Relationship between Big Five Personality Trait of Openness to Experience and Teachers’ Job Productivity in Senior Secondary Schools in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Relationship between Big Five Personality Trait of Openness to Experience and Teachers’ Job Productivity in Senior Secondary Schools in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

USMAN Musa & CLETUS Edoh. Ph.D
Department of Physical Sciences Education, Faculty of Education, Modibbo Adama University, Yola.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.701003

Received: 18 August 2023; Accepted: 25 September 2023; Published: 24 October 2023

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between big five personality trait of openness to experience and teachers’ job productivity in senior secondary schools in Adamawa State, Nigeria. A correctional research design was adopted for this study, which was guided by one research question and one hypothesis. The population of the study comprised 274 principals and 38, 499 students in public senior secondary schools in Adamawa State. The sample size is 825. This sample size comprised of 55 principals and 770 students, which is 20% of principals and 2% of students. Data were collected with the use of two adapted instruments titled “Big Five Personality Management Inventory (BFPMI) and Teachers’ Job Productivity Questionnaire (TJPQ)”. The instruments were subjected to revalidation, which was done by three experts. The two instruments were were pilot tested, and Cronbach’s Alpha statistics was used to determine the internal consistency of the items of the instruments. A reliability coefficients of 0.87 and 0.81 were obtained for BFPMI and TJPQ respectively. The descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the questions while simple linear regression analysis was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was also found that openness to experience has significant relationship with teachers’ job productivity with (r=.449, p<0.05). This implies that there is significant relationship between openness to experience and Teacher Job Productivity, F(1, 54) = 13.385, p < 0.05 in senior secondary schools in Adamawa State. Among others, it was recommended that school managements, principals and teachers should be well informed of how big five personality traits of openness to experience could relate to the job productivity of teachers in secondary schools. In conclusion, the big five personality traits of openness to experience possessed by a teacher can significantly determine the teacher’s productivity.

Keywords: Personality Traits, Openness to Experience and Teachers’ Job Productivity.

INTRODUCTION

The teacher’s role in any educational system cannot be over-emphasized, they are the executors and implementers of the educational policies and curriculum, hence whether there are loopholes in the educational processes and outcome, teachers tend to receive more blame for the shortcomings than any other agent connected with educational activities (Adejumobi & Ojikutu, 2013). For instance Babalola (2010) recognized teachers as the heart of Nigeria’s educational system at all levels. The teacher continue to be the major determinants of the quality of education, be it at primary, secondary or tertiary level, this implies that a teacher is the key agent in the entire educational programs (Agha & Mirhassani, 2016). Therefore adequate attention should be paid to teachers’ welfare in all its ramifications in order to attain acceptable level of teachers’ productivity, irrespective of their qualification. The variation in teachers’ productivity level can be altered by some militating factors such as, school management, institutional factors, teacher instructional factor and teachers’ personality factors (Akbulut, 2016). Therefore, in this study the personality factors was investigated because of the hazard posed on social interaction and human relationship in the school system.

Personality trait is the extent to which one is able to influence other people, this means that one’s personality is the sum total of the qualities of character, mind and body that make a person different from other people, i.e.  It is a form of human relations (Agha & Mirhassani,  2016). According to Anyanwu (2012) Personality trait is the outward evidence of people inner qualities which determine their thoughts, feelings and actions in any given situation. Therefore, teachers’ personality can be described as the extent a teacher is able to influence the students, the sum total of the teachers’ qualities in terms of character, mind and body that make them unique as teachers (Akyùz, 2013). The teacher’s personal factors comprises of; warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, rule consciousness, social boldness, sensitivity, apprehension, content knowledge ,openness to change and self-reliance, and how these characteristics could influence teacher’s productivity (Agha & Mirhassani,  2016).

