Industrial Harmony: Antidote to Workplace Deviant Behaviour among Lecturers in Nigeria

Abstract

The rampant deviant workplace behaviours among members of teaching personnel of universities have become critical issue both in academic discuss and society at large. The abnormal, unacceptable and inimical act jeopardizes the socio-economic, psychological and physical well-being of students in tertiary institutions as they could mar their future and cause distortions in their academic calendars thus warranting an empirical investigation to address the anomaly. This study, therefore, examines industrial harmony as an antidote to workplace deviant behavior among lecturers in Nigeria. The study specifically examines influence of collective bargaining variables construct on production deviant behavior among teaching personnel in institutions of high learning in Nigeria using descriptive and inferential statistics tools with sample of 290 participants from purposively selected universities in Nigeria. Findings of the study revealed that all the variables (wages, safety and health, management right, working conditions and fringe benefits) included the model exhibited a very powerful influence on workplace misbehaviour among lecturers in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This is explained using coefficient of determination (R2) and the F–test. The combined effect of the explanatory variables-independent variables-in the model accounts for 0.860 or 86% of the changes in the workplace deviant behaviour among lecturers in Nigeria. It indicates that 75.0% of the changes in workplace misbehaviour among teaching staff in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This means that only 14% of the variations in workplace misbehaviour among lecturers in tertiary institutions in Nigeria is attributable to many independent variables not embedded in the model. Therefore, it is critically important that the government addresses all matters affecting the wages, safety and health, management right, working conditions and fringe benefits of teaching staff union of universities in line with international best practices in the ongoing collective bargaining with the academic staff. This will aid in drastically reducing the production of deviant behaviour among lecturers in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.