01910nam a22001457a 4500 531841 531841 251022b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d Adeleke, Gbadebo Fatai Lawal, Musediq Olufemi Ayantunji, Oyelekan Isola and Adeleke, Elizabeth Habibat 57537 Merit and the recruitment process in Nigeria’s youth empowerment schemes Management and Labour Studies 50(3), Aug, 2025: p.388-403 This study, grounded in the meritocracy theory, examined the role of merit in the recruitment process of volunteers for Nigeria’s Youth Empowerment Schemes. We adopted mixed methods of data collection and triangulated sampling techniques. It was discovered that very few volunteers were recruited based on merit. Our findings revealed that applicants with personal connections to recruiters, such as shared state or origin, religion, or political affiliation, were favoured over others. Also, some applicants secured their appointments through monetary transactions. Bivariate analyses revealed that this lack of meritocracy significantly contributed to the scheme’s ineffectiveness and hindered the productivity and development of labour. This absence of merit in recruitment led to various negative job-related attitudes that prevented professionalism and rendered volunteers even less employable. Participants were further disadvantaged because of the scheme’s policies, which strongly correlated with alienation, financial instability and unprofessionalism. The study recommended that the scheme should employ merit in its selection process and pay more attention to human capital development.- Reproduced https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0258042X241312479 Meritocracy, Recruitment process, Youth empowerment, scheme, Professionalism, Work behavior. 57538 Management and Labour Studies AR 0 0 ddc 0 0 407030 IIPA IIPA 2025-10-22 50(3), Aug, 2025: p.388-403 AR137479 2025-10-22 AR