Compliance Level of Junior Staff to Work Ethics in Delta State Tertiary Institutions

Rosemary Onyebuchi Osabohien¹, Ijeh Sunday Bomboi², Prof. Egwunyenga Ebele Joyce³

^1,2,3 Delta State University, Abraka

ABSTRACT: This study examined compliance level of junior staff to work ethics in Delta state tertiary institutions. A descriptive survey research design was used to investigate the study. To guide the study, three research hypotheses were raised. Questionnaire tagged “junior staff compliance to work ethics questionnaire” was used to collect data needed for the study. The population of the study was made up of 1,598 junior staff in the selected tertiary institutions out of which a sample of 799 junior staffs representing 50% made up of male and female junior workers was drawn from the population. Data collected were analyzed using ANOVA statistical tool to test the stated hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The researcher’s findings revealed that the level of compliance of junior staff to work ethics is poor in studied tertiary institutions. It is therefore recommended that institution management should ensure that the work environment for their junior staff is conducive and make available working equipment/tools, good working conditions, regular promotion and training of junior staff be organized by institution administrators and heads on the importance of ethical compliance to the organization for junior workers.

KEYWORDS: Compliance, Junior Staff, Work Ethics

INTRODUCTION

Institutions of higher learning, that is tertiary institutions comprise of employees called junior and senior staff who team together to work for a common goal. The junior staff as a matter of fact demands carefulness, especially compliance to work ethics in performing their duties to the institutions for quality services to students and the general public. As posits by Kehinde (2010), for an organization to move forward in the aspect of performance, it is however, important for such an organization to have a good understanding of “ethics”. Generally, the aim of work ethics is to monitor the activities of employees in terms of discharge of duties. Work ethics involve how one feels about his or her job, career or vocation, but also how one does this job or vocation. This involves attitude, behaviour, respects, communication and interaction; how one gets along with others. Work ethics demonstrate the ability and content of a person.

Ethics comes from an individual’s inward feeling which later translates into his or her moral behaviour. Logically, people learn to become accustomed to ethics and moral principles through their upbringing by parents or guidance, socialization, experience and critical reflections on the experiences of the explicit and implicit culture standards (Khalidah, 2010). The scholars further stated that; ethics also can be acquired through religious teaching.

It is the responsibility of each and every employee to understand and demonstrate integrity in the work that is done every day. How employees work within the ethical framework is very important in actualizing the mission and vision of the institution. According to Ananti and Umeifekwem (2012) ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address morality, while in the public sector it addresses the fundamental idea of a public administrator’ role as a “steward” to serve the public. In other words, it means moral justification, consideration for the actions made in the course of completion of the daily assignment in working to provide good services of government and non-profit organizations. Without ethical standard, institutions will not be efficient and productive. This has negative effect on the society that the institutions are set to serve. The public image of an institution is a collection or the sum total of the individual employees’ behaviour in terms of the ethical standard. Consequently, employees are seen to represent well their organizations. This indicates how misconduct from a staff can pose challenge to the entire organization and the society at large.

Rouse (2014) defines compliance as a state in which someone or something is in accordance with established guidelines, specification, or legislation. Compliance however, is a state of being in agreement with established guidelines, specifications, and legislation. Compliance to work ethics constitutes a big challenge in the government sector, especially, tertiary institutions. The manifests in absenteeism, lack of commitment in carrying out assignment. In view of the challenges of compliance to work ethics. Chika and Chidiebele (2011) submit that the present non-challant attitude among Nigerian university academic and non-academic staff is becoming a source of worry for many stakeholders.  Non-academic staffs suppose to report to their offices by 8:00am, but they hardly open these offices by 9:00. Not minding their lateness, when they report and sign in, some low cadre workers among them would disappear to their other private business, some top middle ones move from one office to another chatting, some top ones who are expected to be controlling the junior staffs report at times by eleven under the excuse that they either closed late the previous evening or are held up in the traffic.

