Asian Themes in Social Sciences Research

ISSN: 2578-5516
Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-9
2022
DOI: 10.33094/atssr.v7i1.69
© 2023 by the authors; licensee Knowledge Press, USA

Accepted: 15 December 2022 | Published: 13 February 2023

Relationship between promotion and employees' performance:

Evidence from the university of Abuja

Innocent Uchechukwu Duru1* --- Millicent Adanne Eze2 --- Abubakar Yusuf3 --- Iyaji
Danjuma4 --- Abubakar Sadiq Saleh5
1
Department of Economics, Rhema University Nigeria, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria.
Email: iud3x@yahoo.com
2
School of Business, Law and Social Sciences, Abertay University, Dundee, United Kingdom.
Email: ezemillicent@gmail.com
3
National Metallurgical Development Centre, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.
Email: bbkr_yusuf2000@yahoo.com
4
Department of Economics, Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno State, Nigeria.
Email: danjumaiyaji@gmail.com
5
Department of Banking and Finance, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
Email: abubakar.saleh@nileuniversity.edu.ng

Abstract
This study investigated the relationship between promotion and employees' performance at the
University of Abuja. The study utilized a descriptive research design. The multiple regression
methodology and descriptive statistics were employed for the analysis of data. The data was
derived through structured questionnaires from 337 workers at the University of Abuja. The
findings indicated that the university treats you fairly and equitably with regard to
promotion, the university provides opportunities for career development and the university
provides promotional opportunities had a positive influence on employees’ performance at the
University of Abuja. Conversely, the university is fair and equitable in its treatment of
management had a negative impact on employees’ performance at the University of Abuja.
However, the university provides clear and consistent requirements for promotion, the
university supports ongoing professional development, the university acknowledges the long
hours you devote to work and the university rewards excellence in performance through a
promotion system did not exert a significant effect on employees’ performance at the
University of Abuja. The University treats you fairly and equitably with regard to promotion,
the university provides opportunities for career development and the university provides
promotional opportunities had a positive influence on employees’ performance at the
University of Abuja. However, the university is fair and equitable in its treatment of
management had a negative impact on employees’ performance at the University of Abuja.
The results suggest that the management of the University of Abuja should continue treating
their employees fairly concerning promotion to increase performance. In addition, the
university management should sustain their policies on promotions and career development.
Furthermore, the management of the University of Abuja needs to review and reinforce the
way it handles its management.

Keywords: Employee’s performance, Nigeria, Promotion, University of Abuja.

Licensed: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Funding: This study received no specific financial support.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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 Asian Themes in Social Sciences Research 2023, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-9

