Institutional Internal Practices and Heads of Departments’ Accountability in Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria

Institutional Internal Practices and Heads of Departments’ Accountability in Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria

Dr. Ifeoma Unyime Ukoette, Sabitu Nunayon Abdul and Idorenyin Jonathan Okon

Department of Curriculum Studies, Educational Management and Planning, Faculty of Education, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

 DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.905000262

Received: 29 April 2025; Accepted: 05 May 2025; Published: 10 June 2025

ABSTRACT

The study determined the extent to which institutional internal practices predict heads of departments’ accountability in public universities in South-South, Nigeria. Two research questions were raised and two null hypotheses were also postulated to guide the study. The correlation design was used for the study. The population for the study consisted of all the 374 Heads of Departments in six public universities in south – south, Nigeria during the 2019/2020 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 306 Heads of Departments representing 90% of the Heads of Departments population. Multi – stage sampling technique was used to select sample from the six federal universities in South–South Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria. The instruments for data collection was the researcher – made instruments titled “Institutional Internal Practices questionnaire (IIPQ) and Heads of Department Accountability Questionnaire (HDAQ)” which were validated by experts in the Educational Foundation, Guidance and Counselling, Curriculum Studies, Educational Management and Planning respectively. The Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis was used to determine the reliability of the instruments which yielded reliability co-efficients of .76 for IIPQ and .80 for HDAQ which were quite appropriate and usable. Linear Regression Statistics, R and R² were used to answer the three research questions while F- value was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that: social and economic practices are significant predictors of Heads of Department accountability in public universities in south – south, Nigeria. It was concluded based on the findings that joint institutional internal practices are significant predictors of Heads of Department accountability in public universities in South – South, Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that educational institution leaders in collaboration with HODs should truly understand the nature of their staff ethnic differences, identities, cultural practices, beliefs, norms and values in order to avoid conflict of interest among staff.

Keywords: Institutional Internal Practices, Heads of Department, Accountability, University, Educational Institutions

INTRODUCTION

Education is a very vital tool for every nation that strives to go beyond its status quo in social, economic, cultural, academic, and technological developments. It is the engine room of all developments in any nation. Given its indispensability in the development of the citizenry and society, education has gained prominence in the world. The role of relevant stakeholders including the government has been identified to exert a decisive influence on its educational organisations and pace of goal attainment (FRN, 2013). Institutional Internal practices are crucial in that, they affect the internal structures and processes of an institution since it is pertinent for an individual to take a look at both inside and outside the institution to elucidate behaviour within educational institutions. “The institutional internal practices consist of those relevant physical and social practices within and outside the boundaries of the institution that are taken into consideration in the decision-making behaviour of individuals in that system” (Heryanto 2015). But in this study, institutional internal practices are apparatus and ingredients of which institutions are up of.

Notwithstanding, the well-built technological drifts, social, cultural, economic, and academic variables, all influence the internal operations of educational institutions. Institutional Internal practices simply describes those practices that exist within the educational institution boundary. Educational institutions are productive systems which must exchange and interact with its environment for survival and well-being. No matter how the institution controls its managerial processes, internal practices also influence its performance, profitability, growth and development. The progress of an institution is influenced by a wider range of events and situations that are out of its control.

Institutional internal practices of institutions are supposed to be viewed as goals oriented, effectiveness and efficiency in all its administrations, guarded by other institutions of society and its administrators guarded by broader institutions for emulation. According to Mie and David (2016), to understand Institutional internal practices is the institutional perspective which its formulation, little emphasis is placed on task goals, effectiveness and efficiency. Instead, the basic premise is that the chances of organizational survival are highest when school structures and processes reflect the norms, values, and ideologies that are of a standard to the society. It is pertinent that the special environment through which emerges social group and institutions have a direct relationship with the members of the community in which such institution is situated. Institutional internal practices impact relative influence on the survival of an institution. It gives rise to the administrators’ guaranteed performance and accountability.

Accountability in the context of this study simply means the Heads of Departments being responsible and answerable to stakeholders of their universities as regards to their roles. Heads of departments can succeed in such an environment where friendly interactions between staffs, (academic and non – academic) and students are maintained and adapted. Oleforo and Ukoette, (2018) ascertained that if the Heads of departments have the values of accountability to treat people well there will be synergy in contributing reasonable decision by the lecturers and students.

