ABSTRACT
This study sought to investigate the application of some management techniques in the administration of tertiary institutions in Enugu State. The design adopted in the study was a descriptive survey. The population consisted of all the 842 administrative staff of the five public tertiary institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria. The sample size of the study is 414 administrative staff selected through purposive sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection is a questionnaire titled ‘Application of modern management techniques Questionnaire’ (AMMTQ). The internal consistency of the items in the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha which yielded reliability indices of 0.75, 0.75, 0.87and 0.86 for clusters A, B, C, and D respectively. The overall reliability coefficient of the items of the instrument was 0.94 which guaranteed its use for the study. The researcher with the help of two research assistants made personal visits to the sampled public tertiary institutions. Mean and standard deviation were used for answering the four research questions, while t-test was used to test the four null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results indicate among others that the administrators of tertiary institutions apply management by objective (MBO) in personnel planning and management in their tertiary institutions to a low extent; The administrators of tertiary institutions use Programme Evaluation Review Techniques (PERT) in evaluation and review of their programmes to a low extent; There was no significant difference in the mean responses of the administrators of federal and state tertiary institutions on the extent to which they apply management by objective techniques (MBO) in personnel planning and management. Following the discussion of the findings, the educational implications of the study were highlighted. Based on the implications of the study, it was recommended among others that administrators of tertiary institutions should apply modern management techniques such as management by objectives (MBO), programme evaluation review techniques (PERT) and planning programme and budgeting system (PPBS) in financial planning and budgeting in their institutions to promote the achievement of the objectives of establishing tertiary institutions in Nigeria for national development. The study concluded that appropriate application of modern management techniques in the administration of tertiary institutions could promote good management practices towards the achievement of the goals of establishing tertiary institutions for national transformation.
