Effects of Human Resource Practices on the Performance of Secondary School Teachers: A Survey of Trans Mara West Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Human Resource (HR) practices represent investment in human resource capital in order to contribute to organizational performance. The need to carry out this research was prompted by the fact that past research, according to the literature reviewed in the area of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), had focused on the effects of HR practices on performance of employees in firms and little focus was directed to the effects of HR practices on performance of teachers who are employees in secondary schools. The study was guided by three specific objectives to find out the effects of leadership style, teamwork and motivation on performance of secondary school teachers in Trans Mara West Sub-County.  A survey research design was used with a target population of 192 teachers from 16 secondary schools that had sad for KCSE in five years continuously from 2010 to 2014. Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select 5 teachers from each school as respondents. Primary data was collected from the respondents using both closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires. Collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Analyzed data was presented using frequency distribution tables, percentages and means scores. The findings of the study indicated that autocratic leadership style was highly rejected while teamwork and motivation were found to be very crucial in the improvement of performance of all duties and responsibilities performed by teachers in schools. From the findings of this study, it was concluded that the schools in the Sub-County were moving in a positive direction towards embracing the modern styles of organizational leadership, teamwork and motivation, even though the performance in KCSE had remained low in the five years from 2010 to 2014. The management of schools and their staff were therefore on the spot to produce results to reflect the positive trend in the application of the named HR practices.  One of the recommendations of this study was that it was crucial for school administrators, managers and teachers to access information on how their performance is influenced by HR practices so as to be in a position to properly align their HR strategy with the business strategy to realize improved productivity. There was also need for further research in the area of leadership and HR practices as vehicles driving organizations in the world today.