Work Incentives and Job Commitment among University Lecturers in Ekiti State (Published)
The study investigated work incentives and job commitment among university lecturers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study examined the extent to which lecturers are committed to their job in the university as well as the level of work incentives available to lecturers in university. The study investigated the relationship between each of the work incentives components (remuneration, recognition and job security) and job commitment of university lecturers. The study adopted a descriptive research design of the survey type. The population for the study consisted of 1,185 lecturers in the three universities in Ekiti State as the time of this study. The sample for the study consisted of 300 respondents selected from the 3 universities using multistage sampling procedure which involved simple and purposive sampling techniques. The instrument used for this study was self-designed questionnaire titled ‘Work Incentives and Lecturers Job Commitment Questionnaire (WILJCQ)’. The instrument was validated by experts in Educational Management and Tests and Measurement. Test-retest method of reliability was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument. The data collected from the administration of the instruments were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and a reliability co-efficient of 0.76 was obtained for WILJCQ which was considered high enough to be reliable for the study. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the level of work incentives available to lecturers was moderate. The study also showed the extent to which lecturers are committed to their job in the universities. The study further revealed that there was significant relationship between work incentives and lecturers’ job commitment in universities in Ekiti State. Work incentives are highly related to lecturers’ job commitment. It was found that there was significant positive relationship between remuneration and lecturers’ job commitment. There was no significant relationship between recognition and lecturers’ job commitment. The study also revealed a positive significant relationship between job security and lecturers’ job commitment. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that prompt payment of salaries and allowances as well as all other allowances to lecturers should be paid as and when due, as this goes a long way to improve lecturers’ job commitment. It is also recommended that management of universities should put in place favourable conditions of service that will guarantee job security of academic staff towards enhancing their job commitment.
Keywords: Job Security, Recognition, Remuneration, Work incentives, job commitment
Influence of Recognition, Rewards, Remuneration, Compensation and Benefits on the Lecturers’ Job Satisfaction in Kenyan Universities (Published)
To have in place quality staff that can make meaningful contribution, certain supportive incentives and measures are necessary. This paper examines the influence of such supportive incentives on the lecturers’ job satisfaction in Kenyan Universities. A study that targeted 2,773 members of university management and lecturers in the chartered public and private universities within Rift Valley Region of Kenya was undertaken. The study used a sample of 605 participants and employed convergent parallel mixed methods design. Purposive sampling was also used to select information-rich cases. Questionnaires, interview and document analysis guides were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, independent-samples t-test, One-way ANOVA and regression coefficients, with the use of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 were used. The study identified job satisfaction elements like fair promotions, assignment of additional responsibility as a result of outstanding work, among others. However, potential sources of job dissatisfaction included: lack of competitive rates; lack of adequacy of pay commensurate to work done; dissatisfaction with salary, among others. The author recommends that universities should work towards raising the level of job satisfaction through supportive incentives.
Keywords: Benefits and Compensation, Incentives, Job Satisfaction, Recognition, Remuneration, Rewards
Innovative Approach to Teaching Arabic Writing by Using a Handwriting Recognition System (Published)
This article presents the development of an Arabic online handwriting recognition system based on neural networks approach. It offers solutions for most of the difficulties linked to Arabic writing recognition. Secondly, our proposed system will be integrated in a computer assisted languagelearning tool to create educational activities and to generate adequate feedback. This environment uses tools from natural language processing, mainly our handwriting recognition system, to create various educational activities. The developed system will be used as a tool for learning and teaching Arabic as a foreign language
Keywords: Activities, Handwriting, Language, Learning, Neural, Recognition