PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND TEACHER MOTIVATION IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NSANGI SUB-COUNTY, WAKISO DISTRICT.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background to the study

1.1.1.      Historical background

In the 1700s, education was not considered a professional discipline or field of study. Early towns especially in the United States turned to existing power structures, such as local government and the clergy, to hire teachers and make judgments about their teaching. Clergy were considered logical choices for this role because of their extensive education and presumed ability to guide religious instruction in schools. Nesbitt (1997). The teacher was considered a servant of the community. Individual supervisors or supervisory committees were charged with monitoring the quality of instruction.

The first European missionaries in Africa established Christian schools in the late 15th century, but these were not widespread until the 19th century. All school systems including teacher management and remuneration were managed by the Europeans. They vetted teachers and appraised them based on the local settings then. European colonial officials established secular schools for Africans in the early 20th century. Whereas French educators promoted educational “assimilation,” British territories introduced the “adapted education” system for Africans in the 1920s, a policy modelled after the American segregated school system (Brock, 2007)

Brock (2007) further states that Africans made demands for more schools and a more literary curriculum in the 1930s and 1940s and, in some cases, even established their own schools. This period also saw the development of higher education for Africans. During the nationalist era, the educated elite were at the forefront of demands for independence, and many of the leaders of new nations in the 1960s were Western-educated elites.

Independent governments attempted to implement universal primary education and create more opportunities for secondary and higher education, with varying success. They also paid more attention to the education of rural children and of women. Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and other international economic interventions, however, resulted in less government revenue for and control over social services like education. In the early 21st century, governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are working to make education affordable and accessible for everyone (Ssempebwa, 2017)

According to Ssekamwa (1997), In Uganda, formal education was introduced by the British following the letter written by King Muteesa I to the queen of England. On publication of the letter in the Daily Telegraph, British teachers who belonged to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) volunteered to come to Uganda and teach the people of Uganda. These were Protestants and British people. They arrived in 1877. They equally managed all spheres of the education system including teaching, teacher management and remuneration.

Soon afterwards, the CMS Missionaries were followed in 1879 by the Missionaries who belonged to the White Fathers Society. These Missionaries were Roman Catholics and they were Frenchmen. Muteesa I welcomed them warmly too (Ssekamwa, 1997)

Currently, performance appraisal is a common exercise in schools mainly performed by school administrators to ensure sustainable institutions which are up to speed and ready to work within the existing conditions.

1.1.2. Theoretical Background

The study will be underpinned by the Expectancy theory developed by Victor H. Vroom in 1964 through his study of the motivations behind decision making. This theory is relevant to the study of management.

The theory is premised on the basic notions that people will be motivated to exert a high level of effort when they believe there are relationships between the effort they put forth, the performance they achieve, and the outcomes/ rewards they receive (Miner,2005). This theory was meant to take into account differences in motivation levels within an individual from task to task.

Expectancy theory is a well-known theory of workplace motivation. Today, Expectancy Theory plays a central role in how companies determine what will motivate their employees to be effective and enthusiastic about their work.  The following document will further define expectancy theory (Eerde, 1996)

Thus, the key constructs in the expectancy theory of motivation are Valence (the value or strength one places on a particular outcome or reward), Expectancy (efforts to performance), and Instrumentality (the belief that performance is related to rewards). Heckhausen (2008).

Source: Eerde, W. V. & Thierry, H. (1996). Vroom’s expectancy models and work-related criteria: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(5), 575.

Based on this theory, a typical employee will desire to be promoted. However, the promotion comes as a result of good work exemplified by good appraisals and positive performance on the Key Performance Indicators. With time, the expectation of a promotion will motivate the employee to look for ways of doing their job better to come up with a good appraisal to facilitate the promotion.

Source: Eerde, W. V. & Thierry, H. (1996). Vroom’s expectancy models and work-related criteria: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(5), 576.

1.1.3 Conceptual Background

Performance appraisal is the analysis of the performance of an individual in relation to the objectives, activities, outputs, and targets of a job or task given over a given period of time. (Poli,2013).

