PERSONALITY TRAITS AS CORRELATE OF PERCEIVED JOB PERFORMANCE OF BUSINESS EDUCATORS IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA .

ABSTRACT

The study investigated personality traits as correlate of perceived job performance of business educators in South-South Nigeria. Seven research questions were raised and answered while six hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

The study adopted correlational research design. The population of the study comprised  one hundred and thirty (130) business educators in public universities across the South-South region of Nigeria. The sample size for the study was 130 Business Educators in Business Education and Technical and Vocational Education Departments in public universities across the South-South region of Nigeria.  The research instrument used was a structured questionnaire titled “Personality Traits and Perceived Job Performance of business educators Questionnaire” (PTAPJPBEQ). A reliability coefficient of 0.62 was obtained for job performance scale and 0.69 for personality traits items using Cronbach Alpha statistics. Data collected from the respondents were analysed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis. The mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to test the hypotheses.

The findings revealed that the level of business educators’ job performance was relatively high. The study also revealed that conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience personality traits of business educators significantly correlated with their job performances. The study further revealed that neuroticism and extraversion personality traits of business educators did not significantly correlated with their job performances. It was concluded that dimensions of personality traits of business educators significantly correlated with their job performance but openness to experience had more predictive effect on business educators’ job performance. Based on the study, it was recommended that business educators should understand their personality traits and use it effectively to impact positively on their students; personality trait assessments should be one of the tools in recruitment and selection of business educators into public universities in South-South Nigeria by the universities authority and the government.