DU JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL SCIENCES

• Imade IDUOZEE

  University of Benin

  Author

• Kingsley Ufuoma OMOYIBO

  University of Benin, Benin City

  Author

Academic staff in public universities in South-East Nigeria operates within a challenging institutional environment characterised by inadequate funding, deteriorating infrastructure, limited digital facilities, political interference, policy inconsistency, and the recurrent failure of goverrment to implement agreements reached with academic unions. These persistent challenges have contributed to declining job satisfaction and the increasing migration of qualified lecturers to other countries in search of better employment opportunities and improved working conditions. Against this backdrop, the study examined the influence of the working environment and interpersonal relationships on the job satisfaction of academic staff in public universities in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The study was anchored on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The population comprised 9,791 academic staff drawn from the ten public universities in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria. A sample size of 400 respondents was determined using the Yamane (1967) sample size determination formula. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequency distribution, mean, and standard deviation. Multivariate regression analysis was employed to test the influence of the independent variables (working environment and interpersonal relationship) on the dependent variable (job satisfaction).The findings revealed that working environment and interpersonal relationship significantly influence the job satisfaction of academic staff in public universities in South-East Nigeria at the 0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings, the study recommends that University management in South-East Nigeria should improve lecturers’ job satisfaction by providing a conducive working environment with adequate facilities and fostering positive interpersonal relationships through teamwork, effective leadership, staff engagement, and participatory decision-making.

1. Imade IDUOZEE, University of Benin

   Department of Human Resource Management, University of Benin

2. Kingsley Ufuoma OMOYIBO, University of Benin, Benin City

   Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Benin, Benin City, 

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