Impact of Psychological and Sociological Empowerment on Innovative Work Behaviour of Accounting Lecturers in Public Universities as Moderated by Gender

Abstract

This study examined the impact of psychological and sociological empowerment on innovative work behaviour of accounting lecturers in public universities as moderated by gender. Three research questions and two hypothesis guided the study. The study adopted a correlation survey design. The study was conducted in 3 public Universities in South East Nigeria which offer Accounting Education in their degree programmme. These universities include; University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) Awka and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU). The population of the study is 125 respondents which comprises of 45 female lecturers and 82 male lecturers from Accounting departments in the 3 federal Universities. This study utilized a 15 item structured questionnaire titled “impact of psychological and sociological empowerment on innovative work behaviour of accounting lecturers” (IPSEIWBAL Questionnaire). The instrument has Four (4) sections. Section 1 contains personal data of the respondents such as Gender and Years of Working Experience. Section 2 – 4 were constructed to reflect the specific purposes of the study to elicit data from the respondents. The sections 2-4 had same response options which are, Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. The questionnaire was face-validated by three experts in the Department of Accounting, one each from the three Universities. Cronbach alpha method was used to test the internal consistency of the items, which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.85. Data collection was carried out by the researchers with the help of three research assistants. Data collected from the respondents was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS- 27.0). The statistical tools for data analysis was Pearson Moment correlation coefficient to answer each of the research question and interpreted as follows:0.90–1.00=Very High Correlation; 0.70-0.89=HighCorrelation;0.50-0.79=Moderate Correlation; 0.30-0.49=Low Correlation; 0.00-0.30=Very low/Negligible Correlation. The hypothesis for the study was tested at 0.05 level of significance using regression ANOVA.The study concluded that innovative work behavior of accounting lecturers is influenced by psychological and sociological empowerment. The study recommended that Universities should create a supportive environment to promote the professional development of younger and junior faculty, which will result in higher levels of psychological/sociological empowerment and work engagement and thus results to greater productivity for universities.

Keywords:Accounting Education, Accounting Lecturers, Psychological Empowerment, Sociological Empowerment and Innovative Work Behaviour.

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/16-3-09

Publication date: April 30^th 2024