Educational institutions, however, cannot exist in an island or isolated environment without challenges that evolve through the people that control it. An organisation such as school has fewer or lesser control over its environment but there is need for the administrator to supervise all the practices that make up these internal changes in a manner that will guard against proactive or reactive outcome that will occur. These can be possible when heads of departments appropriately utilize the brainpower behind these practices to ascertain the unpredictability that will arise to take charge of the maintenance of the institution as their physical and mental activities will demand. It is of interest to note that the Federal Republic of Nigeria, (FRN), (2013), in its National Policy on Education has identified university education as a key to national development as follows:

• To develop and inculcate proper values for the survival of individual and society.
• To contribute to national development through high-level relevant manpower training.
• To develop the intellectual capability of an individual to understand and appreciate their local and external environments.
• To acquire both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individual to be self-reliance and be useful members of the society.
• To promote and encourage scholarship and community service
• To forge and cement national unity and
• To promote national and international understanding and interaction. p. 50-51.

However, so that these educational goals may be realized, the effort of the Heads of departments’ accountability could not be overlooked; there must be a positive collaboration between all the stakeholders that may contribute directly or indirectly to the institutional environment.

In the administrative cadre, the Heads of departments are involved in the operational management of the department. Heads of Departments are responsible for the overall academic and staff support, departmental administration, student support, teaching-learning, the students’ experience, internal and external communications, directing, guiding, managing, allocating, planning, developing, and upholding academic standards. They work within the institution’s health and safety policy to ensure a safe working environment for staff, students and visitors (Gmelch, 2015). Their role in accountability for the overall academic activities cannot be overemphasized. Their absence in an institution means that there is no administration or organized activities in such a department. Some of the Institutional internal practices that will be considered in this study are: Cultural and Economic variables among others. These variables may play a significant role in the behaviour of the HODs administration which can also influence how the role and performance of academic staff portray (Idiong, 2014).

One of the internal practices of educational institutions is cultural practices. This describes how people display the idea of what is good, right, fair and just. How they should behave or act responsibly to make the institution perform creditably.  Cultural practices describe how people should behave or act in manner worthy of praise. Heads of departments should be knowledgeable of cultural differences within the institutions’ environment. Adam, (2018) ascertained that one’s internal culture consists of the values, attitudes and priorities that his employers live by. A cutthroat culture where every employer competes with one another creates a different environment from an institution that emphasizes collaboration and team work. Therefore everyone in the institution is inferring values on heads of departments on the types of people he administers, employs, admits or graduates. The level to which heads of departments accord respect for elders, kindness to the young ones, telling the truth at all times, being generous and sacrificial, are applauded and recommended. A cultural practice of a student from diverse geographical area should be accounted for by the heads of departments. For example, a child who stares at the floor while you speak to him or her could be viewed as defiant in some culture and respectful in others. So, being able to identify each staff or student’s cultural practices is necessary for easy accountability by the heads of departments.  Houghton, (2016) pointed out that there exists inconsistency between people’s actions and their professed values (that is) to distinguish between what people do and what they say. He reported that real culture is the values and norms that a society actually follows, while ideal culture is the values and norms that a society professes to believe. In other words, whether followed or professed culture, heads of departments may likely be accountable to both culture so as not to go against the culture of the groups that belong to the institution.

If heads of departments are conversant with the curriculum implementation which streamlines curriculum and classroom culture in line with the home and community culture of their staff and students, they will ascertain full accountability in this aspect. Hollins (2008) reported that schools are shaped by cultural practices and values and reflects the norms of the society for which they have been developed. If this is practiced, the heads of departments will make sure that the styles of teaching and learning reflect these values for effective and enriching education of students with opposing values. Heads of departments have no choice but inquire into each student’s unique culture and learning history to account for what instructional materials might be best used and to determine when a student’s cultural and life experiences are compatible, or potentially incompatible with instruction. However, the culture in which a person learns sets the agenda for learning in several ways. It determines what is learnt and influences how and when it is learnt. What an individual person learn is influenced to a large extent, by the culture in which the learning occurs and the social interaction processes in which the student engages.