The Concept of Work Ethics and Unethical Behaviour

According to Adams and Danny (2007) ethics in the technical-rational tradition flows from the theological tradition and focuses on the individual decision making process seen in the modern and bureaucratic organization and also as a member of any profession. They opined that ethics help to protect the integrity of an organization by helping individuals conform to professional norms. It creates the avenue for people to avoid mistakes and misdeeds that violates the public trust (i.e. tends to reduce or remove corruption and nepotism).  Also it helps the public officials to be accountable to the people. They further stated that public employees should not be allowed to enrich themselves beyond their earned salaries. However, Friedrich (1940) argued that ethics was of necessity a matter of the individual‘s internal standards of conduct which stands as a moral compass that would help to a large extent to guide the public administrator through the morals of ethical dilemmas. Moreso, as government officials serve the public, the public expects that in the discharge of their day to day activities, the public officials should practice equality and fairness. They should operate with openness and fairness in all their dealings with the people in order to ensure that they do what is right before the public Douglas (1952) argued that since the government of this days is too complex, its activities affects the people directly, that we cannot be satisfied with just a moderately decent living on the part of our public officials. Douglas was of the opinion that even a little misbehaviour of a public official can cause significant damage to the entire society.

Ethics comprise rules, standards, principles, or codes providing guidelines for morally sound behaviour (Singh & Twalo, 2014), and unethical behaviour implies the violation of these moral norms (Kaptein, 2008). The ethical culture of any organization is sacrosanct, and its policies are regarded to be a significant component of the organizational culture to account for unethical behaviour (Kaptein, 2011). Poorly implemented organizational management system can have a devastating effect on the morale of workers when internal factors such as discrimination, unfair treatment of workers, and lack of recognition of excellence in exceeding job expectations are not given due consideration (Singh &Twalo, 2014). This can also incite workers to engage in unethical behaviour as they do not feel attached, or even committed to the organization because a culture characterized by mistrust and poor interpersonal relationships between managers and their workers can be a breeding ground for unethical behaviour (Kaptein, 2011 and Greenberg, 2002).

Moreso, Oladunni (2002) observed that it is generally believed that Nigerians have poor attitude to work or do not even like to work. This has resulted in the low productivity in some organizations in Nigeria. This is rooted in the McGregor theory X approach. When people are forced to do things just like Nigerians experience during military era, people tend to be more serious and put in their best and also behave well.

Unethical behaviour is defined as behaviour that brings harm to, that which is illegal or morally unacceptable to the society at large. By this definition, embezzlement, pilfering, lying, corruption, cheating, stealing, divulging official secrets, victimization or interpersonal aggression are examples of such behaviour. However, there is a legal component to ethical behaviour, this does not in any way mean that every action that is legal is ethical. For instance, the action of an employee who takes longer time than necessary to do a job or who makes personal telephone calls on company time may not be considered illegal, but may be regarded unethical by the company or organization. Ethical consideration goes beyond the legality of act, it extends to personal values – the underlying beliefs and attitudes that help determine individual behaviour (Ogbuehi, 1998). In practice, therefore, ethical behaviour is what is accepted as “good” and “right” as opposed to “bad” or “wrong” in the context that is governing moral code of any given industry (Chaloupka, 1987). Comparing morality to ethics, the difference is that morality is universally held belief in certain values and norms, while ethics is a local matter that seeks agreement among people that certain beliefs and values are worth holding. Furthermore, ethics is domain-specific.

Unethical behaviour of employees in the workplace not only threatens the reputation of the affected organizations, but also has a devastating effect on these organizations’ ability to render quality services to its customers and other stakeholders (Singh & Twalo, 2015). Unethical behaviour in Nigerian organizational setting is common. It is as old as Nigeria as a sovereign nation. Unethical behaviour in Nigerian employees is rooted in our activities of the colonial masters from whom Nigerian employees copied. For instance, in the pre-colonial era, many ethnic groups in Nigeria were organized into different political and autonomous societies called villages (Geschiere, 1999). But when the colonialists came, they settled in designated areas for trade and administrative conveniences and established formal organizations. The natives were recruited into these organizations and were paid salaries. This system became attractive and made people from diverse ethnic groups move to the settlement areas in search of jobs in the newly established organizations. In order to realize the goals of these organizations and maximize, the colonialists formulated certain accepted rules of the organizations. These rules were made to guide employees’ behaviour towards achieving the organizational goals (Toure, 2003).

