Organisational Structure and Personnel Management Practices in Public Universities in Nigeria

This study examined the relationship between organisational structure and personnel management practices in Nigerian universities. The study was a correlational type using twelve federal and six state universities that were randomly selected for the study. Purposive random sampling technique was adopted to choose 1080 academic staff, 720 administrative staff and 1800 students that were involved in the management of the institutions as respondents to the instrument. A researcher-designed instrument, tagged “Organisational Structure and University Management Practices Questionnaire” (OSUMPQ) was used to collect data in the study. The instrument was validated at the face value by experts in the field of Educational Management and Measurement and Evaluation after which a pilot test was carried out to ascertain their reliability using split-half reliability test technique and 0.97 reliability co-efficient was obtained. One research question and two null hypotheses were generated to guide the study. Mean and percentage were used to answer the research question while Pearson product-moment correlational statistical analysis was used to test the hypotheses generated at 0.05 significance level. The results of data analysis showed, among others, that: the type of organisational structure that predominantly existed in Nigerian universities was organic with weighted mean percentage of 55.5 while mechanistic structure had a weighted mean percentage of 45.5. Furthermore, the results showed that organisational structure had significant relationship (0.492 and 0.789) with staff personnel management practices and students’ personnel management practices respectively. It was, therefore, recommended among others, that organisational structure in the Nigerian universities should be respected in the institutions’ management practices. Institutional managers should continue to encourage innovation and creativity, and should be more proactive in discharging their managerial responsibilities. Also, communication network should be widely opened between the management staff of Nigerian universities and other major stakeholders (Staff and students personnel) for effective management practices in the institutions. Keywords: Organisations, Organisational structure, Staff Personnel, Students’ Personnel, Management Practic