Vice Principals' Work Behaviours in Public Secondary Schools in Anambra State: The Mediation of Principals' Distributive Justice on Vice Principals' Job Performance and Absenteeism Behaviours in Secondary Schools in Anambra State, Nigeria

Distributive justice is a dimension of principals’ organizational justice which has hardly been explored in relation to vice principals’ work behaviours in Anambra State. This study therefore employed the correlational research design to ascertain how principals’ distributive justice in Anambra State could impact vice principals’ work behaviours, especially vice principals’ job performance and absenteeism. One research question and one hypothesis were postulated. The population of the study was all the principals and vice principals in the 266 public secondary schools in Anambra State. A sample of 532 vice principals, comprising 266 vice principals’ administration and 266 vice principals’ academics was drawn, using the census sampling technique. Two instruments namely, Principals’ Organizational Justice Scale for Vice Principals (POJSVP) and Vice Principals’ Work Behaviours Scale (VPWBS) were used for data collection. POJSVP was adapted, while VPWBS was constructed by the researchers. To ascertain the face validity of the instruments, they were submitted to three research experts in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. After the validation of the instruments by the research experts, they were pilot-tested on twenty (20) public secondary school vice principals in Enugu State. The Cronbach alpha reliability test was used in the data analysis to determine the internal reliability coefficient of the two instruments. This yielded an average reliability coefficient of 0.86, an indication that the instruments were suitable for the study. A total of 532 copies of the instruments were administered on the target population, with the help of four research assistants, in the six education zones in Anambra State. A total of 521 (98%) copies were completely filled by the respondents and retrieved. The simple regression analysis was used. It was found out that principals’ distributive justice had a moderate predictive value on vice principals’ work behaviours. This value was found to be significant to vice principals’ work behaviours. It was recommended that principals in secondary schools in Anambra State should consider vice principals in the distribution of the school resources and reward systems, especially in proportion to vice principals’ contributions to the schools, in order to enhance vice principals’ work behaviours in Anambra State.