1. Introduction
The realization of an organizational mission and vision in a world characterized by competition and
uncertainties is contingent on the satisfaction of its workforce. Workers' satisfaction in organizations could be
attained through promotion among other factors. In developing and developed economies, promotion acts as a
veritable instrument for self-development, the attainment of workers satisfaction, the development of the spirit
of competition, reduction of workers turnover, the attraction of skilled and industrious individuals and
realization of optimal performance from the workforce. The low performance of universities in Nigeria in
particular and Africa in general is a major challenge of the 21st century. There is no African university in the
first 244 universities ranked in the web ranking of universities in the world (Webometrics, 2022).
The performance of employees in private and public institutions is a critical issue because it serves as the
yardstick for employees' promotion to higher ranks. The recommendation of Chen and Silverthorne (2008)
that the performance scores of employees should be used as the benchmark for promotion to foster hard work
and competition among employees for the advancement of business organizations' growth and development
underlines this. In the contention of Hameed and Amjad (2009) promotion is important to employees and the
owners of the business. Arthur, Kaphova, and Wilderon (2005) stated that it inspires promoted workers to
increase their productivity resulting in improvement in the general growth and development of organisations.
No wonder, Yasmeen, Umar, and Fahad (2013) stressed that job promotion exerts a powerful effect on the
performance of organizations. Thus, workers' promotion in organizations should follow laid-down promotion
policies and practices. The findings of this study may inform the design of appropriate promotion practices to
drive the productivity of workers at the University of Abuja. In addition, the findings would enable the
policymakers of government to make knowledgeable decisions in the articulation of incentive policies in
tertiary institutions. Furthermore, the findings may result in a policy for the attraction, satisfaction and
retention of competent workers at the University of Abuja.
Armstrong (1984) stressed that promotion inspires individuals to work in an organization for a long time
for the fulfilment of their needs, which subsequently results in increased performance and stability of
organizations. Thus, as was stated by Tilahun (2019) ''the loss of employee represents a loss of skills,
knowledge and experiences which can create a significant economic impact and cost to the organization as well
as impacting the needs of customers (p. 4).
The Nigeria's National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025, envisions an economy on the path to
unlocking its capability in every sector of the economy for sustainable and all-inclusive national development
(Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (FMFBNP, 2020). This plan is tailored towards
the attainment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s pledge of removing 100 million Nigerians from poverty in
10 years. Specifically, 21 million permanent jobs are expected to be created by this plan by 2025. In addition,
by 2025, 35 million persons are anticipated to be lifted out of poverty. As was stated in the plan, high-quality
economic growth and a more inclusive economy are the avenues through which these goals can be
accomplished using its youthful labour force and supplemented by the ability for implementation at national
and subnational levels.
Therefore, Nigeria will grow meaningfully in the direction of unlocking its capacities in every sector of
the economy for sustainable and all-inclusive national development with the efficient execution of this plan. As
part of other issues for implementation, if the young workforces who are also part of the University system are
not adequately motivated through promotions among others, this objective may not be achieved.
Notwithstanding the presence of some academic and non-academic staff that are highly productive, generally,
the University of Abuja is lagging far behind similar institutions in the universe.
Statistics from the ranking of world universities confirm this. This statistical fact underscores the poor
performance of African universities in general and the University of Abuja in particular. No wonder, Duru,
Eze, Yusuf, Udo, and Saleh (2022) stated that ''the Federal Government of Nigeria has been deficient in the
management of workers of government universities in Nigeria, particularly from the perspective of career
advancement, remuneration and training of these workers'' (p. 70). Again, regardless of the attempts by the
management of the University of Abuja to promote its workers, some employees believe that promotions are
delayed and characterized by nepotism as well, resulting in labour turnover particularly the loss of highly
skilled employees.
Most of the time, all the employees qualified for promotions are not promoted. This prompts the question
of whether the management of the University of Abuja engages in annual performance evaluation at the
appropriate time and promotes their employees based on it to inspire them and prepare them to adapt to
increased competition triggered by changes in economic and political environments, changes in technology
and globalization to improve their performances?
The objective of this study is to examine the influence of promotion practices on employees' performance
at the University of Abuja. The question to address is what is the influence of promotion practices on
employees' performance at the University of Abuja? The rest of this paper is organized into five sections. The
second section discusses the literature review and theoretical framework. The methodology was discussed in
section three. Section four would focus on results and discussions. Section five consists of conclusion and
recommendations.

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 Asian Themes in Social Sciences Research 2023, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-9

