ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICES AND ACADEMIC STAFF PRODUCTIVITY IN LAGOS STATE TERTIARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study focused on Organisational Communication Practice and Academic staff productivity in Lagos State Tertiary Education Institutions. The design of the study was descriptive and correlational. Two research hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study.  The data collected were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression statistical analysis.  The population of the study was 1664 Academic Staff of the three institutions.  The sample was chosen using the multistage sampling procedure.  In the first stage, five faculties\schools were chosen from each Institution using simple random sampling technique and the Deans were sampled, making a total of 15 Deans.  Then, from each of the chosen faculties \schools, the simple random sampling technique was used to choose three Head of departments, given a total of 45 HODs.  Thirdly, purposive sampling technique was used to choose seven academic staff from each of the chosen Faculties. Thus, the respondents from these faculties\schools were 315 Lecturers, making a total of 375 respondents chosen, however, 346 administered questionnaires were retrieved and used for the study. Three main instruments titled: Organisational Communication Practices questionnaire for Lecturers(OCPQ) and Academic Staff Productivity questionnaire for Head of departments and Deans(ASPQ) were used to collect data, after ensuring their validity and the reliability with a coeffecient of (r= 0.8) and (r=0.89)  respectively. The findings indicated that there is a very weak, positive and non-significant relationship between organisational communication practices and academic staff productivity in Lagos State Tertiary Educational Institutions (r = 0.015, N = 346, ρ > 0.05); that there is a negative and non-significant relationship between conflict resolution strategies and academic staff productivity in Lagos State Tertiary Educational Institutions (r = -0.242, N=346,ρ > 0.05); The result used revealed a low, positive and non-significant relationship between formal communication practice and academic staff productivity (r=.14). It indicates a negative, weak and non-significant relationship between two variables (r=-.279,ρ>0.05). The study therefore recommended that there should be adequate  and proper flow of communication and dialogue between management, Government and academic staff, for conflict to be resolved, thereby curbing incessant strike or industrial actions..