Work–Life Balance and Academic Staff Performance in North-East and North-West Nigerian Universities: A Zone-Specific, Disaggregated, Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Design with Institutional Policy Evaluation
Keywords:
work–life balance; academic staff performance; North-East Nigeria; North-West Nigeria; mixed methods; longitudinal design; institutional policyAbstract
A companion narrative review (Gelwasa & Dorh, 2026) found that evidence linking work–life balance (WLB) to academic staff performance in Nigeria is consistently positive, but is concentrated in the North-Central and southern zones, is almost entirely cross-sectional, is rarely disaggregated, and says little about whether institutional WLB policies work. This paper turns the four research directions proposed in that review into one pre-specified study design. The study combines a three-wave panel survey of academic staff in 12 universities in the North-East and North-West (target baseline N = 1,656; expected analysable N = 1,160 at wave 3), a two-point institutional policy audit, 36 staff interviews and 12 key-informant interviews, integrated through an explanatory sequential design. WLB is modelled as five dimensions measured with adapted and back-translated instruments, and performance is captured through self-report and records-based indicators. Eight hypotheses address zone differences, moderation by gender, rank and discipline, reciprocal WLB–performance paths in random-intercept cross-lagged panel models, and the association of a 0–20 Policy Implementation Index with staff outcomes. Power analysis shows power of at least 0.92 to detect a small interaction effect (f² = 0.02) within a single zone. No primary data have yet been collected. The paper therefore reports the design, instruments, sample-size justification and decision rules, so that results can later be judged against a fixed plan. The study is expected to provide the first zone-specific longitudinal evidence on WLB in Northern Nigerian universities and a defensible basis for institutional policy.
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