2. Theoretical and Empirical Issues

2.1. Theoretical Framework
This study was reinforced by the equity theory developed by Adams (1963). This theory proposed that
employees would be motivated to work better when there is fair treatment in the workplace. In other words,
when the promotion practices in an organization are fair, the motivation of employees increases resulting in
increased performance and productivity respectively. Furthermore, this theory stressed the need for a balance
between employees' work inputs and outputs in the workplace referred to as inputs and outputs. Perkins
(2011) opined that this is the yardstick for determining what represents a fair balance of inputs and outputs.
Johnsrud and Rosser (2002) maintained that workers' impacts on the establishment, comprising of
education level, hard work, loyalty, number of years with the establishment, skills and training constitute
inputs. Contrariwise, the apparent reward that employees can obtain from this circumstance, which is
promotion, in this situation is known as outputs or outcomes. Thus, in the contention of Adams (1965) the
ratio of input to the output of workers should be compared to the ratio of input to the output of their co-
workers in the same circumstances and workplaces. Hence, this theory strikes a balance between the ratio of
input to the output of an employee to attain satisfaction which in this case is promotion. Thus, any
establishment that wants to retain its employees needs to adopt equity principles concerning promotion.
This is premised on the fact that workers appreciate fair treatment contingent on their responsibilities. As
far as the promotion of employees is concerned, workers compare their labours to climb through the stages of
an establishment to their co-workers to draw motivation to boost their performance or not (Ansah, 2017).
Adam's equity theory proposed that workers will be motivated, glad and work to boost the production level in
the organization if inputs are justly and sufficiently rewarded by outputs (Adams & Kirst, 1998). By
implication, if the efforts of the employees are yielding the desired reward for getting promotions compared to
co-workers, it would motivate them to increase their performance. Hence, if workers' promotions are based on
the results of the annual performance evaluation, there would be an improvement in the general performance
of the organization. Bowles and Gelfand (2010) maintained that this happens if the annual performance
evaluation results are used as the main standard for promotion in an establishment. In contrast, when the
annual performance evaluation results are not utilized as a yardstick for promotion, workers will not be
motivated to boost their performance in an establishment. It results in work dissatisfaction, low morale of
workers, low workers performance and poor organizational performance. One of the ways through which
employees can get this kind of promotion is nepotism. However, Ross and Kapitan (2018) claimed that the
absence of equity at the workstation could prompt dissatisfied workers to leave their present jobs in pursuit of
well-paid jobs or reduce the overall productivity of the organization by lowering their effectiveness at work.
Based on the equity theory, two things to be considered by managers for promotion are a uniform chance
for promotion among all workers and the link between workers' inputs and outputs (Hellriegel, Slocum, &
Woodman, 1998). As far as the current study is considered, the position of the equity theory is that promotion
practices at the University of Abuja should be free and fair to motivate the workers to improve their general
performance. Thus, when workers are satisfied with the University of Abuja's promotion practices, it would
serve as a yardstick to perform better causing an increase in performance.

2.2. Review of Empirical Studies

The studies on the relationship between promotion and employees’ performance (Ansah, 2017; Hidig,
2014; Ligare, Wanyama, & Aliata, 2020; Peter, 2014; Ratemo, Bula, & Makhamara, 2021; Rinny, Purba, &
Handiman, 2020; Winoto, Surati, & Wahyulina, 2021) were little. First, Peter (2014) employed the survey
research design and descriptive statistics to investigate the effect of promotion on employees' performance at
Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC). The 150 employees employed for this study were selected from 300
employees utilizing purposive, convenience and simple random sampling techniques. The results revealed the
awareness of promotion procedures among DCC workers. However, there was an emphasis that it should be
spelt out clearly to all workers by the human resource department.
In addition, the results showed that promotion influenced the performance of employees and the
organization respectively. Furthermore, the findings revealed that non-adherence to procedures of promotion
affected individual and organizational performance respectively. These were in terms of accumulated
promotion, poor performance, poor relations and labour turnover. Hidig (2014) used descriptive research
design and inferential statistics to examine the link between promotion policies and employees' performance in
Golis Company branches in Dhahar. The 160 employees employed for this study were selected from 267
employees utilizing purposive and systematic sampling techniques and the Slovene formula. The results
revealed that promotion policies had a positive and significant relationship with employees' performance.
Ansah (2017) utilized the mixed method research design to determine the effectiveness of two criteria of
promotion in engendering the performance of the senior staff of the University of Cape Coast. Five assistant
registrars and 200 senior employees constituted the sample. The findings indicated that supervisors had mixed
opinions about the qualification criteria for senior staff promotion. In addition, the results showed that the
systems of promotion had a significant influence on senior staff performance. Rinny et al. (2020) used the
multiple linear regression methodology to investigate the relationship between compensation, job promotions,

