ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION, SHARED VISION AND LOYALTY AS PREDICTORS OF ACADEMIC STAFF JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN CROSS RIVER STATE

Abstract

This study examined the influence of organizational communication, shared vision and loyalty as predictors of academic staff job performance in public universities in Cross River State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three research questions. Thee hypotheses were formulated and tested. The population consisted of 3,262 academic staff drawn from three public universities in Cross River State. A sample size of 344 academic staff was determined using the Krejcie and Morgan sampling model. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled Organisational Communication, Shared Vision, Organisational Loyalty and Academic Staff Job Performance Questionnaire (OCSVOLASJOPQ)”. To ensure validity, the instrument was subjected to expert review for face and content validity, while reliability was established through a pilot test involving which yielded a Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficients 0.95 indicating high internal consistency of the instrument. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while the hypotheses were tested using Chi-square test of goodness of fit at a 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study revealed that open communication, shared vision and organizational loyalty all had significant positive influence on academic staff job performance by enhancing commitment, cooperation, motivation, productivity, and overall effectiveness in teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made among others: University management should strengthen open communication channels within the university system to enhance information flow and reduce misunderstandings. This should be implemented by University Registry and Communication Units, who should establish structured feedback systems and effective internal communication platforms.