The major reason why attention is given to matter of personality of teachers is to bring about understanding; because it is commonly said that “to understand is the beginning to cure (Akyùz, 2012). So, if the teacher has trouble getting along with people, or cannot take criticism or suggestion, then the teacher is inadequate, then some fact of his personality must be changed, Since no one is not born with personality, which is developed and acquired, not inherited. According to Babar and Muhammed (2020), big five personality traits includes; conscientiousness, neuroticism,  extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience. This study was limited to big five personality trait of ‘openness to experience’. Openness to Experience has been found to contribute to likelihood of obtaining a leadership position, likely due to the ability to entertain new ideas and think outside the box (Lebowitz, 2016).

Openness to experience generally includes characteristics such as intelligence, unconventionality, creativity, curiosity, creativity, and originality (Rajiv, Dant, Scott, Weaven, Brent & Baker, 2013). Openness is also connected to universalism values, which include promoting peace and tolerance and seeing all people as equally deserving  justice and equality (Courtney, 2017). Further, research has linked openness to experience to broad intellectual skills and knowledge, and may tend to increase with age (Özdemir & Yirmibeş, 2016). This indicates that openness to experience leads to gains in knowledge and skills, and naturally increases as a person ages and has more experiences to learn from. Not only has openness been linked to knowledge and skills, it was also found to correlate with creativity, originality, and a tendency to explore their inner selves with a therapist or psychiatrist, and negatively related to conservative political attitudes (Lebowitz, 2016). According to the author, openness to experience is perhaps the trait that is least likely to change over time in any teacher’s career path, and perhaps most likely to help the teacher to grow. Teachers high in openness to experience are more tend to accept changes, and are creative in finding solutions for problems related to instructional delivery (Rajiv, etal., 2013). Hence, Rajiv etal. predicted that openness to experience is relatively related to job productivity.

Ganu (2014) described teachers’ job productivity  as the ability to produce higher predicted gains or standard achievement test by a classroom teacher. The authors asserted further that there is the need to study human productivity in the school and in fact in any organisation. Hannan and Freemann in Akman (2018) described job productivity as the degree of congruence between organisation goals and observable outcomes. Job productivity in education can be measured in terms of the extent to which the defined institutional goals are achieved or realized. An effective education system may produce clever students through efficient teaching. For a given teaching methodology to be fruitful, It is a must for teachers to be positive, self confident and passionate (Kell, 2019).  the context of this research work, personality refers to various personal characteristics that impact students’ achievement. Nonetheless, the research identifies  and discuss other various characteristics of teachers which more significant for students’ school achievement. Furthermore, it is also established that the class teacher is the only factor which is the most essential for learners’ educational success. Therefore it is of high priority, to research more on other classroom teachers’ personality traits, other than the above listed by (Kell, 2019).

Managing classroom is  one of the most challenging problems for a teacher today (Chamundeswari, 2013). It is posing a problem requiring serious concern of the educators and the educational researchers. Today, classroom management according to Yusoff, etal. (2014), is the most neglected area in our secondary schools, and the  success  or  failure  of  any  teaching and learning process  depends  to  a  large  extent  on  the  way  classrooms  are managed. Failure to effectively manage the classroom can have an overall negative influence on the entire school, most especially in terms of sound academic performance of the students. The poor performance of students cannot be completely dissociated from teachers personality in Senior Secondary Schools in Adamawa State. Hence, this study investigated the relationship between big five personality trait of openness to experience and teachers’ job productivity in Senior Secondary Schools in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Purpose of the study

This study examined the relationship between big five personality trait of openness to experience and teachers’ productivity in Senior Secondary Schools in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to examine the relationship between;

1. openness to experience and teachers’ job productivity in Senior Secondary Schools.

