Workload and lecturers’ job satisfaction in Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
The centrality of education to issues of national development is incontrovertible, the world over.In line with this assertion, education in Nigeria is no longer regarded as a private enterprise, but a huge government undertaking.To this extent, the national policy document on education espoused by the Federal Government of Nigeria describes education as an instrument for effecting national development [1].Education, therefore, is not only seen as a vehicle for promoting social reform, but as resources for building a robust and well developed nation.Now that education has been recognized as a sensitive issue and a factor for development of the nation, Nigeria cannot afford to toy with the education of her citizenry because the wealth of a nation is a function of the available human resources enabled by education and not the abundance of natural resources.Apart from the position of the national policy on education in Nigeria, the ISSN: 2089-9823  Workload and lecturers' job satisfaction in Adekunle Ajasin University… (Osifila, Gboyega Israel) 417 quantitative and qualitative development of education in the country is largely due to the insatiable desires by parents, guardians, individuals and national group interest, who their intense ambition see education as a qualification to earn good income and contribute to societal drive towards egalitarianism.By all standard, these individuals and Nigerian shared in the idea that economically, socially, politically, scientifically and technologically, education holds the key [1].In Nigeria, educational system is categorized into three; the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.The tertiary is the highest and the schooling given after secondary level in institution like the university.At the tertiary level of education, high level of manpower training takes place which contribute to national development.Therefore, skilled manpower such as academic staff and administrative staff perform different functions at this level of education especially in the university in order to make all students part of a general program of all round improvement and development.
However, due to the continuous upward trend on university enrolment, prompted by growing demand for education at this level by most citizens of school age, students' population has increased tremendously and this has impacted on the population of individual classrooms.Lecturers are presumably being stretched owing to the annual increase in the number of enrolment resulting in over bearing tasks and responsibilities for the academic staff in terms of numbers of courses to be taught per semester, numbers of periods per week, processing of results, setting of examination questions, examination invigilation, marking of examination scripts, result processing, teaching practice supervision, attendance at project, dissertation and thesis defense and supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate research work.All these may have increased their workload considerably and probably impacting negatively on their job satisfaction manifesting in seemingly poor attitude to teaching, aggression towards students and delay in processing of results.
Workload refers to the quantity and intensity of job assignments.Simply put, the core consideration in workload could be seen in the quantity of work being assigned and the degree of efforts to be exerted before completing the work.A manageable workload is likely to keep any hardworking lecturer motivated and satisfied.It could equally enable him/her to perform his/her duty to the best of his/her ability and become more productive.Many areas of workload have been observed to be more tasking to lecturers.These include marking of examination scripts, supervision of research work, processing of results and teaching of courses.Marking of examination scripts is a direct or indirect lecturers' involvement in marking undergraduates' and postgraduates' examination booklets.Lecturers are to ensure that every examination scripts have the correct mark so that all students will get the correct grade.Some exams are marked on paper and some are marked automatically by a computer.But for any exam, every students work is marked in the same way.Supervision of research work is the assistance and guidance that lecturers provide for undergraduates and postgraduates in the course of writing their project, dissertation and thesis.The need for high level devotion, in terms of obligation of time and energy on the lecturers' side during research supervision cannot be over-emphasized.In all, supervision of research work by lecturers is aimed at; a. Providing students with direction towards compliance with rules and procedures of research reporting.b.Helping students to adhere strictly with time schedules for research writing.c.Making students comply with time schedule for research defence.d.Ensuring that students are properly guided in using every resources needed for timely completion of research work.One duty area expected of any lecturer is the compilation, computation and processing of students' results.What is obvious is that processing of results is statutorily done every semester.It should be noted, however, that this undertaking could be put lecturers under some form of stress and highly demanding.The registration of students and computation of examination results require some form of diligence from the lecturers usually referred to as Course Adviser.To ease this duty, some universities have employed the use of Information Technology (IT) techniques in resolving issues around compilation, computation and processing of result.This process, no doubt, would assist efficient and effective processing of results.Teaching of courses allocated by head of departments is another area of workload for lecturers.This involves preparing and delivering lectures to students by the lecturer.Many at times, lecturers are allocated courses to be taught across all levels of their department, and even other department including faculty courses allocated by the faculty head.
Lecturer's job satisfaction reflect the degree of lecturer's inner appreciation with regards to how they feel about the quality of treatment they are receiving on the job and the benefits that may accrue in future.In other words, job satisfaction entails the monetary and non-monetary paybacks that comes from work.It is not the money, benefits or vacations; it is doing the work itself.It signifies the amount of agreement between one's expectations of the job and the rewards the job provides.
