Influences of Emotional Intelligence and Self-Regulation on Attitude towards Unethical Work Behaviour among Academic Staff of Selected Tertiary Institutions in Nasarawa State (Published)
As custodian of knowledge and agents of change, the academics has a responsibility to demonstrate ethical behavior, maintain a professional working environment and provide services with a benevolent and caring attitude. In recent time, there has been an upsurge in the rate of unethical work behavior among academic staff which is becoming alarming. Despite all that is required of them with regard to ethics and discipline, a critical observation of the conduct of some academic staff in Nigeria has revealed a departure from this norm. Therefore, the study set out to examine the roles of emotional intelligence and self-regulation on attitude towards unethical work behavior among academic staff of Nigerian tertiary institutions. This study is an ex-post facto survey, with attitudes towards unethical behavior as a dependent variable and emotional intelligence and self-regulation as major independent variables. The study sample comprised two hundred and fifty members of academic staff randomly selected from the three selected tertiary institutions in Nasarawa State. The instrument of data collection for this study is questionnaire and were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The study revealed that emotional intelligence, self-regulation, age, gender and educational qualification contribute significantly to variance in attitude towards unethical work behavior. Recommendation includes that proper orientation and refresher workshop should be enhanced to include value analysis, with regard to ethical principles that may be unclear to academic staff. The analysis should include basic explanations of professional ethics.
Keywords: Academic Staff, Emotional Intelligence, Unethical Work Behavior, attitude, self-regulation