The native Nigerian, employees no sooner than later, realized that there existed discrepancies between their inputs and their rewards. To reduce this inequality arising from input-outcome discrepancies and strongly resist the perceived exploitative tendencies of the colonialists, Nigerian employees at this time decided to follow some unethical behaviour such as embezzlement, pilfering which earned them handsome reward (Bichi, 2006). At independence in Nigeria, the employees had imbibed the Westernized managerial culture, which equipped them with the capability and knowledge to manage already existing formal organizations bequeathed to them by the colonialists. Shortly after independence, many of these organizations were indigenized, this afforded Nigerians full autonomy and control over these organizations.

Nature of Work Ethics in the Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

According to (Ogunna 2007) negative attitude to work among the employees are manifested in the following ways:

There is Wide Spread Lateness to Duty

Offices open at 8.00am, many of the employees at the tertiary intuitions those in the rural areas, report to work at about 10.00am to 11.00 am and sometimes leave very early. Some of the employees at the rural areas are now full time farmers while those in the city engage in one business or the other. It is pertinent to note that even when some officials report late to the office, they also engage in long conversation; loitering and truancy. They also abandon their duties which militate against achieving the goals of the institution.

Absenteeism and Abandonment of one’s Duty

There have been high rate of absenteeism and abandonment of duty among employees throughout the country right from the colonial era till date. Notably in Nigeria, many officials are in the habit of abandoning their official duties in pursuance of their private businesses. These officials claim that the reason for this behavoiur includes; poor salaries, lack of work incentives, poor working environments and  lack of training among others. This negative attitude of workers retards the effort of both the federal and state governments to provide for the basic needs of the Nigerian masses in the rural areas.

Indiscipline among Employees

Achebe (1983) defined indiscipline as the failure to submit ones desire and actions to the restraint of orderly social conduct in recognition of the rights and desires of others. Also, Ogunna (2007) defined indiscipline as a situation where a public officer fails to conform to the norms and regulation  of an organization. In Nigeria, tertiary institution workers break lay down rules and regulations and the financial memorandum at will without questioning. This singular act makes it difficult in enhancing high productivity among council officials; hence there is low productivity among employees

Lack of Dedication to Duty among Employees: Common among employees in the tertiary institutions, is lack of dedication and total commitment to duty. It is worrisome to point out here that many of the workers fail to understand the reasons why they should put in all their effort towards achieving the aim of establishing department of institution. Rather than being committed in the discharge of their duties, the employees of the institutions exhibits different forms of negative work ethics such as lateness, absenteeism, malingering, bribery and corruption. The employees of the institution who are in the village readily became full time farmers while those in the cities turn themselves into full time business men and women.

The Predisposing Factors responsible for Unethical Behaviour

These factors are classified into three categories:

• Individual factors
• The organizational practices, and
• The environmental factors.

Individual factors or Variables: Individuals usually will always grow up with other members of the society where they internalize the norms and values of the group members. In the world of work, the story is not different.  An employee comes to the workplace with his/her needs, desires, expectations, cultural values, and idiosyncrasies. Personal experiences and background affect the way individual perceives and obeys the work ethics. Family needs (financial and otherwise) contribute to a large extent in influencing employee’s ethical conduct in any given organization. Employee whose moral values contradict that of the company’s ethical standard would always strive to maximize self- interests at the expense of the organizations’ overall interest. Many researchers (Ugwu, 2009; Aquino and Reed, 2002; Summer, Welsh and Gubman, 2009; Lim, 2002 and Ijeh, 2013) have studied the predictors of unethical workplace behaviour. Results have shown that moral identity, large family size, age and organization’s formal and informal ethical practices influence unethical behaviour.

