MOONLIGHTING PRACTICES AND CONTRIBUTION TO QUALITY MAINTENANCE IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study examined moonlighting practices among the academic staff of the tertiary institutions in Rivers State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study comprised 3,980 academic staff in the eight tertiary institutions in Rivers State with the sample size of 700 staff which was 17.6% of the population and was selected through stratified random sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled Moonlighting Practice for Maintenance of Academic Standard Questionnaire (MPMASQ). The reliability index of 0.73 was obtained using test re-test method whilePearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used for estimation. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while z-test of difference for independent samples was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that part-time provide requisite knowledge needed in the places of their secondary service and manpower building capacity. They also assist in the establishment of new departments and faculties. Services provided by casual workers are marked with dissatisfaction, demoralization and inferiority complex. Some of the recommendations of the study included that part-time working arrangement and casualization of workers should be scrapped by the government and the employees given full employment. Also, the government should provide adequate and proper working conditions to checkmate the adverse effects of moonlighting practices.