Author(s): Igbadumhe Abaye Friday, Adeniji Anthoniaadenike, Osibanjo Adewale Omotayo, Falola Hezekiah Olubusayo, Salau Odunayo Paul, Ohunakin Folakemi
Job-hopping phenomenon seems to be common among academic staff of higher institutions. This is due to the increase in the number of Universities around the world. As such, their engagement has been reported to be in a steadying decline as academics’ mobility increases. This study examines remuneration as a determinant of Job-hopping intention and academics’ teaching engagement of selected universities in Southwest, Nigeria. In assessing the subject matter, a survey research design was adopted. Six hundred and twenty (620) respondents were surveyed across the selected universities in Southwest Nigeria using a five-point Likert scale method. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents for this study. Five hundred and forty-five (545) copies of the questionnaire reflecting (87.9%) response rate were returned and used for this analysis. The Structural Equation Model (PLS) was used to measure the perceived influence of remuneration on academics' teaching engagement. Results confirmed the relationship between perceived remuneration and teaching engagement to be 0.696 and directly significant at 0.05. The results also show that 48.8% variance of teaching engagement is explained by a unit change in remuneration. To a very large extent, selected federal universities had the topmost path coefficient of β = 0.347. To encourage academics' engagement, especially those in private universities, management should provide a competitive remuneration system, to include payment of allowances and fringe benefits to the level of satisfaction, so that when they compare their rewards to their colleagues in the similar institutions under the same job, they will be encouraged to stay with their institutions. The insights from this study would be of great benefit to the management and other stakeholders of universities, in order to develop an appropriate and equitable remuneration system that will enhance academics' teaching engagement. However, the study was limited in that it covered only a few universities, considering the number of universities in Nigeria. It would have been much more representative if it covered more public and private universities in Nigeria.