Organizational Structure and Employee Resilience in Public Universities in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

This work investigated the relationship between organizational structure and employee resilience in public universities in Anambra State, Nigeria. Specifically the study examined the relationship between nature of formalization and employee agility; chain of command and employee responsiveness and departmentalization and employee adaptability of public universities in Anambra State. This study was anchored on Contingency Theory and Goal Setting theory. Correlation research design was adopted. The study was carried out in Anambra State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprised 25800 academic and non- academic staff of the public Universities in Anambra State, Nigeria. The statistical formula devised by Godden (2004) was employed to determine a sample size of 587. The instrument used for the study was questionnaire. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation analysis was applied to determine the relationship between organizational structure and employee resilience of public universities in Anambra State, Nigeria. The result showed that nature of formalization had a significant relationship with employee agility of public universities in Anambra State, Nigeria (r = 0.869, p=0.000<0.05). Departmentalization had a significant relationship with employee adaptability of public universities in Anambra State (r = 0.813, p=0.000<0.05). Span of control had a significant positive correlation with employee resourcefulness in public universities in Anambra State, Nigeria (r = 0.813, p=0.000<0.05). The study concluded that organizational structure had a positive significant relationship with employee resilience in public universities in Anambra State, Nigeria. The study recommended that public universities should adjust the size of their structure and make it formalized and standardized in order to increase employee flexibility. Management of public universities should use decentralization as a dimension of organizational structure to restructure their organization.