Staff Management Practices in Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to examine staff management practices in Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria comprising of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi Enugu and Imo States. The study specifically sought to examine staff management practices with regard to: staff recruitment procedures; staff development; staff remuneration; staff motivation; staff supervision; factors militating against staff management and measures used in improving staff management. Based on the purposes of the study, seven research questions and five null hypotheses were used. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population consisted of 601, made up of 230 governing council members, 189 academic staff and 182 non-academic staff of the Pentecostal Seminaries. The entire population was used for the study. Two instruments: questionnaire and interview schedule were used. An instrument titled: Staff Management Practices of Pentecostal Seminaries Questionnaire (SMPPSQ) was used to collect data from the respondents. The interview schedule titled: Interview Schedule for Governing Council Members, Rectors/Provosts and Academic Staff in Pentecostal Seminaries (SGCMRPASPS) was used to gather information. The interviews were conducted with the aid of a mobile phone, a camera and voice recorder. The Cronbach Alpha Method was used to test the reliability of the instrument. The internal consistency reliability co-efficient values yielded 0.66, 0.77, 0.74, 0.54, 0.80, 0.93 and 0.95 for clusters A, B, C, D, E, F and G respectively and overall reliability figure of 0.77. The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics while mean scores and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed too that procedures to staff recruitment were practiced at a low degree in Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East Nigeria. The degree (level) of encouragement of staff development of Pentecostal Seminaries authorities is moderate. Findings also showed that staff remuneration in Pentecostal Seminaries is moderate. Staff motivation is to a great extent not in line with traditional management practices. Findings showed too that the approaches to staff supervision were efficient and effective compared to what is obtainable in educational management practices. Findings also showed that the factors militating against staff management of Seminaries are high. Findings showed too that the measures used in improving staff management in Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria, are high. Based on the findings, it was recommended that recruitment of staff should be conducted based on merit, devoid of favouritism, ethnicity and preferential treatment. Also, it was recommended that administrators (rectors/provosts) of Pentecostal Seminaries should adopt and adapt some measures for regular staff development programme, and that seminary authorities should harmonize the salary structure (remuneration/salaries and wages) of staff of Pentecostal seminaries to be in line with that of the government.