ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AMONG ACADEMIC STAFF OF BENSON IDAHOSA UNIVERSITY

Authors: Ruwan David Shadrach, Oyor Godspower, PhD & Ogugu Don Dickson

ABSTRACT

This paper examined the effect of organisational politics on employees’ commitment with organisational politics proxied by coalition-building and sabotage/undermining and the employee commitment proxied by affective, continuance and normative commitment. The study was conducted among the academic staff at Benson Idahosa University with  a total population of 270 staff. The census method was used as the entire population was included in the study. All the variables were performed using descriptive statistics and the correlation between variables was assessed using linear regression analysis. Every statistical test was conducted with 5 percent significant level using SPSS software. The results show that there is a positive and significant relation between coalition-building and affective and normative commitment but weak yet non-significant relation between coalition-building and continuance commitment. On the other hand, sabotage and undermining have a negative effect but without statistical significance on the affective and normative commitment whereas their effect on continuance commitment is not statistically significant. According to these findings, the study advises that universities need to be proactive towards building coalitions, put measures in place to discourage sabotage, improve staff involvement by adopting ethical leadership approaches, and make the working environment positive and committed by providing an effective communication channel.

Keywords: Academic staff.  Coalition-building, Employee commitment, Organisational politics and Sabotage.

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