Management Styles and Job Stress as Predictors of Job Performance of Records Management Personnel in Selected Ministries in Rivers State Civil Service, Nigeria

Abstract

Records management personnel constitute the fulcrum around which the successful attainments of civil service goals revolve. Job performance is of high relevance in civil service and for individuals alike. Moreover, high performing personnel get promoted and rewarded. Job performance of records management personnel does not occur by chance or in a vacuum but is dependent on management styles, job stress and other motivational factors that are germane to increasing their productivity. However, preliminary survey revealed chaotic state of records in the registries and records centres with adverse implication for access to information for decision making in selected ministries. It is against this background that this study investigated the effect of management styles and job stress on job performance of records management personnel in selected ministries in Rivers State Civil Service, Nigeria. The descriptive survey design of correlational type was used for the study. The population of the study was made up of 315 records management personnel in the two selected ministries. The total enumeration technique was adopted due to the manageable size of the population. The questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. The result showed that predominant management styles in the selected ministries are democratic, laissez-faire, management by objectives and bureaucratic while autocratic was the least practiced. Factors that predispose records management personnel to job stress were undefined and conflicting roles in workplace, workload, lack of support from co-workers and supervisor, mismatch of task with personnel’s knowledge and ability and unconducive work environment, while job performance was low. Finally, since job performance does not occur arbitrarily, service administrators should employ trained and qualified records management personnel as well as train the existing ones to reposition registries, records centres and archives to provide information resources to meet the needs of information users and action officers in the civil service.