In organizational setting, performance appraisal is defined as a structured formal interaction between a subordinate and supervisor, that usually takes the form of a periodic interview (annual or semi-annual), in which the work performance of the subordinate is examined and discussed, with a view to identifying weaknesses and strengths as well as opportunities for improvement and skills development (Ibid)

Moorhead (1992) describes performance appraisal as the process of evaluating work behaviors by measurement and comparison to previously established standards, recording the results, and communicating them back to the employee. It is an activity between a manager and an employee. Performance appraisal is therefore the assessment of performance of an individual in relation to the objectives, activities, outputs, and targets of a job over a given period of time.

Performance appraisal is a powerful tool for performance management.

Okumbe (1998) asserts that performance helps in evaluating how a worker succeeds in his present job and this is important for estimating how well he or she will perform in the future. This therefore helps in determining the strengths or weaknesses of the individual workers to increase productivity.

Armstrong (2003) notes that performance management has risen from the old-established but somewhat discredited systems of merit rating and management by objective and that   many of the more recent developments in performance appraisal have been absorbed into the concept of performance management.

Bratton (1988), stressed that, performance appraisal is a continuous and flexible process  that involves managers and those whom they manage acting as partners within  the required results. After the Second World war, Cole (1997) notes that an alternative approach to people management emerged. This approach focused attention on people as a way of improving organizational effectiveness, and was based not on personal experience but observation.

A careful analysis of the definitions above leads to a conclusion that Moorhead (1992) gives a comprehensive definition of  performance appraisal. This is so because he stresses the importance of comparison and evaluation  of work behavior to previously established standards, recording the results, and communicating them back to the employee. This is exactly what performance appraisal is all about in a typical work environment especially in a school setting.

1.2  Statement of the Problem

Currently, the relationship between performance appraisal and teacher motivation is not very well understood. The available information about this subject matter is speculative and is likely to result in a number of errors. This calls for a detailed study to understand the relationship between the two variables with a view of devising ways to improve the performance of employees.

According to Mwenebirinda (2000), influence of staff appraisal is a critical component of administration. It is important for setting and communicating appraisal objectives and creates clarity in the minds of the employees given the fact that the members of staff have the opportunities to talk about the organizational objectives and to define their contribution to attainment of those objectives. This appraisal practice in these schools is supported by Ministry of Public service appraisal guidelines (2007) that concretize that communication of performance objectives helps managers to have an opportunity to discuss the set objectives with the members of staff and establish their overall contributions to the overall objectives. Staff appraisal has both positive and negative effects. Some teachers take it as a positive step towards improvement while others hate it with a vengeance (Mwenebirinda 2000). The research will study the influence of staff appraisal on motivation.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to establish the relationship between Performance Appraisal  of teachers and  their motivation in the selected Secondary Schools with the aim of empowering teachers to do a better job with higher levels of motivation

1.4 Objectives of the study

The study will be carried out along the following objectives:

1. To examine the influence of teacher performance appraisal on teacher’s attitude towards work in the selected schools.
2. To examine the influence of teacher performance appraisal on teacher student relationship in the selected schools.
3. To establish the influence of teacher performance appraisal on teacher-parent relationship in the selected schools.

1.5      Research Questions

1. What is the influence of teacher performance appraisal on teacher’s attitude towards work in the selected schools?
2. What is the influence of teacher performance appraisal on teacher-student relationship in the selected schools?
3. What is the influence of teacher performance appraisal on teacher-parent relationship in the selected schools?

• Significance of the Study

The research findings will help policy makers especially those at the Ministry of Education and Sports to develop policies aimed at motivating teachers to do a better job by way of improving on the methods of teacher appraisal.

The same findings will also help to improve the attitude of teachers towards teaching and at the same time encourage students to take up teaching careers well aware that the working conditions in secondary schools are performance-based and favorable for all teachers.  The researcher also hopes that the results of the study will be useful to future researchers who will be interested in undertaking a study in a related area.

1.7  Scope of the study

This study on the influence of performance appraisal on teacher motivation in selected secondary schools will be conducted in Uganda between September 2018 and April 2019 through a cross-sectional survey. The study will be conducted in five secondary schools some public and others private selected from Nsangi Sub-county, Wakiso district.

The data will be collected by the researcher and two research assistants using questionnaires, interviews, group discussions and document analysis techniques. The study will seek to determine how performance appraisal influences the motivation of teachers in the selected schools and how it affects the attitude of teachers towards their jobs.

• Conceptual Framework

The illustration below summarizes the ideas that the researcher will operationalize to achieve the objectives of the research study.

