Teachers’ Perception of the Performance Based Rewards and Commitment in Public Secondary Schools in Kikuyu Sub-county

Abstract

The people who make up an organization -human resources- are considered to be one of the most important resources of today’s firms. People and how they are managed are becoming more important because many other sources of competitive success are less powerful than they used to. Organizations in both the public and indeed the private sector consider their employees as a critical asset towards the attainment of the organizational goals. However, the same objectives can only be attained from a satisfied workforce. Thus, employees should be rewarded according to their performance and those who perform better need to be offered a greater proportion of the available rewards and vice versa. The objective of the study was to determine teacher perception of the performance based rewards and commitment in public secondary schools in Kikuyu Sub- County. The research design adopted was cross sectional study. The population of the study comprised of 620 teachers in public secondary schools Kikuyu Sub-County of Kiambu County. The researcher used stratified sampling. The sample comprised 10% from each strata of the target population. The study used primary data which was collected using self-administered questionnaires. The data collected was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences and presented in tables and charts. Regression analysis was undertaken to determine the relationship between performances based rewards and teacher commitment. The study found out that teachers perceived performance based pay would increase teacher motivation to improve student achievement provides incentive for teachers to work harder, encourages teachers to participate in staff development and improve skills, and modification of assessment methods. Teachers were found to be committed to the schools they teach and thus they are proud to tell others that they are part of the school, enjoy working in the school, glad that they chose to work in the school and quitting the teaching work was not being considered by the teachers as they have families to support. The regression analysis showed that teachers commitment to the schools and profession was influenced by performance based rewards. Most employees were found to be disposed to the performance-reward linkage, provided the scheme is administered with objectivity and fairness. Therefore, the schools reward system should also commensurate with the effort that each individual staff offer as well as be at par with other firms of the same standard that operate in an economy. It was also concluded that performance-based rewards affect the performance of teachers in different ways and it was realized that performance based rewards motivate teachers and increases their performance, improve teachers’ productivity and efficiency. The study found that the current system of rewarding teachers as it is in schools is inadequate and limited in scope because the rewards are given on levels of experience and formal qualifications instead of performance. It is recommended therefore that reward based systems should be based on performance considerations and the same be set after a fair and accurate evaluation has been undertaken.