ETHICAL ISSUES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF BOOK PUBLISHING FIRMS IN IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract
The study investigated ethical issues and organizational performance of book publishing firms in Ibadan, Oyo State. Four research questions guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Population of the study consisted of 204 management staff of the 51 registered book publishing firms in Ibadan metropolis. The entire population was studied hence no sampling. Questionnaire was used for data collection. A response rate of 77% was achieved from the questionnaires distributed. Research question 1 was based on four point rating scale.While Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the research questions 2, 3 and 4. Findings revealed that there was a significant combined influence of ethical issues (authorship, duplicate publication and plagiarism) on organizational performance (Adj.R2= .676, F (4, 153) =74.716, P<0.01. organizational performance positively correlated with authorship (r = .666, p<0.01), duplicate publication (r= -.163, p<0.05), and plagiarism (r= -.572, p< 0.01) More so, authorship was found to be the strongest predictor of organizational performance (β= .373, t= 24.687, P<0.01), followed by plagiarism (β = .265, t = 18.217, P<0.05) and duplicate publication (β = .145, t= 10.826, P<0.01). Findings from the study also showed that piracy issues, authorship issues, marketing issues and infrastructural decadence were the most highly prevalent ethical issues in most publishing firms in Ibadan.It was recommended that book publishing firms should implement policies that could foster the development and satisfaction of authors. During economic hardship, book publishing firms should produce what the customer can afford as this will discourage piracy.