Fig. 1: A conceptual framework for the relationship between staff appraisal and Motivation.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the views presented about the topic by different prior researchers. The discussion is based on the research objectives as well as the research questions.

2.2 Theoretical Framework

This study is enshrined in many theories advanced by different scholars some of which include;

Maicibi, (2005), who stresses that performance appraisal is an important technique that can be used by any management (organization) if the organization really wants to achieve its set objectives. According to Craig (1996), it has three main objectives, to measure performance fairly and objectively against job requirements, to increase performance by identifying specific development goals so that the workers may keep pace with the requirements of a fast paced organization. In view of the above, Eliza (1996) argued that in many organizations, the appraisal system has been mishandled. She stresses that the worker should not walk blindly into performance appraisal. Past counselling sessions, feedback and proper design are crucial. The appraisal should be a joint effort because no one knows the job better than the person performing it.

Two categories of appraisal namely the formal and informal appraisal have been identified. (Cole 2000). According to Cole, informal appraisal is the continuous assessment of individual worker’s performance by his superior or manager in the normal course of work. He says this kind of assessment is of an adhoc nature and is as much determined by intuitive feelings rather than factual evidence of results. He adds that, it is a natural by- product of the day-to-day relationship between managers and subordinates.

Writers like Maicibi (2005) argue that informal appraisal is a system in which subordinates go into informal discussions with the superordinate; with the good aim of assessing habits and qualities of subordinates. He says that through this method, the management can collect a lot of information that is useful for purposes of promotion, advancements, transfers, termination or layoffs or training and development of staff. Formal appraisal on the other hand is a system set up by the organization to regularly and systematically evaluate employees’ performance. Cole (2000) says this type of appraisal involves assessment of an employee’s performance in some systematic and planned way. It serves to determine how well an employee is working and decides on ways to improve performance. It therefore calls for an intermediate feedback in order to be effective. Armstrong (2003) emphasizes that the importance of giving a timely feedback to an employee is to develop and maintain a motivated workforce.

In 2000, a more detailed appraisal form was introduced by the Ministry Of Public Service and all staff were sensitized on how to use the instrument. According to the appraisal instrument that is purported to be used now, areas that are measured include; personality, behavior, performance and achievement of goals. This is in line with Taylor (2002), who argued that these are  measured either quantitatively or qualitatively. Therefore if it were really done, Taylor’s view indicates that it is a way of ensuring adequate performance.

Noe etal (1996), define performance management as a means through which managers ensure that employees’ activities and outputs are congruent with the organizational goals. They say that performance management is central to  gaining

competitive advantage. They argue that, performance management has three parts; defining performance, measuring performance, and feedback performance information. First, a performance management system specifies which aspects of performance are relevant to the organization, primarily through job analysis. Second, it measures those aspects of performance through performance appraisal which is only one method for managing employee performance. Third, it provides feedback to employees through performance feedback sessions so that they can adjust their performance to the organization’s goals.

………………….

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.0  Introduction

This chapter presents the research design, study population, Study Design, Study Population, Sampling Technique, Data Collection Instruments, Sample size, Instruments which will be used to collect data and data management analysis. It also examines the ethical considerations of the research study.

3.1 Study Design

A research design is defined by Passi (2013) as the basic plan for a piece of research. It illustrates all the issues involved in planning and executing a research project.

This study will adopt a descriptive survey design in gathering of information. The study will use     qualitative methods like description of trends and feelings as well as quantitative methods. Cross sectional survey is selected because it is analytical in nature. Survey system is selected because the study is intended to gather information from a large number of respondents at the same time. It is cross-sectional because the researcher intends to use different categories of respondents namely teachers and head teachers at the same time. The rationale for the selection is based on the fact that it is cost effective and time saving (Enon, 1998). According to Gall et al (1996), descriptive study enables the researcher to collect information from a cross section of a given population. Cross sectional survey will further be used because the survey method can be easily extrapolated to the entire population which is the most commonly used research method in social research (Amin, 2005). The study will be both qualitative and quantitative because a mixed methods research is useful to capture the best of both qualitative and quantitative approaches (Cresswell, 2003)

3.2          Study Population

This study will target a total of 20 respondents from 10 Schools in Nsangi Sub-county. There is a total of 10 schools in the sub-county and using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970)  table,10 schools will be selected picking the head teacher of the school and one teacher. The study will specifically include Nsangi S.S, Trinity College Nabbingo, St. Mark’s College Namagoma, St. Lucia Hill School Namagoma, Mugongo S.S, St. Henry’s S.S, Kyengera, Hana International School, Nsangi High School, Olympio High School and Mugwanya Summit College.