Another practice of institutional internal practice to be considered is economic practices. Economic practices describe how funding is resolved and the perimeter it flows. In order that the different groups are managed well, there ought to be flow of funds that will allow for execution of plans towards enriching the learners. The inability of government to fund education has hindered curriculum planners from executing their plans and has affected the learners. When the Federal Government is not in position to cope with the financial requirements for funding national development projects or programmes required for the development of the citizens and the society at large, it is being attributed to the poor economic level of such nation/society. The type of goals, objectives and resources available, the scope of curriculum planning a nation can engage is dependent on the level of the nation’s economy. If the economy of the society is dwindling, it poses challenges to the effectiveness and realization of the objectives of the educational sectors. The objectives which are formulated for the different levels of education in the National Policy on Education (2013) are open-ended objectives. The same is true of objectives formulated for the different subjects in the curriculum blue-prints. Since HODs have such great influences on the curriculum, sufficient allocation of funds to educational sector should be an issue of concern because underfunding will affect the educational human resources and HODs may not effectively account for the learners’ academic progress. Again, when the economic situation is facing melt down, schools in that community are affected. Effective teaching can become impossible as those concerned cannot afford their fares to the school and they may be haphazardness in punctuality of both the lecturers and the students. Such institutions cannot meet up academically with other institutions outside the community. The starvation that arises from economic crunch can result to death of lecturers and students. This may automatically distort teaching and learning and brings it to standstill.  Families may be dislocated as a result of these misfortune and academic activities may also halted operation temporarily.

When the students are incapacitated by what to maintain self and carry on the school activities, there is likelihood that they will be fully disengaged in all activities in the school, because they will not be able to cope in the involvement towards academic activities. Asuquo, Owan, Inaua and Okon (2011) reported that higher-socio-economic families are capable of providing learning materials and conducive environment for learning and growth.

Statement of the problem

Accountability by the Heads of Department in the higher institutions of learning is not only important to the stability of the employees and students, but necessary for excellent interaction with the organization, and its groups that exist within and outside the institutional boundaries. It is believed that good accountability of Institutional internal practices has a significant influence on the growth and survival of such institution.

In the past one decade, it has observed that administrative accountability in some public organizations including universities has been a problem. Furthermore, some people complained of ineffectiveness of Heads of Department style of administration, getting some of them to give account of their stewardship as regards to their staffs (academic, non – academic), students, facilities, funds and management of these resources have become a difficult task. Often times, issues of hoarding of vital information, loss of records and flawed in administrative procedure has been noticed about some of the heads of department. However, the researcher alleged that some factors could be responsible for non- accountability of heads of department, of which Institutional internal practices, such as Cultural and Economic could be the possible caused. This has contributed and or affected the institution adversely in the long run and at the same time resulted in unaccountability of the Heads of Department over the institutional internal practices. The question arising is whether the Heads of Departments have demonstrated their capabilities in giving an account of their responsibilities irrespective of their institutions’ internal practices. This constitutes a problem that the study is out to find, for which many researchers might have sought for a solution to it, yet the problem still evolves. This creates a gap that needs to be filled in the study to contribute to knowledge. It is against this background that this research was conducted to determine the extent to which Institutional internal practices predict Heads of Department Accountability in Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria.

Research questions

To guide the study, the following research questions were posed:

• To what extent do cultural practices predicts heads of department accountability in public universities in South-South, Nigeria?
• To what extent do economic practices predicts heads of department accountability in public universities in South-South, Nigeria?

Research hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance to guide the study:

Ho₁. The extent to which cultural practices predict heads of department accountability       in public universities in South-South, Nigeria is not significant.

Ho₂.   The extent to which economic practices predict heads of department accountability in public universities in South-South, Nigeria is not significant.

The findings of this study would be of immense benefit to several existing bodies. It would be useful to the educational planners, policy formulators, decision-makers, school administrators, heads of departments, lecturers, parents, students and even future researchers. Its findings would be beneficial to the Educational Planners, Policy Formulators, decision-makers, School Administrators as they would be able to identify the different challenges and groups that obstruct heads of departments’ accountability in different educational institutions. They would be able to make policies and managerial decisions that would ensure and encourage appropriate heads of departments’ accountability in Universities. They would also be able to device a means of strategizing, designing and improving environment of each institution boundaries and provide a good scenario that will motivate the heads of departments to improve their accountabilities.

