Emloyees’ Characteristics and Job Performance of Staff of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education in Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between employee characteristics and job performance in Bayelsa State
Ministry of Education. The characteristics under investigation were gender, age, educational level and experience. A descriptive
design was adopted for the study. A sample size of 50 employees out of 221 members of staff representing 22.7% was randomly
selected for the study. A 14 item questionnaire titled “Employee Characteristics and Job Performance (ECJP) was developed to
collect data. The instrument was validated and a reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained using test-retest method. Four
hypotheses were used to guide the study and the null hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square statistical tool. The results of
the study revealed that there existed a relationship between all the characteristics examined and job performance. It was thus,
concluded that the poor performance of the staff of Ministry of Education could be attributed to employee characteristics. This
has ultimately and adversely affected the teaching and learning in the state schools. The study thus, recommended among other
things the recruitment of qualified personnel, and treating each individual distinctly to ensure high performance for the
educational development of the state.