Relationship between Performance Appraisal Criteria and Lecturers‟ Productivity in Universities in South-West Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria

Performance appraisal plays significant role in lecturers’ productivity. There is general opinion that the Nigerian university education is decaying in terms of the quality of its outputs, thus necessitating this study. The present study therefore investigated the relationship between performance appraisal criteria and lecturers’ productivity in universities in south-west geo-political zone, Nigeria. Correlational survey method was employed for the study.The population of the study comprised all 4,991 lecturers of the five federal universities in south-west geo-political zone, Nigeria. Proportional sampling technique was used to select 1,360 lecturers from the five federal universities using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sampling table. The study indicated that the level of lecturers’ productivity in teaching in universities in South-west geo-political zone, Nigeria is on the average; that level of lecturers’ productivity in research in universities in South-west geo-political zone, Nigeria is high; and that the level of lecturers’ productivity in community service in universities in South-west geo-political zone, Nigeria is low. The study concluded that to enhance lecturers’ productivity especially in teaching and community service, lecturers’ performance appraisal criteria must be reviewed. Based on the findings of the study, it was therefore recommended among others that the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National University Commission should review the performance appraisal criteria of academic staff especially those in humanities related disciplines.

Keywords: Appraisal, criteria, productivity