Gender disparity in administrative effectiveness of head of academic departments in Nigeria Universities

Gender disparity in administrative effectiveness of head of academic departments in Nigeria Universities

Gender disparity in administrative effectiveness of head of academic departments in Nigeria Universities Don omoike and Philipa O.A Idogho Department of Educational Foundations And Management, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria Auchi Polytechnic Auchi, School of information and communication Technology E-mail: philipaidogho@yahoo.com dononde@hotmail.com KEYWORDS: Administrative effectiveness; heads of departments; gender, universities ABSTRACT: The study was on the level of administrative effectiveness of Heads of Academic Departments in Nigeria universities and the significant difference (if any) in administrative effectiveness of male ad female Heads of Academic Departments. One research question and one hypothesis were raised/formulated to direct the investigation. Out of 1520 Heads of Academic Departments in all 36 public universities in Nigeria, 1326 academic staff in nine universities were selected from 362 Departments in nine universities for the study. The results of investigation revealed that the administrative effectiveness of Heads of Departments in Nigerian universities was high. Since there was no significant difference in the area of sex, it was recommended among others that gender should not be a hindrance in the appointment of Heads of Department of Heads of Departments.

INTRODUCTION

The state of administration in higher education has been a source of concern to the stakeholders. The universities had firm control of the activities of staff and students. This was to the extent of the existence of normal academic calendar of nine months. Stakeholders especially parents and employers of labor had assurance as to the precise year of graduation and caliber of graduates from universities in Nigeria. The mandate of the university as specified in section 8 of the National policy on Education (FRN, 2004 edition) is to teach, conduct research development and provide community service. These organizational goals of the university seen no longer realizable due to obstacle that include alleged poor performance of Heads of Departments who are no longer performing their functions effectively. Lucas (1994) describes administrative functions of the Head of Department to include: preparing teaching schedules, ensuring teaching effectiveness of staff, managing graduate assistants, and other department staff, performing personnel decision-making, revising the curriculum, and managing the budget. The success or failure of the department is therefore his responsibility. The mandate of the university can only be achieved through the effective performance, by the Heads of Departments of their functions. The National Universities Commission (UNC) in its 2002 report on the state of education in Nigeria alleged that universities in Nigeria perform below expectation (Okebukola, 2002). Some stakeholders especially parents and employers of labour also alleged poor performance of graduates from universities in Nigeria. Aghenta (2001) equally observed that not more than 30 percent of the normal period of teaching is used for actual teaching. Lecturers do not submit examination questions early neither do the mark the scripts and submit results on times. Could these be because the Heads of Departments are uncaring, self-serving and exhibits dictatorial management? There are situations where, for instance, students so not even register their courses before examinations. Since the department is the basic unit of the university system, could it be that the Heads of Departments are not performing their administrative or supervisory roles effectively? How effective are the Heads of Departments in the administration of academic departments? Could it also be that female Head of Departments are not effective in the performance of administrative duties? It was therefore imperative to ascertain the administrative effectiveness of Head of Departments who are given duties to perform and determine if female Heads of Departments are not effective in the performance of ,administrative duties?

METHOD OF STUDY

This is descriptive research based on the ex-post-factor design. The population of the study comprised all the academic staff in the 1520 Academic Departments in all the 36 public universities in a range of types of (federal, state, conventional, specialized, older, newer) universities. Through a multistage and stratified methods and finally through purposive sampling technique 1,326 academic staff were selected to rate the 362 Heads of Departments in nine universities taken from the 36 public universities in Nigeria. The main instruction that was used in data collection was the questionnaire title Heads of Departments Administrative Effectiveness questionnaire (HODAEQ: The purpose of the rate the performance of the Heads of Departments in Nigerian universities in order to determine their administrative effectiveness. The questionnaire was made up of two major section. The first section sought background information (ownership, age and curriculum of university and sex of the Head of Department. The second section contained 30 administrative duties of the Head of Department on which academic staff were asked to rate the performance of their Heads of Departments on a five point likert type scale. The items were grouped into seven functional areas that included Heads of Departments administration of instructional programmes, administration of staff, administration of students, administration of facilities, administration of finance, administration of external relations and administration of office. Five of these groups had four items per group whose Reponses were to determine the administrative effectiveness of the Heads of Departments. The other two group had five items each. To ensure the achievement of the face and content validity the instrument Head s of Departments Administrative Effectiveness Questionnaire (HODAEQ) was designed to reflect

DON OMOIKE AND PHILIP O.A IDOGHO

The problem and the hypothesis of the study. Two research consultants in educational administration certified the instrument before it was administered. The test-retest method was used to test the reliability of he instrument. The data obtained was statistically analyzed to obtain the reliability coefficient. The result of the correlation of the scores through Pearson r' was 0.83. The questionnaire was administered on a total of 1,448 academic staff in the 362 departments out of which 1,326 was retrieved for analysis. The data collected to answer the research question raised for the study were analyzed with the use of means and percentages. The hypothesis that was formulated was tested using the z-test statistics. Sixty percent (or transformed mean of 3.00) was adopted as the base line for administrative. Effectiveness. Research Question: What is the level of administrative effectiveness of Heads of Departments? Percentage. The results are presented in table 1. As revealed in table 1, there were a total of 1,326 respondents who rated the 362 Heads of Department in he nine selected universities. With a mean of 15.2, a transformed mean of 3.55 and 71 percent rating on administrative effectiveness rating. HYPOTHESIS: There is no significant difference in administrative effectiveness between male and female Head of Departments of universities in Nigeria.