Finally, the outcome of this research would be beneficial to researchers at different levels as it would contribute to knowledge and serve as reference material for future researchers.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The study based its theory on behavioural theory propounded by John B. Watson in 1958. The proponent was interested in the specific behaviours and actions of leaders rather than their traits or characteristics. The theory stresses that effective leadership is the result of many learned skills. Watson (1958) states that individuals need three primary skills to lead their followers – technical, human and conceptual skills.

Technical skills refer to a leader’s knowledge of the process or techniques. Human skills mean that one can interact with other individuals and Conceptual skills enable the leader to come up with ideas for running the organisation smoothly. They observed that applying it at the workplace will help form and shape the kind of leadership that will exist and will help to improve leadership skills.

The relevance of the theory to the study is that heads of departments in tertiary institutions may apply this theory in workplace or leadership strategies to help in shaping the kind of governance that might exist in the department in other to be accountable to the stakeholders that make up the educational system. The theory implies that heads of departments in an institution cannot succeed in such an environment that does not beef their good behaviour/character to have good interaction among employees, students and other stakeholders. If the heads of the department do not exhibit the behaviour of learning ways and skills that will help them to lead the subordinate, the need for them to devoted time without number to monitor all the factors that consist the institutional internal practices for changes in a proactive manner will not occur effectively.

HODs need to have the prerequisite leadership knowledge of the different processes such as technical, human and conceptual skills so that they can appropriately utilize their brainpower behind the environment, to address unpredictable occurrences that will arise. When HODs are conversant with the technical know-how of the department techniques, it will help them to strategize ideas that will result in organisational productivity, effectiveness and efficiency and also will enhance their accountability. This means that HODs level of behaviour and good character in the department is a function of their unaccountability of internal practice. In other words, the HODs effectiveness in leadership behaviour in an institutional internal practices would determine the level of accountability in terms of Cultural and Economic practices.

Concept of Institutional internal practices

Educational institutions cannot survive in isolation of the environment in which the institution is situated. As society is dynamic, so the interest of the people (members) to institutions’ activities needs to be renewed. For an educational institution to develop its potentials there must be a cooperation between the citizens of the community and the institution having synergy with institution’s personnel in initiating supervisory activities that will boost the strength of the institutions. It is very vital to maintain cordial relationship between the internal practice and the institutions. It is of note that educational institutions are the mirror of their internal practices. The institution’s curriculum can also be affected by what the citizens of such environment desire for their children (students).

Ashim (2009) noted that for any organization to survive and prosper there is a need for such organization (educational institution) to familiarize itself with the internal organisms that are around it (that is the people and the institution). The source noted that it is important to manage the right stuff of the internal practice to identify the unexpected occurrence and works towards bridging the gap for the growth of the institution. The Institutional internal practices evolved by the researcher are shown in fig.1 as a model guiding the principles of Institutional internal practices.

Figure 1.  Researcher developed Institutional internal practices Model.

Adapted from Hoy, (2013)

The researcher believes that constant monitoring of these Institutional internal practices of educational institutions will gear up a high level of accountability from the heads of departments thereby producing expected outcomes and facilitating good cultural, economic and educational advancement.

Research method

The correlation design was used for the study. The population for the study consisted of all the 374 Heads of Departments in six public universities in south – south, Nigeria during the 2019/2020 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 306 Heads of Departments representing 90% of the Heads of Departments population. Multi – stage sampling technique was used to select sample from the six federal universities in South–South Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria. The instruments for data collection was the researcher – made instruments titled “Institutional internal practices questionnaire (IIPQ) and Heads of Department Accountability Questionnaire (HDAQ)” which were validated by experts in the Educational Foundation, Guidance and Counselling, Curriculum Studies, Educational Management and Planning respectively. The questionnaire utilized a four-point rating scale in which the respondents presented with four alternative response options: Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D), Strongly Disagree (SD). The Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis was used to determine the reliability of the instruments which yielded reliability co-efficients of .76 for EVQ and .80 for HDAQ which were quite appropriate and usable. Linear Regression Statistics, R and R² were used to answer the three research questions while F- value was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

Data Analysis 

Research Question 1

To what extent do Cultural practices predict heads of department accountability in Public Universities in South – South, Nigeria.