Research Question

   The  following research questions were raised to guide the study:

1. To what level do senior secondary school teachers in Adamawa State exhibit openness to experience in classrooms?

Statement of Hypothesis

The following hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 Alpha level of significance:

H0₁: There is no significant relationship between openness to experience and senior secondary school teachers’ job productivity in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

METHODOLOGY

This study adopted correlational research design. The choice of this design is supported by Huck  (2012) who opined that correlational research design  is  used  in  predicting studies that explored relationship between two  variables known  as  correlation  coefficient. The study area is Adamawa State. The population for this study is 274 principals from the five education zones with 274 senior secondary schools and 38,499 SSS II in the public senior secondary schools in the five education zones; Mubi zone with 9,524 students, Gombi zone with 6224 students, Yola zone with 10,538, Numan zone with 7,083 and Ganye zone with 5130 (Adamawa State Post Primary Schools Management Board, 2023). The sample  size is 825. This sample size comprised 55 senior secondary school principals’ and 770 students, which is 20% of principals and 2% percent of students respectively. According to Singh and Masuku (2012) when a population is large in thousands the percentage population to be sampled should be maximum of 5% so long the same size does not exceed 1000, and if is large in hundreds the percentage population to be sampled should be 10%, while for small population in hundreds a minimum of 20% should be sampled. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted for the study. The various sampling techniques include; simple random sampling technique, purposive sampling technique and proportionate stratified random sampling technique respectively.

Two adapted instruments were used to collect data. The adapted questionnaires are tagged; Big Five Personality Management Inventory (BFPMI) (Costa & McCrae (2006) and Teachers’ Job Productivity Questionnaire (TJPQ) (Olawoyin & Isuku, 2019). They were sub-divided into two sections i.e. Section A and B. In BFPMI, the Section A introduced the questionnaire and explained the scoring keys for the respondents while the Section B consisted of 5 items which sought the opinions of students on the following variables: Teacher’s level of managing; extraversion and agreeableness in class rooms. Teachers’ Job Productivity Questionnaire (TJPQ) is a 25-item questionnaire which sought opinions of principals on teachers’ job productivity. The 30-items were structured on a five-point likert like rating scale of VHL=Very High Level (5), HL=High Level (4), ML=Moderate Level (3), LL=Low Level (2) and VLL=Very Low Level (1). The two self-structured questionnaire are considered suitable for this study because of ease of data quantification, control over relevance and objective of information and convenience they afford the prospective respondents in completing them. (See appendix II).

The BFPMI and TJPQ were subjected to revalidation; they were revalidated by three experts; one professor, one Senior Lecturer and one Lecturer I, in Physical Sciences Education Department, Faculty of Education, Modibbo Adama University, Yola. In order to determine the reliability of Big Five Personality Management Inventory (BFPMI) and Teachers’ Job Productivity Questionnaire (TJPQ), Cronbach Alpha was used in  order to determine the  internal consistency of the items of BFPMI and TJPQ. A reliability index of 0.87 was obtained for BFPMI and 0.81 for TJPQ. These high reliability figures of  0.87 and 0.81 showed that the instruments were reliable enough,  and would measure what it purports to measure.

The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and real limits of numbers. In answering the research questions, a criterion mean of 3.50 will be established such that; item(s) with mean values of 3.50 and above will be considered High Level (HL), while items with mean values below 3.00 will be considered Low Level (LL). The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using simple linear regression. The decision rule on testing the null hypothesis was to reject the null hypothesis when p≤0.05, otherwise do not reject.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Data analysis, results and discussion are contained in this chapter; the analysis was done at different strata (descriptive and inferential statistics) and results presented in relevant tables. The results were presented in the order in which the research questions and hypotheses were stated.

Data Analyses

Answers to the research question raised for the study was presented using relevant data analyzed and summarized in the appropriate table.

Research Question One

To what level do senior secondary school teachers in Adamawa State exhibit Openness to experience in classrooms?

Table 5: Mean and Standard Deviation of Level of Openness to Experience Senior Secondary School Teachers in Adamawa State Exhibit in Classrooms

Analysis in Table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation of level of Openness to experience exhibited by senior secondary school teachers in Adamawa State. The result reveals that the teachers exhibited high level of openness to experience as indicated by the average mean of 4.31.

Hypotheses testing

H0₁: There is no significant relationship between openness to experience and senior secondary school teachers’ job productivity in Adamawa State.