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 Asian Themes in Social Sciences Research 2023, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-9

job satisfaction and the performance of the academic staff of Mercu Buana University. The 77 employees
employed for this study were selected from 332 employees utilizing the convenience sampling technique.
The findings indicated that job promotions and job satisfaction exerted a positive influence on the
academic staff performance of Mercu Buana University. However, compensation had a negative and
insignificant effect on the performance of the academic staff of Mercu Buana University. In Kenya, Ligare et al.
(2020) used a survey research design, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to investigate the influence
of job promotion on the performance of administrative police officers in Bungoma County. The 384
administrative police officers employed for this study were selected from 1318 administrative police officers
utilizing simple random sampling, stratified random sampling and systematic random sampling methods. The
findings revealed a positive and significant relationship between job promotion and the performance of
administrative police officers in Bungoma County. Ratemo et al. (2021) used a survey research design,
descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to examine the influences of job promotion practices on workers'
performance at Kenya Forestry Research Institute in Muguga. The 121 workers used for this study were
chosen from 178 employees using a stratified random sampling method. The results indicated that job
promotion practices exerted a significant effect on employee performance at Kenya Forestry Research
Institute. The effect of demotion, promotion and transfer on work motivation and performance of the West
Nusa Tenggara Regional Police was investigated by Winoto et al. (2021) employing the Structural Equation
Model (SEM) Partial Least Square (PLS). The findings disclosed that promotion and transfer exerted a
positive influence on work motivation.
Contrariwise, demotion exerted a negative effect on work motivation. However, motivation exerted a
positive influence on the performance of West Nusa Tenggara Regional Police. The literature review indicated
that studies on the relationship between promotion and employees’ performances were limited. A number of
the studies were undertaken in the context of other African countries. On the other hand, the absence of
empirical studies on the nexus between promotion and employee performance in Nigeria informed this study.
To the best of our knowledge, the only related previous study in Nigeria had a different focus. This was the
study conducted by Abdulmumini (2021) on the impact of promotion on academic staff development in the
State Higher Educational Institutions of Borno State. This study consequently intends to close this gap by
examining the relationship between promotion and employee performance at the University of Abuja.

3. Methodology
This study was based on the University of Abuja and employed the descriptive research design. The 2145
employees of the University of Abuja formed the study population. It involves 640 academic staff and 1505
non-academic staff. The Yamane’s formula was utilized to select a sample of 337 workers from the population
of 2145 workers.
𝑁
𝑛=
1 + 𝑁(𝑒)2
𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒:
𝑛 = 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒
𝑁 = 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑒 = 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 (%)
Substitution into the formula yields:
2145
𝑛=
1+2145(0.05)2
2145
𝑛=
1 + 2145(0.0025)
2145
𝑛=
1 + 5.3625
2145
𝑛=
6.3625
𝑛 = 337.13
The sampling method used for this study was simple random sampling. It was utilized to ensure that each
worker has an equal chance of being chosen in the sample. The instrument for data gathering was a structured
questionnaire. The eight items established by Krivokapic-Skoko, O'Neill, and Dowell (2009) were used to
measure promotion. On the other hand, we employed 11 items to measure workers’ performance. Out of the 11
factors of work performance, productivity was utilized to measure it because it was extensively used by other
scholars in the literature. Regression methodology and descriptive statistics were employed for the analysis of
data. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to determine the presence of unique items from the
construct of promotion.

4. Results and Discussions

Out of the Three Hundred and Thirty-Seven questionnaires administered to respondents, 300
questionnaires were retrieved. This denotes response and non-response rates of 89% and 11% respectively. A
Cronbach-alpha reliability value of 0.969 and 0.859 was realized for work performance measures and construct
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 Asian Themes in Social Sciences Research 2023, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-9