Table 1.  Result of simple linear regression for the extent in which Cultural practic predicts HODs accountability in Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria n = 306

The result in Table 1 shows R for the strength of relationship and R² for the determination of the extent to which Cultural Practices predicts HODs accountability in Public Universities in South – South, Nigeria. The R – value of .080 indicates a very low relationship between the two variables while the prediction is shown by the value of coefficient R2 (.006). This implies that cultural Practices accounts for 0.6% of HODs accountability. Therefore, Cultural Practices, to a very low extent, predicts HODs accountability in Public Universities in South – South, Nigeria.  The result means that Cultural Practices negligibly predicts HODs accountability.

Research Question 2

To what extent do Economic practices predict heads of department accountability in Public Universities in South – South, Nigeria.

Table 2  Result of simple linear regression for the extent in which Economic practices predicts HODs accountability in Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria n = 306

The result in Table 2 shows R for the strength of relationship and R² for the determination of the extent to which Economic practices predicts HODs accountability in Public Universities in South – South, Nigeria. The R – value of .185 indicates a very low relationship between the two variables while the prediction is shown by the value of coefficient R² (.034). This implies that Economic practices accounts for 3.4% of HODs accountability. Therefore, Economic practices, to a very low extent, predicts HODs accountability in Public Universities in South – South, Nigeria.  The result means that Economic Practices to a certain extent predict HODs accountability.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

The finding based on hypothesis one revealed that the extent to which Cultural practices predicts HODs accountability is not significant.  This finding could imply that Cultural practices is not a significant determinant of HODs Accountability. This implies that cultural practices to a very low extent determines the successful accountability of HODs. Therefore, HODs need to manage the cultural practices among other practices to account efficiently and effectively in Public Universities in South – South, Nigeria.

This implies that HODs in Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria (does not respect each other’s view in the department, do not maintain punctuality spirit, do not recognize professional differences of the colleagues, do not take responsibilities in shaping how lecturers make sense of their environment, no culture of continuity in handing over by the predecessor to the successor and they allowed everyone free hand to practice their cultural norms).  The implication of the findings revealed that most HODs do not maintain cultural values which are not only important, but also a vital tool that promotes the integrity and health of the school system. The negligibility of these cultural practices by HODs has distorted the credibility, discipline, and hinders promotion of stability and continuity. For a university system to remain viable its culture must be sound, unbeatable and must also is such that is targeted to meet change. A university is like a living organism and grows through a consistent effort of maintaining good cultural practices stratified into material, institutional and spiritual. When a university is known with a set of sound culture it sets them out and attracts participation and involvement of parents who will desire to send their wards to study there. Take for instance, a university that has a culture of decent and proper dressing or the one that has a culture of identification. In these instances, students’ self-consciousness, the sense of responsibility and mission in school is raised. These measures help to lay a solid foundation and cultivate high sense of discipline, high quality of talents and build a high-level university system.  The finding from the result of the extent to which cultural practices predict HODs is not significant. This could be inferred that there is a revelation of competition in dressing and high immoral degradation in the school community life-style. The university community has become a free zone to expose nudeness thus exposing members of the community to high indiscipline behaviour. The implication of the findings could be attributed to the fact that there is cut and join (borrowed) culture pattern in the departments. Whatever is practiced in one institution system whether good or bad is blindly copied by another institution and practice without a rethink on the side effects. It could also imply that HODs do not takes responsibility in shaping how lecturers and students make sense of their environment. In such a loosed environment everything (teaching/learning) is negatively influenced. The purpose for such vision as the provision of parks, student plazas, cinema halls, gardens, club halls, digital, and modern satellite-driven campuses with social media facilities to provide the community with a highly ecological, friendly-like, and a most favourable, physical environment for studying and living has been defeated.  In this wise, self-dedication, pursuit of excellence and integrity has been mismanaged.

These findings disagree with that of Kluvers and Tippetti, (2010) who opined that the operation of accountability is perceived to be dependent upon an individual’s values of openness, co-operation, service which will enhance relationship. HODs not accountable to the culture of the individual members in the department can envisage the victimization of lecturers.  This is in support of Steffgen and Ewen, (2007) who concluded that the victimization of lecturers could be predicted by class oriented strain, time pressure and quality of the institution environment, thus, the quality of institution in particular can reduce the victimization of lecturers at school.

