Analysis of psychological contracts and discretionary behaviour in Nigerian Academics: The role of Academic Staff Union of Universities
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Date
2022
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Journal of Economic Behaviour
Abstract
In the history of tertiary education in Nigeria, there had been incessant strikes to draw the
Government’s attention to a range of problems that have continued to hinder the education
sector. Despite the various phases of industrial action, embarked on by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU), this action has not been able to bring a permanent solution
to its demand. As a result, the study examines the analysis of psychological contracts in
Nigerian academics: the role of academics’ staff union of Universities. The study was
anchored on social contract theory to explain how every human competes with each other
for the resources they desire. in-depth interview (IDI) was employed to collect qualitative
data from two management staff members (from the registry unit) and two members of the
Academic Staff Union (from the ASUU leadership). Thematic analysis was used to
transcribe, identify, and analyze the data collected from IDI. The qualitative findings
revealed that university academics were dissatisfied with their working conditions,
underfunding, shortages of facilities and equipment, and, most importantly, the quality of
service, which had resulted in multiple industrial unrests, brain-drain, and plans to
transfer high-skilled academics to other universities. The study found that the Breach of
Psychological Contracts (BPC) affected academics in a variety of ways, with a preference
for Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) and Deviant Workplace Behaviour
(DWB). Unfortunately, the proclivity for DWB surpassed the proclivity for OCB. It was
recommended that building psychological linkages between organizational and staff goals
should help universities integrate employee behavior
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Keywords
Psychological contracts, citizenship behavior, deviant behavior, ASUU
Citation
a. Aliyu, M.O. & Ambali, T. T. (2022). Analysis of psychological contracts and discretionary behaviour in Nigerian Academics: The role of Academic Staff Union of Universities. International Journal of Economic Behaviour, 12(1), 5-25