ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA: EXAMINING LEADERSHIP CHANGE AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION.

This research empirically examines the effect of leadership change on the satisfaction of North-Central Nigeria private university employees based on leadership succession, rearranging governance, policy reforms, and administrative rearranging. A descriptive survey research design collected the data from 551 respondents from seven private universities using a structured questionnaire. Multiple regression was used to determine the effect of the change variables of leadership on employee satisfaction. Findings indicate that the change in leadership strongly influences employee satisfaction (β = 0.235, p = 0.022), suggesting that effective transition leads to institutionald stability and worker morale. Governance Reconfiguration influences employee satisfaction to a very large extent (β = 0.322, p = 0.015), reflecting the role played by formal leadership structures towards ensuring efficiency and trust. Policy Shifts also have a very high positive correlation (β = 0.356, p = 0.010), reflecting that transparent and equitable policy reforms have an impact on fairness and job security. Administrative Reconfiguration also has a positive impact on satisfaction (β = 0.341, p = 0.001), showing how organizational streamlining can play a positive role in working lives. The model accounts for 70.1% of difference in employee satisfaction (R² = 0.701, F = 18.838, p < 0.001), substantiating that work experiences are highly influenced by leadership transition. These results are in line with Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory, highlighting the impact of leader-follower relationships on employee attitudes toward organizational change. The research recommend that private universities should adopt systemized leadership transition, encourage participative management, practice open policy revision, and improve administrative practice to keep employees’ satisfaction regardless of leadership change.