Management Principles as Correlate of Personnel Administration in Public Universities in North Central, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated management principles as correlate of personnel administration in public
universities in North Central, Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study and three
hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlational research design was adopted
for the study. The population consisted 8,364 academic staff from 14 public universities in North
Central Nigeria. A sample of 836 academic staff members representing 10% of the population
from 14 public universities in North Central Nigeria was used for the study. Multistage sampling
procedure was used to select the sample for the study. The instruments used for data collection
were two set of questionnaire, titled “Management Principles Questionnaire (MPQ)” and
“Personnel Administration Questionnaire (PAQ)” with a reliability coefficient of 0.88 and 0.89
respectively. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to answer the research questions
and also to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed
that management principles have significant positive correlation with placement of academic
staff, academic staff training and delegation of responsibility in public universities in North
Central Nigeria. It was concluded that management principles have significant strong positive
correlation with personnel administration in public universities in North Central Nigeria. It was
therefore, recommended among others that heads of department should apply functional
definition principle to make placement. This could guarantee placement strictly on the basis of
skills and capabilities required to perform a job.