Managing Physical Hazards for Academic Staff Productivity in Public Universities in Rivers State, Nigeria
- September 27, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue IX, September 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Vita, Barielnen1, Abraham, Nath. M.2
1Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
2Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
Abstract:- This study investigated management of physical occupational hazards for academic staff productivity in public universities in Rivers State. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. It was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The population consisted of 2,498 academic staff of the three public universities in Rivers State. A sample of 250 academic staff was drawn through proportionate stratified random sampling technique. This represented 10% of the population. A researchers’ structured instrument entitled, “Management of Physical Occupational Hazards for Academic Staff Productivity Questionnaire (MPOHASPQ)” was used for data collection. The instrument was properly validated and the reliability tested through Cronbach Alpha Method yielded a reliability index of 0.83. Data collected were analysed using statistical package for social science (SPSS), mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while independent sample z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significant level. The study revealed among others that the strategies for managing physical occupational hazards for academic staff productivity include: providing well ventilated lecture theatres/offices, air-conditioned/well ventilated laboratories/workshops and providing fire extinguishers in office/lecture areas. The study also revealed the challenges of managing physical occupational hazards to include among others; inadequate provision of safety tools for conducting practicals, inadequate funding of public universities and lack of viable monitoring team that monitors and evaluates the conditions of physical structures/tools/equipment in the universities. Based on these findings, conclusion was drawn and the following recommendations among others were made: caution signs should be provided around lecture theatres/lecturers offices as a way of controlling noise and there should be well established regulation directing members of staff and students to switch off electrical appliances in their offices/classrooms before they close for the day.
Keywords: Physical hazards, Management, Public universities, Academic staff and productivity.
