ADMINISTRATORS’ ETHICAL LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES AND EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study examined administrators’ ethical strategies and effective administration in public Universities in Rivers State. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlation research design. The area of the study was Rivers State. The population of the study consisted of 1,286 administrators in three Universities in Rivers State, which comprises of Rivers State University (RSU), University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE). Taro Yamane formular was used to determine the sample size used for the study. Sample size of 305 administrators from the three Universities were drawn from the population using stratified sampling technique. Two structured instruments titled ‟Administrators’ Ethical Leadership Strategies Questionnaire (AELSQ)” and “Effective Administration in Public Universities Questionnaire (EAPUQ) were used to elicit data from the respondents. The instrument was validated by two experts in the field of Measurement and Evaluation in Rivers State University. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha method. The reliability of the instrument gave a Cronbach Alpha index of 0.77, 0.73 and 0.83 which was considered reliable. The Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to answer the research questions and test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that, there is strong positive relationship between administrator’s role modelling strategy, administrators’ ethical policy enforcement strategy, administrator’s transparency strategy and effective administration in public Universities in Rivers State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that, university administrators should demonstrate ethical leadership by maintaining high moral standards, professionalism, and integrity in all decision-making processes.