RECRUITMENT-SELECTION CRITERIA AND NIGERIANS’ ACADEMIC JOB PERFORMANCE

In the last one (1) decade, the graduates of Nigerian Universities have come under searchlight wherein their employability has been questioned in the Nigerian labor market and this explains the rationale behind the focus of the study that set out to examine the relationship between components of recruitment and selection criteria and job performance academic in the State-owned Universities in the Southwest of Nigeria as the unit of analysis. The study identified criteria such as age, qualification, and experience as well as technology, political consideration, and indigene to be in use in these State-owned Universities. The questionnaire was randomly administered to collect data from 343 respondents chosen through a proportional sampling technique for 8months. The results showed that there is strong relationship between qualification, experience and job performance where qualification (r = 0.652, p < 0.05), experience (r = 0.612, p < 0.05) and that of political consideration and indigene criteria were inversely correlated at (r = -0231, p < 0.01) and (r = -0.211, p < 0.01) respectively. The findings of the study revealed that employment decision was greatly influenced by political consideration and indigene criteria which made the employment decision to be devoid of objectivity Thus, concluded that employment decision in the academic environment of the Nigerian labor market was not merit-based as political interests have been used to substitute meritocracy with mediocrity without recourse to consequences.