Over the years, it has been observed that some of the output from the university system are referred to as half-baked product, that is, they do not have what it takes intellectually and skilfully to be employed in the labor market.Educational stakeholders, such as employers of labor, parents and the society as a whole have linked this problem of poor output to lecturers' level of job satisfaction.It appears lecturers are not satisfied with their job due to excessive workload caused by number of periods per week, number of courses to be taught per semester, marking of examination scripts, teaching practice supervision, project, dissertation and thesis supervision, attendance at seminars, and processing of results, among others.Most times, lecturers complain of insufficient time to study and embark on educational researches to enrich their knowledge.It seems lecturers spend quality time performing administrative duties and attending to student problems.This may be negatively impacting their satisfaction on the job.This study is therefore carried out to investigate the relationship between workload and lecturers' job satisfaction in Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.
The concept of workload have been defined in different ways as perceived by different scholars, but all pointing at the same direction.Summarily, workload could be seen as the totality of duties statutorily assigned to individual to perform.What constitute heavy, moderate or low workload may probably be based individuals' level of competence and energy in relations to the task at hand."Workload can also be classified as quantitative (the amount of work to be done) or qualitative (the difficulty of the work)'' [2] and also as "the amount of work that has to be done by a particular person or organization'' [3].
Workload can also be described as the process through which energy is exerted on a given assignment in order to fulfil the expected end result.This application of energy cuts across all professions and fields.Every profession has its peculiar which has within it the application one form of efforts or the other.In these and related uses of the word, workload therefore relates to the quantity and quality work + load, that is, the quantity of work done with the level of energy required to do it [4].Workload, according to Akob [5] as "all activities that involved lecturers' time either directly or indirectly with professional duties, responsibilities and interests''.Relating to lecturing, workload refers to the entire duration a lecturer engages in classroom interactions with students and other schedules given to other official assignments which may be performed while in school environment or when outside the school.Lecturers' responsibilities could include teaching, students' advisor, file management, processing of students' results, attendance at academic and administrative meetings and any other responsibilities expected of a lecturer [6].
The definitions ascribes to the concept of job satisfaction is as many as the authors who attempted to define it.Job satisfaction as the realization of fulfilment of expectations being enjoyed by individuals performing job activities and the expected rewards [7].Job satisfaction is an emotional state that is happy or positive emotions derived from the assessment of a person's job or work experience [8].The perception of employees' perception of how good the job they do provide things that are considered important for them is seen as job satisfaction.Similarly, job satisfaction is a sentiment that can induce one's positive or negative attitude towards one's duties and assigned responsibilities when at work [9] and that it is imperative to understand that in the concept of job satisfaction, what can motivate are numerous and what lead to one's satisfaction may differ from others.More specifically, job satisfaction can be summarized as the employee's belief, perception and feelings emanating from the content and context of their job which in turn influence their job attitude.
According to Smith and Mistry [10] job satisfaction is a pleasant mood that emanates from an employee's opinion of accomplishing the anticipated essentials or satisfaction.Measuring job satisfaction reveals a hydra-headed dimension of attitude which is made up of the approach in terms of remuneration, promotions, and the content and context of work environment.Employee who shows high job satisfaction may have liked the job, whereas, employees who demonstrates low job satisfaction may have disliked the job.Therefore, it can be concluded that job satisfaction reveals employee's affirmative retort toward the innumerable areas of a job.Satisfaction on the job would improve job performance and can be used as basis to predict the difference between employee's anticipation about job consequences and what is offered on the job.Studies by Fredman and Doughney [11] revealed that factors within and outside the employee would influence job satisfaction.The peculiar nature of every higher institution of learning determines the levels of job satisfaction that may be experienced.According to Bentley, et al. [12], ''Japanese academics, for example, feel highly satisfied with their job, but are highly stressed at the same time''.
As contained in the National Policy on Education in Nigeria [1], lecturers in tertiary institutions of learning are expected to be engaged in quality teaching, research and community development.The core academic duties and responsibilities expected of lecturers in the university includes the following, among others: preparing and delivering lectures, designing examinations templates and managing students' results [13].Other duties and responsibilities includes, tutoring, laboratory supervision, clinical work, exam invigilation, uploading of results, teaching practice supervision, supervision of both undergraduate and postgraduate project/dissertation/thesis respectively.In addition, lecturers are also expected to carry out researches and publish empirical and scholarly articles in local and international journals.In the aspect of conducting research, lecturers could determine where and what to carry out their studies bearing in mind the expectations of the institution and what would elevate their academic prowess.The institutions where they ISSN: 2089-9823  Workload and lecturers' job satisfaction in Adekunle Ajasin University… (Osifila, Gboyega Israel) 419 work, in line with its general dictates on academic, will assist lecturers with such resources needed to help in the research endeavors.
Etor [14] concluded that school administrators should create an enabling environment for lecturers to work and alleviate work that are too strenuous, this will help to eliminate frustration and feeling of failure.It is believed that situation of minimal task, most employees will have the sense of fulfilment and job satisfaction.Any worker that is over loaded with work will not be happy, neither will the worker that is under-utilized be satisfied.It is the place of the head to assign duties to lecturers based on their specialization and their capacity.Nsa, and Isaac [15] pointed out that inadequacy in the number of staff would make those available will have heavy workload, which may result to poor productivity, Zwalchir [16] believes it leads to stress.
