This means that the managers in taking actions must look beyond the immediate situation in order to determine effects on a larger system”.
The system approach should be very good expression for an accurate descriptive of performance objective of the University of Benin.
The University of Benin, like many other Universities all over the world is established to perform three major services as its goal. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defined University as an “institution at the highest level of education where you can study for a degree or do research”.
The University renders teaching services to students and award degrees to deserving students after a successful completion of studies.
The University put into serious consideration the character building of its students before the award of degree certificates to successful students for the effective development of the society.
The University of Benin has many faculties each with various departments. Some of the faculties are as follows:
Faculty of Social Sciences
Faculty of Sciences
Faculty of Education
Faculty of Engineering
Faculty of Agriculture
Faculty of Arts
Faculty of Law etc.
These faculties have a Dean each as the executive head of individual faculty. Apart from the Faculty arrangement, the University has the college of Medicine also with various departments such as Dentistry Department etc. The various Faculties and Departments mentioned above are dominated by academic staff i.e. lecturers always assisted by some non-academic staff who are secretarial staff and other junior staff such as cleaners, messengers etc.
1.2STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Presence of conducive environment for workers to work perfectly well with all their heart and mind is a serious problem that the University of Benin is facing today. The workers are not paid regularly. They are not promoted when due. There are some workers who have not been promoted since seven to eight years thereby maintaining the same grade level for those long years.
Another problem facing the institution is the extent of involvement of some students in the evil practices of cultism. The involvement persists as a result of the fact that the leaders have not come out with an effective policy statement on the issue which could have reduced such practices, if not totally eliminated. The issues of cultism on campus had robbed the University of Benin the lives of many of its students from clashes among or between secret cult group on campus. A case in point is the cruel murder of a medical student in medical complex, Uniben campus, Ugbowo.
It is evident that the level of academic excellence is drastically reducing in University of Benin in particular and all Nigeria’s Universities in general as a result of involvement of students in examination malpractices. This ugly practices has sometimes been proved beyond reasonable doubt that some few greedy lecturers aid and abet these students in their nefarious act of examination malpractices.
If any organization is to succeed in terms of productivity and high performance of the workers, all hand must be on deck to tackle these problems as listed above by nibbling them on the bud. It is only in doing this that the goal of the organization can be achieved.
These problems will therefore be investigated and provided with workable solutions. Recommendations will be given to the appropriate authority concerned. As much as I know, there are many problems facing the Universities in Nigeria including the University of Benin.
From example, the workers in these Universities are not fairly treated by the authority especially the leadership roles played by various leaders in the institutions placing the workers at the receiving end.
If any organization is to succeed in terms of productivity at a maximum level among the workers, the question of leadership quality involved must not be overlooked, because leadership problems are very common among organizations. Creating the chance for low level performance in respect of productivity among the workforce, all hands must be on deck to tackle such problems vigorously.
Putting all other things right about a leader, the issue of how well a leader can cope in the area of motivating the workforce is a big problem in the Universities in Nigeria and University of Benin in particular. If the workers are poorly paid in terms of salaries and wages; made to work under poor working condition, and with inadequate working materials, the result will be that their performance will be drastically reduced. Understandably, poor salary stands out as the most serious factor militating against performance.
1.3OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This study shall investigate the leadership style and its effects on workers. Productivities or performance, vis-à-vis the roles the leaders are playing in the University of Benin in particular and all Universities in Nigeria in general.
The study shall also look deeply into the effect of motivation on workers effectiveness.
Another important objective of this research is to investigate the extend of students involvement in the evil practice of cultism in campus students involvement in examination malpractice also stands out as a very important objective of this study including the investigation of leadership involvement in the above problems.
The research study will be geared toward identifying the factors working against high quality leadership roles in the institution. Effort will be made to find possible solutions for improvement of leadership role in the University of Benin.
The research study will work toward finding out the outcome of specific aid to management in their policy making.
It is important to say here that if the objectives of this research study are absolutely met, the University of Benin will benefit greatly as well as other Universities in Nigeria.
1.4SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will guide the management of the University of Benin in particular and all Nigeria’s Universities in general in the enhancement of high productivity through good leadership roles and motivation. In addition, from this research work, leaders will learn to know that good leadership roles and the motivation of workers are ingredient of survival in modern organizations like the University of Benin. It is glad to note that many books written by eminent scholars were consulted after which facts were revealed about the best leadership style appropriate for the University of Benin circumstance including the revelation of how best the workers of the University could be motivated for maximum yield in productivity among them. This is a food for thought for all leaders in the University system.
1.5RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
In a study of this nature, the need for Hypothesis in inevitable.The effect of good leadership roles and motivation on employees is high productivity.
The incentives given to workers can enhance higher productivity.
Workers productivity will rise under a democratic style of leadership.
When communication is clear, effective and mutually complementary productivity is assured.
1.6SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study is confined to the University of Benin campuses; that is Ekehwan campus and Ugbowo campus. Questionnaires will be randomly administered to both senior and junior staff of Universities of Benin in a sample form in both campuses.
1.7LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The researcher had many constraints in the course of his research. Finance was one of the major problems, as the researcher could not adequately source for qualitative reports on leadership roles and motivation in Nigeria’s University.
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