          3.3 Sampling Technique

The samples will be taken using stratified and purposive sampling. Using the stratified method, the schools will be grouped into private and public schools. All public schools will be taken since they are only two. In order to satisfy the requirements of the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table, eight other schools will be added to make it 10.

When choosing respondents, purposive sampling will be used to select all the head teachers because they typically have unique knowledge and experience about education practices (Amin, 2005) especially teacher appraisal. Secondly, the head teachers directly participate in the appraisal process and therefore would be reliable sources of data.

3.5 Data Collection Instruments

The data collection instruments which will be used for this study are structured questionnaire as  well as interview guide.

REFERENCES

Amin, A.D. (2005). Assessment of Education. New York: McGraw.

Armstrong, M. (2003) Human Resource Management Practice, Great Britain: the Bath Press Ltd.

Bratton, J. and Gold J. (1988) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, (2nd  edn).

Chandan, J.S (2000), Management Concepts and Strategies, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House PVT Ltd.

Brock, S. and Mares, E. (2007). Realism and anti-realism. London: Routledge.

Chandan, S. (1996). The production and market valuation of education: Essays in local public finance.

Cole, G.A. (1997) Personnel Management: Theory and Practice (3rd edition),AP Publications Ltd.

Craig, G. (1996) Management Perspectives, London: Heinemann.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Earde, D. (1996). Development and social action. Oxford: Oxfam.

Eliza, E. (1996) Employees and the workplace, AP Publications Ltd.Handley, C. (1996), Understanding Organisations, London

Enon, J. (2007). Environmental assessment for the Center for Business and Education, Yellow Springs, Greene County, Ohio. [Louisville]: US Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District.

G & Griffin, R.W (1992) Organisational Behaviour, (3rd edition),Boston: Houghton   Mfflin Company.

Gall, A. (1996). A skeptic among scholars. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Heckhausen, J, & Heckhausen, H (eds) 2008 Motivation and Action, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Hoban, B. (1993). ‘Restless ambition’.

Krejcie, R.V., & Morgan, D.W. (1970). Determining Sample Size for Research Activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30, 607-610

London and Beathy (1993) Educational Management: theory and practice, Nairobi: Nairobi University Press.

Maicibi, A. and Ahabwe, M. (2015). Administration or Management. What are you doing/teaching?. Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.
Cole, L. and Hall, I. (2000). Psychology of adolescence. London [etc.]: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Margret, R. (2002), Morgan, G. (1988) Images Of Organisation, Sag Publication.Moorhead.

Miner, JB. (2005) Organizational Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership, Routledge, Armonk. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [10 October 2018].

Ministry of Public Service Guidelines (2007)

Narayan, P.S & Rao V.S (1997) Principles and Practices of Management, New Delhi: Konark Publishers Ltd.

Nesbitt, PD 1997 Feminization of the Clergy in America: Occupational and Organizational Perspectives, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, Cary. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [10 October 2018].

Noe, R. (1996). Employee training and development.

Okumbe, J.A (1998) Educational Management: Theory and Practice, Nairobi: Nairobi  University Press.Purcel

Passi, G. (2013). The Dimensions of Professional Learning Communities in High Schools and Student Achievement on the New York State English Language Arts Regents Exam.

Penguin, (1999) Introduction to Research Methodology, Monograph, Kampala: Makerere  University Printery.

Poli, R (ed.) 2013 Causality and Motivation, De Gruyter, Inc., Berlin/Boston. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [10 October 2018].

Private endowment and public education. (1996). New York: General Education Board.

Report of an experience study. (1992). Moorhead, Minn.: Police Relief Association.

Ssekamwa, J., Lugumba, S. and Ssekamwa, J. (1997). Development and administration of education in Uganda. Kampala: Fountain.

Ssempebwa, J. (n.d.).  (2017) Innovating University Education.Kampala.: Makerere University

Taylor, H. (2002). On education and freedom. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Webster, T. (1993) Webster’s Third International dictionary of the English Lan- guage; Unbridged Merram – Webster Inc. Publishers Springfield M.A , U.S.