Lecturers' job satisfaction with professional status is the ladder to all achievement in the system.The lecturers has the uphill task of forming course outlines, teaching, marking examination scripts, researching and attending conferences.There are the duties that make them self-actualized.Mgbekem [17] maintained that these program improve productivity and enhance professional development.This is true especially when lecturers are upgraded and or promoted after such program.Winer, and Sarros [18] found that high job satisfaction is easily attainable when the responsibilities to be executed in a job situation are well demarcated.As Shin [19], Locke and Bennion [20] had concluded that when institution of learning pile up pressure on academics in furtherance to the notion of global competition and quality of teaching, lecturers experience stressful feelings and declined satisfaction on the job.
Lecturers' job satisfaction with academic publication is of great concern to lecturers in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.Lecturers are expected to research, write and publish articles in journals in and outside the country before they are promoted from junior level to the zenith.Mgbekem [17] confirmed that if lecturers fail to comply with these directives from the management of their institution, they will stagnate on their first position of employment.This can be very frustrating to anyone.Akob [5] reported a significant relationship among workload, teacher work ethics and job satisfaction, and performance in the execution of work.Similarly, Imondi [21] found that job overload negatively influences satisfaction of teachers.Most of the teachers in the division admit that job excess workload has strong relationship with low performance.Similarly, [22] reported that lecturers experienced excess workload in academic activities and lecturers' satisfaction was negatively influenced by this excess workload.Sone, et al. [23] confirmed in their study that excess workload is the strongest reason responsible for decreasing job satisfaction.A study [24] on the level of workload and job satisfaction among Pharmacy academicians in private and public universities in India found that more than half of the respondents (57.9%) were satisfied with their workload, while overall, private sector academicians are more burdened by teaching load and also are less satisfied of their workload.Shin, and Jung [25] reported that academia jobs have become stressful and less satisfied when government have implemented managerial or university governance reforms.

RESEARCH METHOD
The research employed a descriptive survey design.This research adopted the descriptive survey method because it has the advantage of applying the outcome of its investigation to a large section of the population at the same time.The sample of the study consisted of 113 lecturers.The sample is selected using multi-stage sampling technique.From the existing nine faculties, a simple random sampling technique was used to select three faculties.Proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to select 50% of the lecturers across all cadres in the sampled faculties.Table 1 shows how the samples are selected.A researcher-made questionnaire titled "Workload and Lecturers' Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (WLJSQ)" was designed to elicit information on the subject matter.The questionnaire consists of two sections.Section A deals with demographic information of the respondents, this include Gender, Cadre/Level, Faculty and Number of courses allocated.Section B contains 16 items formulated to examine aspects of work lecturers found demanding.Four Likert scale of Very Demanding, Demanding, Less Demanding and Not Demanding  ISSN: 2089-9823 are scaled to measure the opinion of the participants.Section C contains 11 items formulated to determine the level of lecturers' job satisfaction.A scale of Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Slightly Satisfied and Not Satisfied was used to measure the opinion of the respondents.Section D and E contains 10 items formulated to determine the level of lecturers' job satisfaction in relation with marking of examination scripts and supervision of research work.A scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Strongly Disagree and Disagree are used to measure the opinion of the participants.The test-retest technique was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument and a reliability index of 0.72 was obtained.This indicated that the research instrument is reliable.The researcher visited all the selected faculties in the university to administer the questionnaire.Out of a total of 113 copies of questionnaires administered, 105 copies were retrieved which gave 92.9% return rate.The research questions were answered with descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentages and mean while the research hypotheses were tested with Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) at 0.05 level of significance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Research question one: What aspect of their workload do lecturers find most demanding?Table 2 depicts areas of workload lecturers found demanding.Conducting research with a mean of 3.6 is the area of workload that lecturers found most demanding while going to excursion or field trips is area of workload lecturers found least demanding.Other areas of workload lecturers found demanding include processing and uploading of students' results with mean of 3.5, marking of examination scripts (3.5), undergraduate project supervision (3.2) level advisory duty (3.1) among others.Finally, the grand mean of 3.1 is an indication that lecturers found these areas of workload identified in Table 2 demanding.Research question two: What is the level of lecturers' job satisfaction in relation to their workload?Table 3 describes the level of lecturers' job satisfaction in relation to their workload.With a mean of 1.5, it is revealed that the level of lecturers' job satisfaction is low with regards to their present salary in line with their workload, present fringe benefits, medical scheme/benefits available to them and transport allowance in their pay package.Also, a mean of 1.8 is an indication that lecturers are not satisfied with the condition of their as office spaces, their present salary and conditions of classroom (1.9).The grand mean of 1.7 indicates that lecturers are slightly satisfied on the job in relation to their workload.

Table 1 .
Selection of sample

Table 2 .
Aspects of work lecturers found demanding

Table 3 .
Level of lecturers' job satisfaction