Transformational Leadership, Welfare Packages, and Employee Performance: The Moderating Role of Compensation in Nigerian Public Universities (2015-2025)
Keywords:
Transformational leadership, welfare packages, compensation, employee performance, Nigerian public universities, moderationAbstract
This study examined the moderating role of compensation on the relationship between transformational
leadership, welfare packages, and employee performance in Nigerian public universities from 2015 to
2025. The persistent decline in employee performance, evidenced by sixteen ASUU strike actions and
over 700 lost academic days during the study period, necessitated this research. The broad objective
was to examine the moderating role of compensation on the relationship between transformational
leadership, welfare packages, and employee performance. Two theories guided the study:
Transformational Leadership Theory (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985) and Expectancy Theory (Vroom,
1964). A quantitative research methodology was adopted using a cross-sectional survey design.
Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 300 academic and
senior non-academic staff selected from six federal universities using multi-stage sampling.
Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations, were used
to analyse the data. The findings revealed that transformational leadership was perceived positively by
83.3 percent of respondents, yet 66.7 percent reported inadequate welfare packages, including health
insurance, housing allowance, and study leave. Compensation systems were perceived as unfair, with
50 percent reporting that promotion arrears were not paid promptly and 50 percent stating their
compensation was unfair compared to other federal universities. Despite these challenges, employee
performance remained high, with 100 percent completing duties on time and mentoring junior
colleagues, and 83.3 percent publishing research regularly. The study concluded that compensation did
not currently function as a significant moderator because performance remained high regardless of
compensation inadequacies, suggesting that professional commitment rather than material incentives
sustained performance. The study recommended that the Federal Government should mandate payment
of promotion arrears within three months, the National Universities Commission should enforce a
minimum welfare package benchmark, and a bi-annual leadership-welfare-compensation audit should
be institutionalised across all federal universities.
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