Sheila Namagembe , Joseph M. Ntayi
Academic staff in Ugandan universities face a number of challenges that affect their career growth. Some of the challenges that affect their career growth include their individual ethical orientations and the culture of their universities. This study attempts to examine the relationship between individual ethical orientations, organizational culture and career growth of academic staff in Ugandan universities. Career growth is a very important area reason being universities have to ensure continuous learning takes place so as to match the changes in the market place. The research was based on academic staff in universities in Uganda. A Sample of 300 was taken composed of academic staff in these institutions. A survey questionnaire was used which was adopted from those used by previous scholars and was modified to suit the local setting. A response rate of 73% was achieved. The study established that individual ethical orientation explained 27 % of the variation in career growth of academic staff and organizational culture was introduced, both individual ethical orientation and organizational culture explained 43% of the variation in career growth of academic staff. The results show that organizational culture affects their career growth more than their individual ethical orientations. According to the results, when organizational culture was introduced the beta coeffients for individual ethical orientation dropped from 0.32 to 0.24. These results raise implications to the managers in these Universities. This is the first study to document the effect of individual ethical orientations and organizational culture on career growth of academic staff in Universities in Uganda. Universities in Uganda have failed to adopt the lifespan theory and also make the culture in the universities fit the interests of academic staff. A number of academic staff have resigned and many are yet to resign due to the poor culture in the universities which does not match or fit the self interests of academic staff. Academic staff in the universities put more emphasis on accumulating wealth rather than focusing on career growth. This has made academic staff in the institutions lose or put less emphasis on career growth. Despite the increasing resignations of academic staff in these Universities, the staff concerned with the administrative issues in the universities have neglected the issues of individual ethical orientations and organizational culture which have really stagnated career growth among the academic staff. The results show a correlation among the variables.
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