Employee Participation in Decision Making and Job Satisfaction among Non-teaching Staff of Abia State University, Uturu

Abstract

This study focused on employee participation in decision-making and job satisfaction among Non-teaching staff of Abia state university, Uturu, Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study included: to ascertain whether non-teaching staff participate in staff meetings; examine whether there is free expression of opinions during such meetings; and ascertain how employee participation in decision-making in the study area leads to job satisfaction among them.  It was hypothesized that: there is a significant relationship between Non-teaching staff participation in staff meetings; free expression of opinions during such meetings; and employee participation in decision making and job satisfaction. The mixed methods research design was adopted. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaire while the qualitative data were gathered through interview. The Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select respondents for this study. A sample of 272 persons participated in the quantitative aspect while 8 interviews were conducted to generate the qualitative data. The quantitative data were processed using SPSS Version 20.0 and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The QDA Miner software was used to analyze the qualitative data. The hypotheses were tested using Chi-square statistic. The findings showed that the extent Non-teaching staff participate in staff meetings is highly commendable, hence, there is, a statistical significance between Non-teaching staff participation in meetings and job satisfaction (p > 0.035). There is free expression of opinions by Non-teaching staff during staff meetings; hence, there is a statistical significance between staff expression of their opinion in meetings and job satisfaction (p > 0.049). Employee participation in decision-making of Abia State University Non-Academic Staff does not lead to job satisfaction; therefore, there is no statistical significance between employee participation in decision-making and job satisfaction among them (p > 0.853). It was, therefore, recommended that the management should device inclusive implementation strategies to ensure that decisions reached in meetings translated into job satisfaction.