NEEDS TO ADOPT PROFESSIONAL ETHICAL STANDARD IN SECRETARIAL PRACTICE IN THE ERA OF ICT FOR OPTIMUM PRODUCTIVITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

The study was designed to determine the need to adopt professional ethical standard in secretarial practice in the era of ICT for optimum productivity in organizations. The population of the study consisted of 182 respondents which is made up of Office Technology and Management lecturers programme and managers of organizations in Asaba metropolis in Delta State. A structured questionnaire which was validated by three experts guided the study. Cronbach Alpha technique was used to establish the reliability of the instrument before it was administered on the respondents. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. A 4 point rating scale was used as a guide for respondents. The boundary real limit was that any item with mean value of 2.50 was regarded as agreed, while any mean item with mean value of less than 2.50 was regarded as disagreed. It was concluded that respondents agreed that there is need to adopt ethical standard for secretarial practice, also that there is the need to be aware of special skills for secretarial practice in the era of ICT for optimum productivity. It was recommended among others that professional secretaries should be abreast with ethical standard and special skills required to excel in the ICT era for optimum productivity in organizations.

PROFESSIONAL DEMANDS OF LECTURING JOB ON HUMAN CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: IMPLICATION FOR RAISING PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS EDUCATORS IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

The place of lecturing job in achieving the nation’s developmental strides through skilled manpower development is critical and exigent. Accordingly, the need for professional development of lecturers who occupy key academic positions in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, for effective and efficient performance of their professional roles, and in subsequent realization of the nation’s developmental aspirations is a worthy investment. Thus, the main thrust of this paper was to carefully examine the professional demands of lecturing job on human capacity development and its implication on raising professional business educators in Nigerian tertiary institutions, via education policies and relevant literature reviews. Human capacity development in this sense is the consistent enhancement of knowledge, skills, work attitude, competences and experiences of academic staff of tertiary institutions to enable them perform optimally in their lecturing profession. Achieving the above stated aim was premised on the urgent demand to consistently develop lecturers or business educators’ professional capacity in order to sharpen their professional teaching skills through relevant teacher education and qualification, professional membership affiliation to ensure strict compliance of practice to professional standards, quality research publications for development purposes, utilization of retraining programmes for professional knowledge update, ICT training for adaptive and innovative pedagogical approaches for effective job performance in the new normal. The study finally highlighted a plethora of inhibiting factors confronting professional capacity development of lecturers for optimal performance, and also made a few relevant recommendations.

AN EVALUATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF PUPILS’ EATING HABITS ON THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN THE CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL SYSTEM

The nexus between academic performance, nutrition and eating habit is globally recognized to the extent that it has inspired various strategies such as ‘school feeding programmes’ in many nations including Nigeria. This correlational study was aimed to evaluate the relationship between the eating habits of primary school pupils and their academic performance, using a survey design. Fifty pupils in two intact classes from two schools in rural areas, formed the sample. Data was collected using interviewer-questionnaire, coupled with naturalistic observation, for the eating habits and their results from the term’s examination done within the same periodin the schools. The data was analyzed using SPSS – 23 to determine the correlation coefficients. The results suggest that there is strong relationship between pupils’ eating habits, in terms of frequency of feeding, quality of feeding pattern, and quality of breakfast and their academic performance. In addition, the pupils perceived that eating light breakfast enhances their attention span to learn unlike, skipping of breakfast and eating heavy breakfast. The results of this study provide empirical evidence which can be used to encourage parents in rural areas to provide adequate nutrition for their wards/children to enhance their performance in school as recommended in this paper.

DOES ATTACHMENT STYLE AND GENDER CORRELATE WITH SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AMONG MARRIED UNDERGRADUATES?

The study examined the relationships between attachment style and gender as correlates of subjective well-being among married undergraduates. A total of 210 students from Sociology department in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, participated in the study. Participants consist of 80 males and 130 females. Their age ranged from 18 to 30 years, with mean age of 22.00 years and standard deviation of 1.749. Two instruments were administered for data collection: the Experiences in Close Relationship-Revised (ECR-R) questionnaire which was developed by Fraley, R. C. and Shaver, P. R (2000). Also satisfaction with life scale which was developed by Dennier, E., Emmons, R.A., Larsen, R.J., & Griffin, S., (1985). Statistics deployed was Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient. Result show that the first hypothesis was not confirmed and the second hypothesis was not confirmed at (r = .32,p>.05). Recommendations were made in line with research findings.

EFFECT OF IMPROVISED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON CHEMISTRY STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC RETENTION IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

This study investigated the effect of improvised instructional materials on chemistry students’ academic retention in secondary school. It covered the topics; acids, bases and acid- base reactions. Two research questions and two hypotheses were used to guide the study, relevant literatures were also reviewed. The study was carried out in Awka education zone in Anambra State. The population of the study consists of 8,583 SS1 chemistry students in the zone. The sample size for the study comprised of 192 SS1 chemistry students. The study adopted quasi-experimental design. Four purposively selected co-educational schools were used for the study of which students of chemistry in two schools were assigned to experimental group which received treatment of involvement in teaching chemistry using improvised instructional materials and the other two schools were assigned to control group which were taught using standard instructional materials. Twenty- five (25) Chemistry retention test (CRT) was used as the instrument. The instrument was validated by expert in science education department and educational foundation. CRT reliability was established using Kudar Richardson 20 (KR-20) which yielded reliability coefficient of 0.81. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that, students taught chemistry with improvised instructional materials significantly achieved more than those taught with standard instructional materials. Also, there was high knowledge retention on the experimental group than the control group. There was no interaction effect of gender and type of instructional materials on students’ retention in chemistry. It was recommended that teachers in the teaching field should be trained on the skills of the use of improvised instructional materials. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that the use of improvised instructional materials in teaching of chemistry improve the academic retention of students in chemistry.

EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED LEADERSHIP STYLE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONG NON-TEACHING EMPLOYEES OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

The study examined effects of perceived leadership style and organizational commitment on job satisfaction among non-teaching employees of federal universities in South-East Nigeria. Participants in the study were eight hundred and eighty-four non-teaching employees who were randomly selected from three federal universities in South-East Nigeria. The participants were made up of 323 (36.5%) males and 561 (63.5%) females with age range 22 years to 60 years, mean 35.04 years and standard deviation 9.96. The study deployed three instruments: Multi factor leadership questionnaire (MLQ-5X) developed by Avolio & Bass (1990), Minesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) developed by Weiss, Dawis, England & Lofquist (1967), and Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS) developed by Mowday, Porter & Steers (1979). The study adopted correlation design and data analysis was done using multiple regression analysis Enter method. Hypothesis one result showed that dimension of perceived leadership style (transactional) predicted job satisfaction at B = 1.18**, P< .001, while hypothesis two result showed that organizational commitment significantly and positively predicted job satisfaction at B = .53**, P< .001. Hence, perceived leadership styles and organizational commitment are significant and positive predictors of job satisfaction among non-teaching employees of federal universities in south-east Nigeria. It was recommended that management within federal universities in south-east should adopt transactional leadership style.

BALANCING GENDER ACHIEVEMENT AND KNOWLEDGE RETENTION IN MATHEMATICS USING COMPUTER ANIMATION INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE (CAIP)

The study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of Computer Animation Instructional Package on balancing gender achievement and knowledge retention in mathematics in secondary schools. The study was a quasi-experimental type adopting the pre-test, posttest non-equivalent control design type. The population of the study comprised of all senior secondary 1(SS1) students of Government owned secondary schools in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State. The sample for the study was 225 students from two purposively selected secondary schools consisting of 127 females and 98 males. The instrument for data collection was a researcher made 30-item objective test questions titled “Mathematics achievement Test (MAT)”. It had reliability coefficient of 0.91 determined using Kuder-Richardson (KR21.). The experiment group was taught Surface area and volume of solids using Computer Animation Instructional Package (CAIP) while, the control group was taught the same concept using traditional approach. The data generated was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The result of the study revealed that Computer Animation Instructional Package (CAIP) reduced gender disparity associated with mathematics achievement as there was no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught mathematics using Computer Animation Instructional Package (CAIP). Also there was no significant difference between the posttest and delayed posttest mean achievement scores of students taught mathematics using Computer Animation Instructional Package(CAIP). Based on the result it was recommended that, Mathematics teachers should use Computer Animation Instructional Package (CAIP) to teach mathematics as to reduce gender disparity in mathematics achievement and enhance knowledge retention in secondary schools.

THE ROLE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN REPOSITIONING THE AILING GLOBAL ECONOMY CAUSED BY COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The sudden outbreak of covid-19 pandemic was indeed a phenomenal disaster that crippled the productive sectors and economic activities of nations. The incremental and consequential economic effects placed the global economy on a depressed position, as the world is presently witnessing the greatest economic recession and depression as never experienced in the economic history of the world. The overall aftermath was high business mortality rate, increasing rate of unemployment, reduction in, and irregular payment of workers salaries, high retrenchment of workers, increase in poverty lines leading to organized crimes, and sundry. However, the main thrust of this academic discourse was to examine the role of Business Education (BE) in repositioning the ailing global economy caused by covid-19, via review of related research literature. BE as an academic programme is strategically positioned to inculcate the economic orientation, survival and functional skills necessary in raising the relevant manpower that will in turn serve as key drivers in the repositioning of global economy. In lieu of the above, this study explicates on conceptual clarifications, BE as economic survival strategy, and in global economic repositioning in covid-19 era, issues in BE were also illuminated upon and a few recommendations made.

THE IMPACT OF EXPLORATION ON RESOURCE UTILIZATION AND GOAL FOCUS IN TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY

This research investigated the relationship between Organizational exploration, resource utilization and goal focus in Nigerian Telecommunication firms. The sample for this study consisted of 84 management staff from the four leading Telecommunication giants (MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9 Mobile). The data for this research was collected using the questionnaire method. The Kendall Tau statistical tool was used to test the relationships between the variables under review. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between Exploration and both of Resource utilization and Goal focus. It was concluded based on our statistical analysis that organizational exploration enhances corporate health. More specifically, it was concluded that exploration enhances resource utilization and goal focus. In view of these results and conclusions above, this study recommends that; Managers should acknowledge the importance of exploration in fostering a better resource utilization which will bring about a healthy organization. Employee involvement, especially employees that are opened to change should be encouraged at all organization level.

EFFECT OF INSTITUTIONAL POLICY ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE OF ACADEMIC STAFF OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA

This study determined the effect of institutional policy on employee performance of the academic staff of public universities in South-East, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted. Sample of the study comprises of one thousand seven hundred and eighty Academic Staff of the ten selected Universities in South-East, Nigeria. Data was obtained from questionnaire administered on the sampled population. Data obtained was analyzed with the aid of SPSS version 20.0 that involved a regression analysis. The study findings revealed that institutional policy has positive significant effect on employee performance of the academic staff of public universities in Nigeria. Based on this, the researchers recommended that there is need for government and university authorities to formulate and implement institutional policies that are employee driven and recognizes the peculiarities of academic staff in terms of their physical and psychological needs.