Organizational Practices: The activities of the employers may violate the psychological contract entered into with employees. For instance, when employees perform their duties to the organization in return for rewards at the end of the month and the employers fail to reward workers in terms of their salaries and entitlements, or when workers stagnate in one grade level with little or no prospects for advancement, then this can give room for employees to circumvent the rule of law and device survival strategies without any ethical consideration (Ugwu, 2009; Bichi, 2006 and Ijeh, 2022).

The Environmental Factors: Organizations are microcosm of the larger environmental contexts. Organizations operate in external environments composed of competitors, government laws and regulations, social norms and values (Ogbuehi, 1998). In order to maximize profits and survive in the competitive markets, organizations have embarked on some unethical practices such as setting targets for their employees, irrespective of the means by which these employees reach these targets. An examples can be typified by the activities of some of the “second generation” banks where employees in the marketing sections are required to hit” certain financial targets or face certain disciplinary measures as the case may be.

Managing Work Ethics in Tertiary Institutions

The report of the Public Management Committee (PUMA) according to Ananti and Umeifekwem (2012:383-385) lists the following principles for managing ethics in the public service:

1. Ethical standards for public service should be clear: this implies that management should make sure that public servants are educated on the work ethics of where they work. This will enable them to know what is required of them in the discharge of their duties. This is done by making available a brief published statement of the basic ethical standards and principles. When employees are educated on the organizational ethical standards it leads to efficiency and high performance, and a shared understanding between the government, and the community that they serve.
2. Ethical standards should be reflected in the legal framework: as the legal framework serves as the basis for communicating the minimum obligatory standards and principles of behaviors among public servants, there is need for the existence of laws and regulations that will provide the framework for guidance, investigation, disciplinary action, and prosecution of erring public servants.

• Ethical guidance for public servants: Ethical guidance and internal consultation mechanism should however be made available to public servants to enable them apply basic ethical standards in their workplaces. There should be professional socialization which helps in the development of the necessary judgment and skills which enables the public servant to apply ethical principles in concrete circumstances. Training will go a long way in inculcating ethical awareness and will help develop essential skills for ethical analysis and moral reasoning.

1. Public servants should know their rights and obligations when exposing wrongdoings: according to PUMA reports, for public servants to perform their functions with all fairness, they should be made to know their rights and obligations in terms of suspected wrongdoings within the public service. These rules and procedures should be clear for officials of the public service to follow. Public servants should be made to know the extent of protection the law can accord them in case of any breach.
2. Demonstration and Promotion of Ethical Conduct: in order to promote acceptable ethical conducts among public servants, the PUMA reports stressed the need for the management of organizations to provide adequate incentives to the employees which will in turn help in enhancing good ethical behavior. The management should provide good working environment with the basic working tools and as well ensure effective performance assessment that will enhance public service values and good ethical standards. Also to ensure the maintenance of a promising workforce among the employees, managers must provide a consistent leadership and serve as role models in terms of their dealings with politicians and other public servants and the general public.
3. Transparency in decision making process: There should be transparency in all government dealings and the legislature should ensure that they perform the oversight function to checkmate the activities of government agencies and people should have access to public information.

• Adequate accountability mechanism for enhanced productivity: In order toensure efficient delivery of social services to the people, public servants should be accountable to the public for all their actions. This means total compliance to lay down rules and ethical standards so as to achieve stated objectives. The accountability mechanisms to be adopted should provide adequate controls and also make provisions for flexible management.
• There should be adequate procedures and sanctions to deal with misconduct: there should be mechanisms for detecting and investigating any act of wrong doings such as corruption as part of measures to enhance ethical conducts among public servants. This will include procedures for monitoring, reporting, investigating any breach of public service rules, and to as well to give appropriate sanctions to serve as deterrent. It is then advised that managers should take care in exercising these powers.