The findings could also be attributed to the fact that HODs are not proactive in moral value of their staff less they develop a laissez faire attitude over the behaviour of the staff. The finding is not in support of Bauman, (2013), Kolthoff, et al. (2013) who concluded that integrity or ethical behaviour lies on the quality or characteristics of individual or organisation that represents the manner of acting in accordance to moral values standards and rules accepted by the members of an organisation and the society. This also negate the opinion of Mintrop, (2012) that the ultimate aim of leadership is to safeguard public interest through efficient and effective governance system that enhances the protection of rights and demonstrates accountability and integrity and its daily activities and from its public stakeholders. Mintrop, (2012) still goes ahead to noted that Schools with high integrity have a good balance between values and reality, are more cohesive and more open to dissent. Integrity was associated with an expansion of agency that combined moral earnestness with prudent strategizing and actively constructing interpretive frames that maintained a school’s sense of self-worth. The findings disagree with Kaptein, (2003) who opined that management need to play vital role in shaping the integrity of an organisation.

The finding could be attributed to the fact that HODs never account for both lecturers personal and professional differences. This finding is in tandem with Chaudhuri, (2018) who concluded that teachers who are to have a great influence on the personality and character moulding of such an individual student must acquire and possess such personal qualities that will bring the motivations, aspirations, morals and values that propel an individual to live responsibly in the society.

The finding based on hypothesis two revealed that the extent to which Economic Practices predicts HODs Accountability is significant.  This finding could imply that Economic Practices is a significant determinant of HODs Accountability. This result indicates that Economic Practices to a very low extent predicts the successful accountability of HODs.

This also indicates that Heads of department in South – South, Nigeria Public Universities account and manage little fund for the good of the staff and also see that wages due to them are paid without delay for their upkeep. The university community has an obvious vested interest in building strong relationships within the school system and communities that surround their campuses. These include maintaining a strong rapport by ensuring that welfare and interest of staff is preserved and protected by HODs. This is expressed in the utilization of funds for the good of the staff and timely disbursement of wages due to them without delay. The finding from the result of the extent to which Economic Practices predict HODs is significant. These findings could be attributed to the fact that staffs have confidence in the HODs that funds accruing to their departments are not mismanaged to their detriment, but used in the provision and funding of facilities made available for teaching-learning processes. It is also revealed that staffs are being rewarded over hard work and the global trend in planning and decision making reflected upon.

This finding of the study supports the work of Cannatelli (2012) who showed that strategic alliance and trust among little groups moderate the relationship among views on capability, integrity and humanitarianism as well as inter- organisational trust. This also goes in tandem with Manuchehr, (2019) who opined that money received in a lump sum will be treated differently to compare with the one received in a recurring basis. In other words, HODs can affect one another’s perceptions of financial situations.

The result also could be attributed to the fact that facilities and infrastructures are in place, thereby resulting to accountability of HODs in making sure that fund is available to educational human resources for effectiveness of learners’ academic progress. The findings support the work of Akanbi, (2013) who concluded that irrespective of ownership, good leadership always plays a major role in infrastructural development. The result of the finding opposes the findings of Pawi et al, (2011) who noted that public sector faces challenges in managing its properties and facilities which can damage the value of integrity in the public sector. He further emphasised that the failure of systematic and effective property management has caused the Federal Government to face several challenges that burden both the government and the public.  The findings contradict the work of Ekang, (2018) who noted that poor management of funds contribute to poor teaching-learning outcome in public institutions of learning. He further opined that funds are being siphoned into private pockets of corrupt leaders, thereby restricting good infrastructure and teaching – learning facilities needed for smooth/adequate running of schools.

The result can imply that HODs are careful how to management public fund for the benefit of the departmental staff. This also agrees with Said et al, (2016) who opined that the practice of strategic planning, audit and fraud control have statistically significant relationship with the practices of integrity system in the public sector. The finding also supports Manuchehr, (2019) who noted that risk aversion (opposite of risk tolerance) is an important phenomenon in explaining significant economic and daily life decisions.

