CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Although academic institutions occupy a unique employment sector, with unusual organizational characteristics and labor market conditions, they may be viewed as strategic sites for examining the gender segregation of jobs. In most colleges and universities, jobs are clearly segmented into the same distinct categories: faculty, top administrators, professional support personnel, clerical workers, and service workers. This segmentation makes comparisons across firms less problematic than in other employment sectors with more heterogeneous ways of creating a division of labor. Colleges and universities are unusual in other ways as well. They rely extensively on federal revenues, have mandatory equal employment opportunity (EEO-6) reporting procedures, and are often sponsored by and accountable to state governments. These intersecting conditions create strong pressures for academic organizations to comply with affirmative action regulations, at least minimally. At the same time, considerable variability in the gender composition of employees is to be expected because of the wide discretion that academic institutions exercise in developing and justifying their affirmative action goals and recruitment procedures, such as variations in the definition and narrowness of job qualifications and classifications and different ways of measuring the pool of available labor (like the state versus the national level).

Gender issues related to the differences of male and female were pinpointed in decade of 1950s, but highlighted as an important issue in management and organizational studies in between 1980s & 1990s. The duration between these two periods recognized the gender effects in different studies. Hearn & Parkin (1987) emphasized on female issue in those organizations who are dominated by male. Gender is defined as; “Gender comprises a range of differences between men and women, extending from the biological to the social” “Discrimination is treating differently on the basis of sex or race” (Word net web) on the basis of above definitions we can conclude that basically gender discrimination is preference of one gender upon other. The gender discrimination may exist in various dimensions which include hiring discrimination, differences in salary and wages, discrimination/differences in promotion and inequity related to different goods and facilities provided to different gender. Employee is a back bone of the organization that performs critical tasks for the survival of the organization and employee productivity affected by gender discrimination

Previous research in Nigeria focused on discrimination against men and women in terms of ethnic, religious and geographical identity. To overcome the challenge, the Federal Government of Nigeria introduced the principle of federal character that has to do with equal representation of people from the different segments of the society in the management of government and any of its agencies, such as Nigerian universities, for performance. The federal character principle is a political settlement that enables every section of the Nigerian society to be represented in government and a mere euphemism for ethnic balancing, which has the potential of solving the problem and fear of domination of one section of the country over the others. However, the federal character principle has been criticized for its inability to promote development. Further, subjecting recruitment/appointment and promotion to federal character discriminates against merit, and therefore unfair to certain sections of the country to the advantage of others.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Over a long historical period, the contribution of women to society beyond the home has been determined by social attitudes that predominate in society as being generally peripheral (Richards, 1980, p.32). Therefore, women had no legal identity, and were generally perceived as dependent and inferior to men. From the 18th Century, the legal entity of a woman after marriage was suspended or consolidated within that of the husband, who would have been regarded as the protector of their wife (Wilson, 1980, p.18). This historic recognition that males in society were more important than females presented a strong emphasis; this has inevitably turned to discrimination against women at work place. These deeply held views have made the transition to an equal society difficult. Gender discrimination manifests itself in several different ways in every step of the employment process, therefore this research decides to investigate the effect of gender discrimination and employee productivity among academic staff.

1.3     Objective of the Study

The main objective of this study is to find out the effect of gender discrimination on employee productivity among academic staff in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, specifically the study intends to:

1.     Find out the causes of gender discrimination among employee

2.     Analyze the effect of gender discrimination on employee productivity

3.     Proffer solution to the problem of gender discrimination among employees

1.4     Research Question

1.     What are the causes of gender discrimination among employee?

2.     Is there any significant effect of gender discrimination on employee productivity?

3.     What is the solution to the problem of gender discrimination among employees?

1.5     Research Hypothesis

Ho: there is no significant effect of gender discrimination on employee productivity

Hi: there is significant effect of gender discrimination on employee productivity

1.6     Significance of the Study

This research will be significance in diverse ways, firstly it will expose the employees both male and female to the effect of discrimination, as it affect performance of employee and organization negatively.

This research will also be useful to government and NGO to work toward a discrimination free society and formulate policy to reduce gender discrimination in the society.

Lastly this research will serve as a guide and reference point for the same research on gender discrimination.

1.7     Scope of the Study

This research will be conducted in Ogun state, staffs of Olabisi Onabanjo University will be used as study population. This research will examine concepts and literatures on employee productivity and gender discrimination.

1.8     Delimitation of the Study

Finance for the general research work will be a challenge during the course of study. Correspondents also might not be able to complete or willing to submit the questionnaires given to them.

However, it is believed that these constraints will be worked on by making the best use of the available materials and spending more than the necessary time in the research work. Therefore, it is strongly believed that despite these constraint, its effect on this research report will be minimal, thus, making the objective and significance of the study achievable.