of promotion respectively. These values showed that the instrument was reliable. A Cronbach Alpha score of
0.932 was obtained for the whole instrument. These coefficients were deemed reliable for data analysis. Table
1 shows the background characteristics of the respondents. The background characteristics of the respondents
are depicted in Table 1. It revealed that 220 respondents representing 73.3% were the academic staff.
Conversely, 80 respondents representing 26.7% were the non-academic staff. It revealed that 116 respondents
representing 38.7% had worked at the University of Abuja between 11 to 15 years. However, the rest
representing 61.3% were distributed among less than 5 years, 6 to 10 years, 11 to 15 years, 16 to 20 years, 21
to 25 years and 26 years and above. From the angle of their marital status, 225 respondents representing 75%
were married and 75 respondents representing 25% were single. However, 0 or 0% was shared equally by the
divorced, never married, engaged to be married, widowed and separated. The findings showed that 235
respondents representing 78.3% were male and the remaining 65 respondents representing 21.7% were female.
Furthermore, 124 respondents in the age group of 31 to 35 years representing 41.3% constituted the majority.
Conversely, the remaining respondents in the age groups of 21 to 25 years, 26 to 30 years, 36 to 40 years, 41
to 45 years, 46 to 50 years, 51 to 55 years and 56 to 60 years represented 58.7%. In terms of education, 272
respondents representing 90.7% had tertiary education. In addition, 16 respondents representing 5.3% had
secondary education. However, 12 respondents representing 4% had polytechnic education.

Table 1. Percentage distribution of respondents based on background characteristics.

Variable Items Frequency Percentage (%)
Type of staff Academic staff 220 73.3
Non-academic staff 80 26.7
Total 300 100.0
Number of years worked Less than 5 years 40 13.3
6-10 Years 49 16.3
11-15 Years 116 38.7
16-20 Years 29 9.7
21-25 Years 40 13.3
26 Years and above 26 8.7
Total 300 100.0
Marital status Married 225 75.0
Single 75 25.0
Widowed 0 0.0
Separated 0 0.0
Never married 0 0.0
Divorced 0 0.0
Engaged to be married 0 0.0
Total 300 100.0
Gender Male 235 78.3
Female 65 21.7
Total 300 100.0
Age 21-25 Years 4 1.3
26-30 Years 41 13.7
31-35 Years 124 41.3
36-40 Years 14 4.7
41-45 Years 42 14.0
46-50 Years 15 5.0
51-55 Years 45 15.0
56-60 Years 15 5.0
61-65 Years 0 0.0
66-70 Years 0 0.0
Total 300 100.0
Education No education 0 0.0
Primary education 0 0.0
Secondary education 16 5.3
Polytechnic education 12 4.0
Tertiary education 272 90.7
Total 300 100.0
Source: Field survey, 2022.

In Table 2, the evaluation of the effectiveness of promotion practices at the University of Abuja was done
through a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The eight items used to measure promotion were adopted from
Krivokapic-Skoko et al. (2009). The respondents were requested to assess their agreement level with the
promotion practices at the University of Abuja.

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Table 2. Influences of promotion practices at the University of Abuja.

Code Opinion Strongly Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Sum Mean Std. Rank
agree (X4) (X3) (X2) disagree dev.
(X5) (X1)
PP1 The university provides clear and consistent 275 424 174 88 37 998 3.33 1.28 1st
requirements for promotion
PP2 The university treats you fairly and equitably with 50 500 150 136 47 883 2.94 1.19 2nd
regard to promotion
PP3 The university is fair and equitable in its treatment 45 252 177 210 64 748 2.49 1.13 4th
of management
PP4 The university provides opportunities for career 190 116 126 212 85 729 2.43 1.33 5th
development
PP5 The university supports ongoing professional 245 92 102 86 151 676 2.25 1.53 7th
development
PP6 The university provides promotional opportunities 215 128 96 44 171 654 2.18 1.54 8th
PP7 The university acknowledges the long hours you 45 344 126 238 44 797 2.66 1.13 3rd
devote to work
PP8 The university rewards excellence in performance 45 360 99 70 133 707 2.36 1.38 6th
through a promotion system
Note: PP denotes promotion practices.
Source: Field survey, 2022.

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The average of a five points ranking scale (3.00) was used as a standard for decision. If the mean value was
≥ 3.00, the view was regarded as agreed. Conversely, if the mean value was < 3.00, the view was regarded as
not agreed. The respondents agreed that the university provides clear and consistent requirements for
promotion. It was ranked first and was the only promotion construct variable ranked above a mean score of
3.00. On the other hand, the respondents accepted that the remaining practices of promotion were ineffective
at the University of Abuja. This was underscored by the ranking of these promotion practices below the mean
score of 3.00.

