MEDICAL BENEFITS ON LECTURERS' WELLBEING AND TURNOVER INTENTION: EVIDENCE FROM A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY
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The documentation of the seeming interconnection between academic workload (teaching,
research, community development assignments) and health challenges that supposedly warranted
the provision of medical access to academics are not too conspicuous in the literature. The
morbidity rate including death among academics and the expected brain drain warranted by
inadequate good welfare provisions have constituted public health concerns and the worries of
current and prospective parents. Therefore, this paper examined the moderating role of medical
benefits on academic turnover intentions. Five In-Depth Interviews (IDI) were conducted among
all academic levels in the university. Field notes were taken and responses from interviewees were
transcribed. It found out that academics prioritize provisions of medical subsidy including health
insurance as an expected motivating ingredient for job satisfaction which could be a moderating
check on academic turnover in the study area. The provision of medical benefits will also increase
productivity among academics. The study concludes that there is a contrary-wise between the
academics’ expectation of medical subsidy and actual pay-as-you-go expenses syndrome on
medical services offered by the university. While the burden of sicknesses and ill health of the
academic is seemingly attributable to the workload, commensurate access to medical treatment is
not available. The authors, therefore, recommend that university academic employers and
university operators should prioritize medical subsidies as a crucial component of the welfare
package for the university academics, and by extension, all staff of the university. Adherence to
this would reduce morbidities, increase productivity, and could serve as a retaining attraction
against the current brain drain.
Keywords
AS Academies and learned societies (General), HM Sociology