Pages: (39-53 )
Abstract
Fierce competition among institutions of higher learning has
stimulated different mechanisms to improve employees'
performance for institutional relevance in the world market.
However, despite the authorities' efforts to improve the
standard of Universities in Nigeria, the performance of
employees in the Nigerian Universities is not below global
benchmarks. Hence the study examined how employees'
inner-life and meaningful work affect employees' contextual
performance in Nigerian Universities. Survey design was
adopted, and the population consisted of 1,897 non-teaching
employees of Federal University Technology of Akure
(FUTA) and Ajayi Crowther University (ACU) in Ondo and
Oyo States respectively. The sample size of 330 was
determined using Solvin's formula, while Stratified random
sampling technique was adopted to locate respondents. The
validated questionnaire was used for data collection.
Inferential statistics was employed in analysis of data. The
study found that employees' inner life and meaningful work
affected contextual performance in selected Universities in
Nigeria (Adj. R2 = 0.196; F(2, 295) = 37.156, p <0.05). Also,
the results indicated that there was no significant difference in
perception between public and private Universities in
relation to employees' inner life and meaningful work
(t(296)= -0.017, p = 0.987). The study concluded that
employees' inner life and meaningful work engender
contextual performance of employees in selected
Universities in Nigeria. The study recommended that
Universities' Administrations should create environment that
can nourish the spiritual dimension of the employees for
optimal performance that stimulates beneficial growth in the
institutions
Keywords: Employees’ contextual performance, individual inner-life, meaningful work, Nigerian Universities,