Table 3. Factor analysis results of the construct of promotion.

Code Factors and observed variables Loadings Eigenvalues Percentage
of variance
Factor: Promotion practices
PP1 The university provides clear and consistent 0.713 4.199 52.483
requirements for promotion.
PP2 The university treats you fairly and equitably with 0.786 2.239 27.988
regard to promotion.
PP3 The university is fair and equitable in its treatment of 0.856 0.670 8.372
management.
PP4 The university provides opportunities for career 0.851 0.292 3.645
development.
PP5 The university supports ongoing professional 0.790 0.279 3.482
development.
PP6 The university provides promotional opportunities. 0.779 0.157 1.963
PP7 The university acknowledges the long hours you devote 0.405 0.124 1.554
to work.
PP8 The university rewards excellence in performance 0.470 0.041 0.514
through a promotion system.
Total variance explained by motivation 100.000
Note: Extraction method: Principal component analysis. KMO measure of sampling adequacy = 0.754, Bartlett’s chi-square 2304.44 with 28 D.F., p <
0.05, and bartlett’s test of sphericity = 0.000.

The PCA result is shown in Table 3. No element of promotion practices was rejected. The whole factors
showed good internal reliability and were validated for additional analysis. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO)
measurement assumption was satisfied. The relevance of the investigation was underscored by the KMO value
of 0.754. The importance of factor analysis was further underlined by the significance of the Bartlett test of
sphericity.

Table 4. Results of regression analysis.

Factor/Model Unstandardized Standard t-statistic Sig.
coefficients error
Constant 0.636 0.187 3.397 0.001
The university provides clear and consistent -0.090 0.070 -1.300 0.195
requirements for promotion
The university treats you fairly and equitably 0.556 0.087 6.425 0.000
with regard to promotion
The university is fair and equitable in its -0.309 0.081 -3.807 0.000
treatment of management
The university provides opportunities for 0.254 0.093 2.732 0.007
career development
The university supports ongoing professional -0.237 0.135 -1.756 0.080
development
The university provides promotional 0.660 0.109 6.037 0.000
opportunities
The university acknowledges the long hours 0.003 0.098 0.031 0.976
you devote to work
The university rewards excellence in 0.039 0.081 0.488 0.626
performance through a promotion system
Model parameters
R2 0.571
Adjusted R2 0.559
F-value (Sig.) 48.394 (0.000)
Note: Dependent variable: Workers’ performance.

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The findings of the regression analysis are shown in Table 4. The findings showed that four factors of
promotion practices had a significant relationship with workers’ performance at the University of Abuja. The
university treats you fairly and equitably with regard to promotion had a positive effect on employees’
performance at the University of Abuja. The university is fair and equitable in its treatment of management
had a negative impact on employees’ performance at the University of Abuja. In addition, the university
provides opportunities for career development exerted a positive influence on employees’ performance at the
University of Abuja. Furthermore, the university provides promotional opportunities had a positive effect on
employees’ performance at the University of Abuja. The findings revealed that promotion practices explained
57% of employees’ performance at the University. The good fit of the model was underlined by the F-statistic
of 48.394 and its significance estimate of 0.000.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations

Four out of the eight promotion practices did not have a significant effect on employees’ performance at the
University of Abuja. These are as follows: the university provides clear and consistent requirements for
promotion, the university supports ongoing professional development, the university acknowledges the long
hours you devote to work and the university rewards excellence in performance through a promotion system.
In addition, three promotion practices had a positive effect on employees’ performance at the University of
Abuja. These are the university treats you fairly and equitably with regard to promotion, the university
provides opportunities for career development and the university provides promotional opportunities.
However, the university is fair and equitable in its treatment of management had a negative impact on
employees’ performance at the University of Abuja.
The study recommends that the management of the University of Abuja should continue treating their
employees fairly concerning promotion to increase productivity. In addition, the university management
should sustain their policies on promotions and career development. Furthermore, the management of the
University of Abuja needs to review and reinforce the way it handles its management.

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