Table 2a: Summary of ANOVA of Regression Analysis of Relationship between Openness to Experience and Senior Secondary School Teachers’ Job Productivity in Adamawa State

1. Dependent Variable: Teacher Job productivity
2. Predictors: (Constant), Openness to Experience

Results of Analysis in Table 2a reveals that there is significant relationship between openness to experience and Teacher Job Productivity, F(1, 54) = 13.385, p < 0.05. The null hypothesis should be rejected because the p-value (0.001) is less than 0.05.

Table 2b: Model Summary

1. Predictors: (Constant), openness to experience

The result in Table 2b is a model summary that shows how the independent variable explains the variance in the dependent variable. The findings showed that personality traits related to openness to experience could be responsible for 20.2% of the variation in teacher job productivity.

SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS

1. There is significant relationship between openness to experience and teacher job productivity, F(1, 54) = 13.385, p < 0.05.

DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS

The findings of this study also showed that a significant relationship between openness to experience and teachers’ job productivity, which agrees with the findings of Shaista, Aktar and Uzma (2019) whose findings revealed that openness to experience has a significant correlation between teachers’ performance in secondary schools. This finding is in line with that of Man (2014) who found out that personality is a dynamic organization of behaviors and characteristics in which an individual interacts and also determines the person’s unique adjustment to his/her environment often determine by openness to experience. Man (2014), further established that teachers’ teaching and their behaviors are different and these differences can be geared and directed towards better classroom management practices. Man further revealed that, this begins from the teachers’ being open to communicate their differences, strengths and weaknesses to each other. This finding corroborate further with that of Noraini, Norashikin and Lily (2015), whose findings revealed that there is a positive association between openness to experience and job performance. This finding further agrees with that of Najam-us-Sahar (2016), whose findings revealed that managers of functions may find it beneficial to manipulate a range of intra-organizational variables based on experience to enhance employee productivity in workplace.

CONCLUSION

This study showed that openness to experience  which are factors of big five personality traits has significant relationship with teachers’ job productivity in Senior Secondary Schools in Adamawa State. This implies that the big five personality trait of openness to experience possessed by a teacher can significantly determine the teacher’s productivity. The study therefore envisaged that if Senior Secondary school teachers could adopt flexibility in using the various openness to experience component of big five personality trait in classrooms, their job productivity would be greatly enhanced.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. School managements, principals and teachers should be well informed on how openness to experience could influence or determine the job productivity of teachers in secondary Schools.