1. Public service conditions and human resources management: The process of recruitment, promotions, transfers, discipline, training, adequate compensation, etc. should be transparent so as to create room for good ethical conduct. Merit should be given priority and the guiding principles in any management decision so as to promote integrity in the public service in Nigeria.
2. Compliance to work ethics: in order for employees to work in harmony with management, the employees must conform to organizational rules and regulations. Brehm (2002) defines conformity as the propensity to amend our perception, opinions or conduct in ways that are consistent with group norms. According to Ogbebor (2009), compliance is a type of conformity. He goes further to define compliance as ”a change in internal behavior, which is opposed to a real attitude, which is generally regarded as psychology as ‘private acceptance’. Compliance is the ability of the employees to be submissive to the rules and regulations. The American Healthcare Executives compliance program (2014), in ensuring compliance to work ethics presents the following guides for compliance program and compliance office:

Factors That Facilitate Work Ethics

Amelia (2009) contends that, a strong work ethic is capable of improving one’s career. She presents five factors that demonstrate a strong work ethic, and argues further that, a strong work ethic is vital to a company achieving its goals. All employees, from the rank of CEO to least worker, should posses good work ethics to keep the organization functioning at its peak. The factors that promote strong work ethics according to Amelia include:

Integrity: Integrity pertains to all aspects of an employee’s job. An employee with integrity fosters attracts good relationships with clients, coworkers and supervisors. Coworkers value the employee’s ability to give feedback. Clients do trust the employee’s advice. Supervisors rely on the employee’s high moral standards, trusting him for good performance.

Sense of Responsibility: A strong sense of responsibility affects how an employee works and the amount of work being done. When the employee feels personally responsible for his or her job performance, he or she shows up on time, puts in the best effort and completes projects to the best of his or her ability.

Emphasis on Quality: Some employees do only the bare minimum, just enough to keep their job intact. Employees with a strong work ethic care about the quality of their work. They do their best to produce great work, not merely chum out what is needed. The employee have to be committed to quality work to improve the company’s overall quality output.

Discipline: An employee with a high level of discipline stays focused on his goals to complete his assignments. These employees show a high level of dedication to the company, always ensuring they do their best to promote quality output.

Sense of Teamwork: Most employees have high sense of teamwork to meet a company’s goals. An employee with a high sense of teamwork helps the team meet its goals and deliver quality work. These employees respect their peers and help where they can, making better collaborations.

Measures to Maintaining Ethical Compliance in the Workplace

Nigerian managers have enormous role to play in maintaining high ethical standards in their firms. Some of the most important efforts in this area should involve:

Clarification of Formal Ethical Behaviour: Employees may violate formal ethical codes because of the ambiguous nature of the clause contained in the codes of conducts. In many organizations, for instance, formal ethical codes are written in ambiguous manner, using legal terms that are not simple to understand by any less educated employees. In this regard, ethics are violated due to ignorance of the demands of the ethics, although it is stated that ignorance of law is no excuse for its violation. In this respect, formal codes of conduct in work organizations should be written in clear and simple language so that employees can easily read and comprehend them with minimal difficulty.

Ethics training: Many organizations are required to design training programs in order to help them incorporate the organization high ethical standards into their daily behaviour. This could be achieved by organizing periodic seminars, workshops, and conferences to the employees where issues bordering on how management would deal with ethical dilemmas are discussed. Many of these dilemmas arise as a result of time pressures and/or pressures from their co-workers or families. Thus, ethics training should be designed in order to equip the management with high ethical standards so that they will be able to deal with ethical issues even when under pressure.

Whistleblower protection: Whistleblowers are persons who expose the misdeeds of others in organization in an attempt to preserve ethical standards and protect against wasteful, harmful, or illegal acts (Ogbuehi, 1998). Whistleblowers are most of the time faced with the risk of impaired career progress, termination of appointment, suspension, and other forms of organizational retaliation. It is even more appalling that Nigeria legal system offers little protection for the whistle blowers against “retaliatory action” from the superior officers. Such lack of legal protection prevents potential whistle blowers from exposing the unethical behaviours of the co-workers and superiors in the workplace. Worse still, some organizational barriers in the form of strict chain of command make it difficult for subordinates to bypass the superior and report the superiors’ misdeed to the appropriate quarter. In some cases, where an employee reports informally the unethical behaviour of the superior officer to the management, he may be requested to put it in writing and of course route the letter through the immediate supervisor whose misdeeds are being questioned. Such organizational practices expose the identity of the whistle blower and, in addition, provides unethical employee with the fore knowledge of what awaits him. In this regard, employees whose ethical questionable activities would be investigated might begin to cover their misdeeds as they prepare their defence.

