Self-esteem and Job Status on Workplace Incivility among Administrative Staff of College of Education

Abstract

The frequency of workplace incivility among administrative staff in colleges of education in recent times is alarming. The increase in workplace incivility which could be as a result of low level of job satisfaction, workplace instability and workplace aggression is still on the rise despite enormous researches on incivility in the workplace. Pertinent to look into factors touching incivility in workplace especially on administrative staffs. This study therefore investigated self-esteem and job status on workplace incivility among administrative staff of colleges of education in Oyo state in particular, and the country, Nigeria as a whole. Descriptive survey design was employed and population for the study were administrative staffs of colleges of education. A total of three hundred participants were selected from three colleges of education in the state by means of multistage sampling procedure. The procedure of sampling was stratified to get three (3) strata and proportionate sampling was used to select five (5%) of administrative staff from each colleges of education which is three hundred administrative staffs as sample participants. Data collected were subjected to analysis by using frequency counts, percentages, correlation and multiple regressions. The result showed inversely positive significant relationships between workplace incivility and self-esteem (r = -.245, p < 0.05), next job status (r = -.271, p < 0.05). Thus, it could be said that workplace incivility increases when there is low job status and self- esteem among administrative staffs of college of education. The two variables equally took account for 35.8% variance in workplace productivity of administrative staff of the population of interest. The independent variables made positive relative contribution to workplace incivility of administrative staff in colleges of education in this order: self-esteem (Beta =.234, t= 1.957, P <0.05), followed by job status (Beta = .173, t= 1.270, P <0.05). Based on this finding, it is recommended that the provosts and Heads of Department need to improve on workplace civility with their administrative staffs; should create a work conducive environment and reward mechanism to all administrative staffs members of the institutions; since work environment is germane to workplace incivility, emphasis should be on how to improve the job status, self-esteem and other schemes that uphold and reduce administrative staff workplace incivility. Furthermore, research for the future is thus required to look into other possible factors that may sway workplace incivility.