Investigating Job-Level Disparities and Generational Differences in Perception and Utilization of Workplace Counselling Services in Nigerian Organizations

Abstract

Evaluating workplace counselling requires clear planning about its goals, timing, methods, and responsibility. Counsellors face ethical challenges, needing to balance the interests of employees and organizations through careful and skilled mediation. This paper seeks to investigate job-level disparities and generational differences in the factors influencing the likelihood of accessing workplace counselling and the perception of the adequacy and availability of workplace counselling in Nigerian organizations. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study with a non-probability/convenient sample of 257 comprising 80 junior-level, 60 middle-level and 117 senior-level employees with age range from 25 to 45 years and above in organizations in the South West geo-political regions of Nigeria. A questionnaire constructed by the researchers was used to gather data from respondents. Four hypotheses were tested using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed a statistically significant difference in factors influencing the likelihood of employees accessing workplace counselling based on their job level; suggesting that higher job levels (middle and senior-level) 69% of respondents are likely to access workplace counselling. No statistically significant difference was found in employees’ perceptions of the adequacy and availability of workplace counselling in Nigerian organizations based on their job level. A statistically significant difference was observed in employees’ perception of the adequacy and availability of workplace counselling based on their age. This distinct generational divide in perceptions, specifically highlighted the 35–44 age group 34% of respondents as the primary source of statistical significance. No statistically significant difference was found in the factors influencing the likelihood of accessing workplace counselling based on age of respondents. Recommendations include more enlightenment campaigns to address the factors preventing the general population from accessing counselling services. To also encourage management of organizations on the provision and maintenance of adequate and beneficial counselling to their employees.

Keywords: Accessibility, Adequacy and availability, Employee perception, Generational differences, Job-level disparities, Workplace counselling.