CAREER STATUS-SECURITY CONSCIOUSNESS RELATIONSHIP AMONG UNIVERSITY STAFF IN SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA: EVIDENCE FROM A CORRELATIONAL INQUIRY

Security consciousness among university staff has become an important concern because it influences the safety and effectiveness of university operations. However, empirical evidence regarding the factors associated with security consciousness among university staff in Southwest Nigeria remains limited. Against this background, the study investigated the relationship between career status and security consciousness among university staff in Southwest Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive correlational research design. The study population comprised 13,949 university staff, from which a sample of 1,236 respondents was selected. A multistage sampling procedure involving total enumeration, purposive, and stratified sampling techniques was employed to select the respondents. Data were collected using two researcher-designed and validated instruments: the Career Status Questionnaire (CSQ; reliability coefficient = .77) and the Staff Security Consciousness Questionnaire (SSCQ; reliability coefficient = .88). Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used to answer the two research questions while Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the null hypothesis at .05 level of significance. The findings indicated that respondents reported relatively favourable levels of career status, with item responses ranging from 61.2% to 100%. The results indicated that career status was not significantly correlated with security consciousness among university staff in Southwest Nigeria (r = .023, df = 967, p > .05). The study concludes that career status was not significantly associated with the security consciousness of university staff. Based on the findings, the study recommends that university management should implement regular security awareness and training programmes for all categories of staff, as security consciousness appears to be independent of career status.