Educational Implications of Findings

• Irrespective of other rising demand as health, housing and industry, educational leaders should fight hard for more allocation to the sector. If there are more funds and bigger budgets to take care of more staff to do their job effectively, there will be better educational results out of the resources at their disposal.
• When cultural diversity is inculcated in the educational sector, different ethnic groups and race will like to engage their wards and citizens as part of the institution by coming to learn and participate in the institutions’ affairs.

Contribution to Knowledge

This study on internal variable and HODs accountability in public universities in South-South, Nigeria has contributed to knowledge in the following ways:

• The study provides data and information on internal variable and HODs accountability in Public Universities. Educational consultants, management consultants, scholars, practitioners, psychologists, employers of labour, industrialist and employees will now get a fair knowledge of the types of internal variable in their place of primary assignments, how they should improve upon them and the pros and cons, how to enhance accountability, responsibility or answerability, commitment or no commitment, among others.
• Subsequently, most studies in the South-South concentrated on three (3) federal universities (UNIUYO, UNICAL and UNIPORT) while the present study included UNIBEN. Furthermore, the result of this study, when made available through publication could assist most universities and other tertiary institutions across the federation. The internet will capture the research as soon as it is approved and worldwide via (www) for public consumption. All this will take place after such approval by the appropriate authority of the university where the study was originally carried out.

RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended based on the findings and conclusions in this study that:

• Educational institution leaders in collaboration with HODs should truly understand the nature of their staff ethnic differences, identities, cultural practices, beliefs, norms and values in order to avoid conflict of interest among staff.
• Educational institution leaders should be aware of HODs actions on the misuse of funds that is meant to supply necessary facilities to lecturers for the discharge of their duties.

Suggestions for Further Studies

1. The present work was delimited to six public universities in South-South Nigeria. Similar studies should be conducted in other zones which will be used to compare the findings of the present study.
2. Similar research can also be conducted to investigate the influence of internal practice in learning or an organization in different industries, not merely on educational institutions of higher learning.
3. A study to investigate the relationship between internal practices and HODs accountability should be conducted in State Universities in South-South Nigeria.

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APPENDIX 1

Population Distribution of Institutions, Faculties, Departments, & Number of HODs Selected  (90%)

Source: (University of Uyo Convocation Brochure, 2019)

Source: www.uncial.edu.ng;

Source: www.schoolcontents.info>uniben

Source: www.uniport.edu.ng

Source: www.fupre.edu.ng

Source: www.fuotuoke.edu.ng

APPENDIX 11

Sample Distribution of Institutions, Departments, & Number of HODs in Federal Universities in South-South Nigeria

Source: Academic units of each university

APPENDIX 111

Institutional internal practices and heads of departments accountability questionnaire (IIPHDAQ)

Part 1: Demographic Information

Please fill in the needed information

Name of Institution………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Department…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Part 11: Institutional internal practices Questionnaire (IIPQ)

Instruction: Please tick        to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement to each of the following statements based on  internal work behaviour of lecturers.

Strongly Agree            (SA)

Agree                          (A)

Disagree                      (D)

Strongly Disagree       (SD)

APPENDIX 111

Heads of departments’ accountability questionnaire (HDAQ)

Instruction: Please tick      to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement to each of the following statements based on your heads of departments accountability in internal factor work behaviour.

Strongly Agree            (SA)

Agree                          (A)

Disagree                      (D)

Strongly Disagree       (SD)

APPENDIX 1V

Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis of Educational Institutions’ Institutional internal practices and Heads of Department Accountability

APPENDIX V

\Data 2020\PG IFEOMA UNYIME UKOETTE. Rel. sav’

Reliability

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RELIABILITY

Scale: All variables

Reliability Statistics

Scale Statistics

Reliability

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Reliability

Scale: All variables

Reliability Statistics

Scale Statistics

Reliability

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Reliability

Scale: All variables

Reliability Statistics

Scale Statistics

Reliability

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Reliability

Scale: All variables

Reliability Statistics

Scale Statistics

Reliability

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/scale (‘all variables’)   all/ model =alpha

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Reliability

Scale: All variables

Reliability Statistics

Scale Statistics

List of figure

  List of appendices