Table 1:

Administrative effectiveness rating of heads of departments

1,326 141,335 15.2 3.55 71 Effective

Table 2:

z-test in administrative effectiveness between male and female heads of department in Nigerian

Gender N X sd df z-value Remarks

Administrative Male 1,150 71.8 6.9 1.324 1.96 Not significant

Effectiveness Female 176 70.2 7.6 P>0.05

The hypothesis was tested by applying the z-test . The result of analysis is presented in table 2. The z-test of significance of difference as shown in the table 2 had a calculated z-test value of 1.54. This indicates that no significant difference exists in administrative effectiveness of male and female Heads of Departments in Nigerian Universities. Thus, the hypothesis that states that there is no significant difference in administrative effectiveness between male and female heads of departments retained.

DISCUSSION

One of the findings of this study was that heads of department were generally very effective ( 71%) in their administration of academic departments. The finding confirms that of Hamlin ( 2002) that found a degree of congruence in all the criteria of managerial effectiveness of leaders in higher education. he has found academic leaders as effective. Another important finding was that females were under represented in department headship in Nigerian universities. The finding of futrell (2002) is confirmed that women represent a small proportion of educational leaders and administrators. One would tend to agree with Forsyth (1999), that men are likely to emerge as leaders because women are reluctant' to assume leadership roles. This result is a confirmation of Forsyth's earlier confirmation that there is a significant difference in leadership emergence by gender, which he translated to mean that leadership performance is titled towards the male than female leaders. With a mean score of 70,2, female Heads of Departments were found to be effective in their administration of academic departments. This is further strengthened by the result of z-test that showed no significant difference in heads of departments administrative effectiveness between male and females. The earlier impressions has been on exclusive gender differences that negatively affect the appointment and performance or effectiveness of female Heads of Departments (Korabik, 2002) .out of the 362 Heads of Departments sampled, only thirteen percent were females. It may be a result of their relative non-availability as may be found in the male-female ratio of academic staff in universities. From the results, therefore , the sex of a leader cannot be equated with ability, performance and effectiveness. The findings do not agree with Hawkin's (1995) observation that there are mutually exclusive gender differences that affect the emergence and performance of a leader. The finding of no significant difference in administrative effectiveness between male and female Heads of Departments confirm Osho's (1998) earlier finding of no significant different in administrative effectiveness between male and female principals. There is thus no differential performance in leadership by men and woman as observed by Korabik (2002). She had concluded that women are given person oriented leadership skills while men should be given task-oriented skills to ensure their effective leadership performance.

CONCLUSION

The study has provide evidence of high level of administrative effectiveness of Heads of Departments in Universities in Nigeria. It would appear that the problem that emanate and usually lead to crisis within the universities in Nigeria may not be traced to the administration of departments by Heads of Departments. The appointment of Heads of Department seems to be appropriate as almost all Head of Departments were effective in the performance of administrative duties in the departments. The finding of no significant difference in administrative effectiveness of Heads of Departments between males and females has implication for gender issues in university administration. There is the current global focus on female education that requires increase not only in women education but also in female involvement in educational administration in general and university governance in particular. This seems to be the focus of women in academics movement RECOMMENDATION Head o Departments should continuously perform their administrative functions as best they can. They only need to be encouraged to do better so as to increase the percentage rating on the effectiveness scale. Gender of an academic staff should not be a factor in considering whom to appoint as Heads of criteria for appointments such as experience, they should be appointed as Heads of Department; their administrative effectiveness is not in doubt. Conscious and direct plans need to be put in place to redirect focus on bringing women into academi

REFERENCES

Aghenta, J.A. 2001. "Educational planning: A turning point in education and development in Nigeria Inaugural lecture Series University of Benin City. 19. Federal Republic of Nigerian (FRN). 2004. National Policy on education. Abuja: NERDC

Futrell, M. H. 2002. pathway to Educational leadership: Advancing Women as principals and Superintendents. Retrieved July 18 2004 from http://www.aauw.org/7000ef/pathwaysbd.html

Forsyth, D.R. 1999 Group Dynamics. 3rd edition Belmonth, C. A: Wadsworth publishing company.

Hamlin, R.G. 2002 "A study and comparative analysis of managerial and leadership effectiveness in the National Health Service: an empirical factor analytic study within an NHS Trust Service, "Health services management research, 15(4): 1-20. Hawkins K.W 1995. Effects of gender and communication content leadership emergence in small task oriented groups. Small Group Research 26(2) 234-250.

Korabik, K. 2002 Gender leadership and managerial effectiveness. Retrieved August 17, 2006 from: http/www.uoguelph.ca/~kkorabik/433_html Lucas, A. F. 1994. strengthening Departmental Leadership: A Team Guide for Chairs in Colleges and Universities. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.

Okebukola, P. 2002. The State of University Education in Nigeria. Abuja: National Universities Commission (NUC). Osho, O. 1998. Analysis of the Administrative Effectiveness of Principals as perceived by Teachers of Secondary Schools in Edo State. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Delta State University, Abraka.

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