The Influence of Rewards and Career Development Practices on Employee Commitment among Teachers in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

In any institution, a work environment that nurtures job satisfaction inevitably drives up the levels of organizational commitment, especially the affective commitment which will reduce turnover rates and consequent reduction of economic costs associated with replacement and training of new hires. Enrolment of students has massively increased with the introduction of free primary education in Kenya, leading to increased student population pressure on public secondary school facilities. This has contributed to decreased job satisfaction levels and high turnover rates among secondary school teachers. The study examined the effect of four job satisfaction determinants on commitment of teachers in public secondary schools in Kenya with the employee's age as a moderating variable. Based on the study, this paper examines two of them, namely reward and career development. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design, covering a target population of 62,533 teachers drawn from 5210 public secondary schools in Kenya. Stratified sampling involving multi-stage cluster sampling technique was used by selecting 5 counties randomly from the 47 counties which was the first cluster. The number of respondents that constituted the sample size using Fischer's calculation of sample sizes drawn from very large populations was 384 teachers. From each school, a sample of 4 respondents, comprising the head teacher or deputy head teacher and 3 teachers was randomly selected and 96 schools was the total number of schools constituting the random sample for the study. Data was collected through the use of self-administered questionnaires that were distributed to respondents at their work stations. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and inferential statistical tools. Descriptive statistical tools were used to determine and explain the status of the variables while inferential statistics were to explain the relationships between the variables. The study findings were presented using tables and charts. The study findings revealed that rewards do significantly influence teacher commitment. Indeed, most of the schools have experienced low teacher commitment due to unsatisfactory rewards in the past. The study findings further showed that career development efforts by the employer are minimal in most schools. As a result, most of the schools have in the past experienced incidences of low teacher commitment attributed to lack of career development opportunities. It is recommended that schools, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission should look into the challenges that teachers face. Rewards should be streamlined with teachers' workload, working environments and level of training of teachers.