Health, leave opportunities and academic staff performance in public universities in Rivers State

Abstract

The research work investigated the relationship between health services, leave opportunities and academic staff performance in public universities in Rivers State. Two research questions and two hypotheses were answered and tested respectively in the study. The study adopted the correlational design, using 671 academic staff as sample size, from the population of three public universities in Rivers State which comprised of 2,582 academic staff. The sample was selected through multi-stage and simple random sampling technique. The study adopted valid instruments for data collection which were health and Leave Opportunities Scale (HALOS) and Academic Staff Performance Scale (ASPS) whose reliability were determined through Cronbach’s Alpha statistic of: 0.82 and 0.90 respectively. All research questions were answered with Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) while all hypotheses were tested with corresponding test of significance of the correlational coefficient (r) with special z_r-test at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that, there was a positive and high relationship between: health services and academic staff performance; leave opportunities and academic staff performance. Conclusively, health services, leave opportunities had high and positive relationship with academic staff performance in public universities in Rivers State. Based on the findings, the study recommended continuity in the current efforts of the Federal Ministry of Education in general, and the universities’ administrators in particular towards provision of health services and leave opportunities for academic staff to enhance job performances.