REFERENCES

1. Adamawa State Post Primary Schools Management Board (2021). Teachers’ and Students enrolment. Department of Research and Statistics. Pp. 1-21.
2. Adejumobi, F. T., & Ojikutu, R. K. (2013). School climate and teacher job performance in Lagos State Nigeria. Discourse Journal of Educational Research, 1(2), 26-36.
3. Agha, Y., A. & Mirhassani, V. (2016). Relations between Personality Factors and Occupational Performance of Insurance Companies Managers. Insurance Newsletter, 26(4), 155-182.
4. Akbulut, Y. (2015). Predictors of inconsistent responding in web surveys. Internet Research, 25(1), 131-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-01-2014-0017.
5. Akman, Y. (2018). Investigating the relationship between organizational justice, work motivation and teacher performance. Çukurova Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 47(1), 164-187. https:// doi.org/ 10.14812/ cuefd.371642.
6. Akyüz, A. N. (2013). Örgütsel adalet algısının örgütsel bağlılık ve iş performansı üzerindeki etkisi: öğretmenler üzerine ampirik bir çalışma (Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi). Gebze Yüksek Teknoloji Enstitüsü, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Kocaeli.
7. Akyüz, B. (2012). Hizmetkar liderlik davranışlarının örgütsel adalet, örgütsel vatandaşlık davranışları ve performans üzerine etkisi: eğitim sektörü üzerine bir araştırma (Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi). Gebze Yüksek Teknoloji Enstitüsü, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Kocaeli.
8. Anyanwu, I., E. (2012). Impact of motivation on teacher productivity In Secondary Schools in Oyo State, Nigeria. (PhD Thesis university of Ibadan.)
9. Babalola, O. O. (2010). Self-Concept and locus of control as correlates of workers performance effectiveness in industrial organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology. 18, 116-123.
10. Babar, M., & Muhammad, T. (2020). The effects of big five personality traits on employee job performance among university lecturers in Peshawar city. International Journal of Management and Entrepreneurship, 2(1), 43-50.
11. Binti, S. (2014). Influence of personality on academic achievement and performance of teaching practices students in TVET. Developing Country Studies, 4(16), 60-65.
12. Chamundeswari, S. (2013). Job satisfaction and performance of school teachers. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(5), 420-428.
13. Chamundeswari, S. (2013). Teacher management styles and their influences on performance and leadership development among students at the secondary level. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 2(1), 367-372.
14. Chandrasekara, W S. (2019). Relationship among Big Five Personality Traits, Job Performance & Job Satisfaction: A Case of School Teachers in Sri Lanka. International Journal of Information, Business and Management Preview, 11(2), 219-232.
15. Costa, P. T. & McCrae, R. R. (2006). Somatic complaints in males as a function of age and neuroticism: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 3, 245-257.
16. Costa P. T. & McCrae, R. R. (2016). Revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL. Psychological Assessment Resources, 11, 207.-215.
17. Costa, P.,T. & McCrae, R. R. (2006), Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) Manual (UK Edition), Hogrefe, Oxford, United Kingdom, 80 p.
18. Courtney, A. (2017). The big five personality theory. Retrieved from: https:// positive psychology program .com/big-five-personality-theory/#references
19. Ganu, A. (2014), Effect of the big five personality traits on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in the healthcare industry: the case of Kenya. American Journal of Health Sciences, 5(2), 145- 159.
20. Huck, S. W. (2012). Reading statistics and research. Boston: Pearson Education.
21. Kell, H. J. (2019). Do Teachers Personality Traits predict their performance?. A Comprehensive Review of Empirical Literature from 1990-2018. ETS Research Report Series.
22. Lebowitz, S. (2016). Scientists say your Personality can be deconstructed into 5 basic Traits http://www.businessinsider.com/big-five-personality-traits-2016-12. Retrieved 28th June, 20.
23. Man, B. K. (2014). Teachers’ Personality in Student Learning. Published M.Ed thesis submitted to the department of educational foundations and philosophy, Bahadur university, Bahadur, India. Pp. 16-29.
24. Najam-us-Sahar, J. (2016). Impact of Personality Type on Job Productivity. Journal Hotel Business Management, 5(1), 1-9. doi:4172/2169-0286.1000119.
25. Ninette, V. A, Meiring, D. & Wiernik, B. M. (2017). The validity of the Big Five personality traits for job performance: Meta-analyses of South African studies. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 25(3), 223–239. https://doi.org/10/cbhv.
26. Noraini,B., R., Norashikin, M., &  Lily, S., M. (2015). Association between personality traits and job performance among secondary school teachers. International Journal of Social Science, 1(2), 1-6.
27. Nwachukwu, , C. (2006). Management Theory and Practice. Onitsha: Africana Publishers. Pp. 2-6.
28. Olawoyin, M. A., & Isuku, E. J. (2019). Students’ Academic Achievement as influenced by Teachers’ Quality: Evidence from Southwest, Nigeria. European Journal of Education Studies, 6(7), 52-65.
29. Özdemir, M., & Yirmibeş, A. (2016). Okullarda liderlik ekibi uyumu ve öğretmen performansı ilişkisinde iş doyumunun aracı etkisi. GEFAD, 36(2), 323-348.
30. Rajiv, , Dant, S. K., Weaven, Brent, L., & Baker. (2013). Influence of personality traits on perceived relationship quality within a franchisee- franchisor context. European Journal of Marketing, 47 (1), 279 – 302 .
31. Shaista N., Aktar, A., & Uzma, M. (2019). The impact of teachers’ personality on students’ academic achievement in Pakistan. Global regional review journal, 5(3), 92-102. http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/grr.2019
32. Yusoff, R. B., Ali, A. M., & Khan, A. (2014). Assessing reliability and validity of job performance scale among university teachers. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 4(1), 35-41.