BEHAVIOURAL REHEARSAL TECHNIQUE AND JOB COMMITMENT OF JUNIOR CIVIL SERVANTS IN OYO AND OGUN STATES, NIGERIA

Abstract

Job Commitment (JC), the relative strength of workers including civil servants in achieving the goals and mission of their establishment. Reports showed that junior civil servants in Oyo and Ogun states exhibited low JC. Previous studies have focused largely on restructuring and reformation, reskilling and retraining, wage adjustments, and employees’ motivation with less emphasis on Behavioural Rehearsal Technique (BRT). This study, therefore, determined the effects of Behavioural Rehearsal Technique (behavioural modeling, role playing, interpersonal skill management, and vicarious reinforcement) on JC of Junior Civil Servants (JCSs) in Oyo and Ogun states, Nigeria. The moderating effects of gender and motivational incentives were also examined. The study’s framework comprised Social Cognitive Learning Theory and Incentive Theory of Motivation, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design was adopted. Two ministries, each, in Oyo and Ogun states were conveniently sampled: Finance (32); and Education, Science and Technology (32); and Office of the Head of Service, Oyo State (15). Consenting JCSs who had records of low JC from official records and scored below 50% in the screening instrument were exposed to BRT (Oyo-48) and control group (Ogun-31). The instruments used were JC Screening, Motivational Incentives Scale (r=0.77), Civil Service Job Commitment Questionnaire (r=0.82) and BRT guide. The treatment lasted eight weeks. Data were analysed using percentage, mean and Analysis of covariance at α =0.05. The majority of the participants were males (53.0%), married (75.9%) with a mean age of 36.30±8.2 years; and on grade level I (1.3%), II (16.5%), III (1.3%), IV (24.1%), V (11.4%) and VI (45.6%). Their length of service were 0 - 5 (10.1%), 6 - 10 (55.7%), 11 - 15 (12.7%), 16 - 20 (6.3%), 21 - 25 (7.6%), and 26 - 30 (7.6%) years. There was a significant main effect of treatment on JC (F(1;79)=17.11; partial η2=.18). Participants in the BRT group had a higher postmean score (67.73) than those in the control (57.73) group. There was a significant main effect of incentives on JC (F(1;79)=6.32; partial η2=.08), but gender did not. Participants with more access to incentives had a higher postmean (66.87) than those with less access to incentives (60.51). There was a significant two-way interaction effect of incentives and gender (F(1;79)=5.49; partial η2=.07) in favour of males with more incentives, while the two-way interaction effects of treatment and gender, and treatment and incentives were not significant. There was a significant threeway interaction effect of treatment, gender and incentives on JC (F(1;79)=7.65; partial η2=.10) in favour of males exposed to BRT with more incentives . Behavioural rehearsal technique enhanced the job commitment of junior civil servants in Oyo and Ogun states, Nigeria. There is the need for the government to regularly adopt behavioural rehearsal techniques to boost job commitment level of junior civil servants; with adequate attention paid to motivational incentives.