Management Support for Ethical Behaviour: Low-level employees model their behaviour after their superiors. Management at the top echelon of the organization should set standards for the lower-level employees. For instance, when top management use organizational resources for personal pleasure, the lower-level employees will imitate them and may even do worse things. This implies that an employee may be honest and of high moral character, but the undesirable behaviours of superiors and high level-management may cause them to imitate the unethical practices of others or even adopt some themselves.

Maintenance of Strong Ethical Culture: Every organization has culture peculiar to it. Many of them are rooted in solid and consistent ethical code of conduct. Employee compliance to these codes of conduct is enforced differently by these organizations. In some organizations, compliance is compulsory and deviants are treated with severe sanctions, while in others, they are treated with levity. When organizations are consistently frowning at employees who violate the ethical codes, apply sanctions and punishment, and/or terminate them, depending on the gravity of the offence, compliance becomes high.

Statement of the Problem   

In most tertiary institutions in Nigeria, especially Delta state, there is a major challenge of unsatisfactory performance there is increasing concern over the non-compliance to ethical standard among junior staff in tertiary institutions (lateness to work, truancy and duty abandonment). Against this background, Ifedili (2003), Obikeze (2011) stated that some of the tertiary institutions are faced with numerous challenges such as inappropriate and unethical behaviour. Management is also faced with the challenge of evaluating the effect of this critical behaviour on the performance of such staff which has led to the managing the affairs of the institutions without interest on whether their actions are right or wrong to which employees understands the terms and conditions which their job demands.

With the rising trend of irregularities such as lateness, absenteeism, corrupt practices and unethical behaviors among junior workers, there is need to manage the staff of higher institutions in Delta state in such a way that the institutions become unique models for other organization workers to adhere strictly to work ethics to promote organizational goals. It is against this background therefore that this study intends to examine the level of junior staff compliance to work ethics in Delta state tertiary institutions.

Research Questions

1) What are the compliance levels of junior staff to work ethics in Delta State tertiary institutions?

2) What are the factors that determine satisfactory compliance level to work ethics in Delta State

tertiary institutions?

3) What measures do institution need to improve compliance to work ethics in Delta State

tertiary institution?

Hypotheses

The following hypothesis were formulated and tested:

1. There is no significant difference among Delta State tertiary institution junior staffs on the level of compliance to work ethics.
2. There is no significant difference among Delta State tertiary institution junior staffs on the factors that determine satisfactory compliance level to work ethics
3. There is no significant difference among Delta State tertiary institution junior staffs on the measures taken to improve compliance level to work ethics.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study is a descriptive survey which adopted the ex-post-facto research design. The researcher used questionnaire in gathering data about junior staffs and compliance to work ethics in Delta State Tertiary Institutions. The population of the study comprised of all junior staff in the selected tertiary institutions in Delta state.  Delta state university Abraka has 970, University of Science and Technology, Ozoro has 240 and University of Delta,  Agbor has 388. The total population is 1,598 junior staff in the institutions.

The sample used for this study was seven hundred and ninety-nine (799) junior staff of the tertiary institutions respectively selected from a population of 1,598 junior staffs the sample represents 50% of the entire population. The sampling procedure used was the simple randomly sampling technique to select the 799 from the population of 1,598 in the three selected tertiary institutions in Delta state.

Research Design

This study is a descriptive survey which adopted the ex-post-facto research design. The researcher used questionnaire in gathering data on   junior staff and compliance to work ethics in Delta State Tertiary Institutions.

