CAREER DILEMMA IN AN AMORPHOUS KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTION: A STRATEGIC INCURSION INTO CAREER BROUHAHA AMONG ACADEMIC STAFF OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Presumably, individuals will react disparately to career outcomes that are ubiquitous, vicious, and frail. Whether to surrender, retreat or become resilient is reflective of the individual's perceptive, disposition and his/her realistic appraisal of the interplay of the unfolding realities. The Nigerian Universities in the past have been inundated with spasmodic episode of career shocks, triggered by loss of jobs, demotions, selective promotion, stagnation and other contractual breaches. Prior research endeavors in the area addressed the subject from the generalist perspective only as not much have been said about the nature and extent of career drifts in the Nigerian tertiary institutions so as to assess their consequential impacts on staff. This study, firmly grounded on the Chaos career theory, is the first to empirically investigate career dilemma realities among teaching staff of Nigerian Universities. The results of the multivariate regression and structural equation modelling have affirmed significant alignment between the dimensions of career dilemma and postcareer outcome measures among Nigerian university academic staff. The study affirmed that career misfortune not due to personal cause but organizationally or selectively staged-managed can either wreak untold havoc on the individual or bolster individual behavior to develop on latent potentials outside company of primary engagement with the personal resilience of the individual, and the support and resources from trusted sources. The findings further buttressed that career-deficit individual who leaves to explore and develop on alternative career elsewhere fares better than those who are bent on grappling with the elusive career that portends danger for their future career aspirations. It is concluded that career dilemma in the academic terrain, can breed breach of trust, ill-feeling, loss of morale, anarchy and even threaten the integrity of the university system. The study suggests that for the government and management of Nigerian Universities to continue to reap the benefits of increased investment in the intellectual capital development of the nation's universities, sound leadership culture, enabling infrastructures anchored on decency, justice, and deepened morality must be put in place