Population of the Study

The population of the study comprised all junior staff in the selected tertiary institutions in Delta state.  Delta state university Abraka has 970, University of Science and Technology, Ozoro has 240 and University of Delta, Agbor has 388. The total population is 1,598 junior staff in the institutions.

Sample and Sampling Technique

The sample used for this study was seven hundred and ninety-nine (799) junior staff of the tertiary institutions respectively selected from a population of 1,598 junior staffs the sample representing 50% of the entire population. The sampling procedure used was the simple randomly selecting 799 from the population of 1,598 in the three tertiary institutions in Delta state. This sample is random because each respondent has an equal chance of being selected.

Method of Data Analysis

The data collected were carefully analyzed; percentage was used to provide information for answering the research questions, while ANOVA statistical tool was employed in testing the   hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

Presentation of Result

Hypotheses 1

There is no significant difference among junior staff of the Tertiary institutions on the level of compliance to work ethics in Delta State.

Table 8: ANOVA statistics for significant association among junior staff of the Tertiary institution on the level of Compliance to work ethics

1. F-crit(31,2)_0.05­ = 3.29

Post Hoc Tests

From the table 8 above, the F-calculated value 110.509 is greater than the F-critical value 3.29 (p<0.05). Based on this, the null hypothesis is rejected. The implication is that there is a statistical significant difference between universities junior staff on the level of work ethics in Delta state. A post hoc analysis revealed that this significant difference arise between the universities. The result hence indicated that there was a significant difference between the tertiary institutions in Delta State at (p<0.05) level of significance.

Hypothesis Two

There is no significant difference among tertiary institutions junior staff on the factors that determine satisfactory compliance level to work ethics

Table 9: ANOVA statistics for significant difference among tertiary institutions Junior Staff on the Factors that Determine Satisfactory Compliance to Work Ethics

1. F-crit(31,2)_0.05­ = 3.29

Post Hoc Tests

In the output presented above the F-calculated 16.564 is greater than F-critical value 3.29 (p<0.05). Based on this result, the null hypothesis is rejected. The results suggest that there is a statistical significant difference among universities staff on the factors that determine satisfactory compliance to work ethics. A post hoc analysis revealed that this significant difference arise between tertiary institutions. The result hence indicated that there was a significant difference between the tertiary institutions at (p<0.05) level of significance.

Hypothesis Three

There is no significant difference among tertiary institution junior staff on the measures to improve compliance level to work ethics.

Table 12:  ANOVA statistic of significant difference among tertiary institutions Junior Staff on the Measure to Improve Compliance Level of Work Ethics.

1. F-crit(47,2)_0.05­ = 3.19

Post Hoc Tests

From the table 12 above, the F-calculated value 5561.980 is greater than the F-critical value 3.19 (p>0.05). Based on this, the null hypothesis is rejected. The implication is that there is a statistical significant difference between measures to improve compliance level to work ethics among tertiary institutions. A post hoc analysis revealed that this significant difference arise between tertiary institutions. The result hence indicated that there was a significant difference between the tertiary instituions at (p<0.05)  level of significance.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

The results of the study are discussed in line with the issues investigated. The result of this study shows that the level of compliance of junior staff to work ethics is poor in tertiary institutions covered by this study.  It also shows that most of the junior staffs are not committed to their assigned duty and their responds to designated assignments is low.  The finding of this study are in line with that of Ogunna (2007) who stated that Nigeria is a country endowed with abundant human and material resources needed to attain her developmental initiatives and that these resources are not fully exploited, harnessed and utilized so as to achieve rapid National development due to negative attitude to work by the Nigerian workers. He lamented that the work ethics of the Nigerian workers is among the lowest in the world today.

It was revealed that conducive work environment, availability of working equipment/tools, good working conditions, regular promotion and regular training of junior staff were identified as factors that determine satisfactory compliance to work ethics. This position is in line with Amelia (2009) who contends that, a strong work ethic is capable of improving one’s career. She presents five factors that demonstrate a strong work ethic to include work environment, availability of equipment/tools and good working conditions, regular promotion and regular training and argues further that, a strong work ethic is vital to a company achieving its goals.

Some of the measures to improve compliance to work ethics by junior staff are; adequate instruction on classification formal ethical behaviour, regular training on organizational ethics, whistleblower protection, management support for good ethical behaviour and compliance and appropriate reward of excellence, proper monitoring of staff with respect to ethical compliance by management, supervisors/administrators strict compliance to work ethics and regular staff promotion. These measures are vital for effective and enhanced productivity among junior staff. This finding is in line with that of   Ogbuehi, (1998) who stated that whistleblowers are persons who expose the misdeeds of others in organization in an attempt to preserve ethical standards and protect against wasteful, harmful, or illegal acts). He stated that they are most of the time faced with the risk of impaired career progress, termination of appointment, suspension, and other forms of organizational retaliation. It is even more appalling that Nigeria legal system offers little protection for the whistle blowers against “retaliatory action” from the superior officers. Such lack of legal protection prevents potential whistle blowers from exposing the unethical behaviours of the co-workers and superiors in the workplace. Ogbuehi also mentioned that in some organizations, compliance is compulsory and deviants are treated with severe sanctions, while in others, they are treated with levity. When organizations are consistently frowning at employees who violate the ethical codes, apply sanctions and punishment, and/or terminate them, depending on the gravity of the offence, compliance becomes high. Conversely, when top management engages in behaviour that is unethical or when there is a double standard in their actions, subordinates disobey the rule of law and rationalize for their unethical conduct.

CONCLUSION

From this study, it could be concluded that the level of compliance of junior staff to work ethics is poor in among the tertiary institutions covered by this study.  From the study it can also be deduced that most of the junior staffs are not committed to their assigned duty and their response to designated assignments is low hence effort geared towards the proper functioning of this aspect of the organization becomes futile.

The study also revealed that conducive work environment, availability of working equipment/tools, good working conditions, regular promotion and regular training of junior staff were identified as factors that determine satisfactory compliance to work ethics, advocating that when these factors are well checked, there will be tremendous progress in the organization. It was also observed that low compliance to work ethics can result to compulsory retirement whereas low ethical compliance can lead to withdrawal of benefits and gratuity of worker since most workers careless about their performance level and dignified service.

It can be concluded from the study that the cause of low compliance to work ethics among junior staff of Delta state tertiary institutions was high. This implies that unconducive work environment, culture variations, lack of involvement or subordinates in the process of decision making, colonial mentality, late payment of staff salaries and allowances, quest for material wealth among employees, bribery and corruption, lateness to duty which results in manipulation of time book records and also absenteeism and abandonment of duty are major causes of low compliance of work ethics among junior staff.

From the foregoing, it is believed that measures to improve compliance to work ethics by junior staff are; adequate instruction on classification formal ethical behaviour, regular training on organizational ethics, whistleblower protection, management support for good ethical behaviour and compliance and appropriate reward of excellence, proper monitoring of staff with respect to ethical compliance by management, supervisors/administrators strict compliance to work ethics and regular staff promotion.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The study has revealed the enumerated findings concerning the compliance level of junior staff to work ethics in Delta state tertiary institutions. The following recommendations were made:

1. The government should ensure that appropriate disbursement of allocated funds for payment of staff salaries is made to encourage staff of tertiary institutions and other workers.
2. Delta state tertiary institutions management should ensure that the work environment for their junior staff is conducive and make available working equipment/tools, good working conditions, regular promotion and regular training of junior staff.
3. Management of tertiary institutions in Delta state should ensure that their junior staffs are granted job security and reduced level of undue retirement and retrenchment.
4. Management of Delta state tertiary institutions should reward and committed workers for excellence and payment of gratuity to worker careful of their performance level and dignified service.
5. Regular training sessions and seminars/workshop should be organized by institution administrators and heads on the importance of ethical compliance to the organization for junior workers.

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