Determinants of Service Delivery by Teachers in Public Primary Schools in Kwanza Zone, Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

Abstract

Service delivery in an organization is not about the actual product sold but about an experience, that exceeds customers’ expectations. This is very critical for any learning institution in order for it to achieve its set objectives. However, this is not always the case due to a myriad of challenges faced by teachers. This study therefore examined the determinants of service delivery by teachers in public primary schools in Kenya with a focus on Kwanza Zone in Trans-Nzoia County. The objectives of this study were to: determine the effect of managerial approaches and strategies in service delivery; establish the existence of supervisory skills and strategies in service delivery and assess the functionality of social support measures in service delivery. Goal Setting Theory that argues that performance goals motivate employees, mobilize their effort, direct their attention, increase their persistence and affect strategies they use to accomplish a task guided this study. This study adopted survey research design. Target population comprised 333 teachers from Kwanza Zone, and the study involved a sample of 112 participants that was selected through a simple random sampling technique. Questionnaires containing closed-ended questions were used. Data collected was summarized and coded using descriptive statistics, and input in statistical package for social science (SPSS) and analyzed descriptively using percentages and frequency distributions and then presented using bar graphs, tables and charts. The study findings indicated that coercive management controls situation at work place, which receives immediate compliance from teaching staff, and authoritative management gives vision and focused leadership. It has also shown that institutional managers do not replicate training aids on the job and set targets do not show that employees are performing. The study concludes that most teachers do not use training aids on the job, on the job coaching resources and are not given proper orientation, neither are they followed up on skills application. The study recommends that school managers should help teachers identify their own strengths and weaknesses through an honest self- assessment and replicate training aids on the job. Besides, supervisors should give newly employed and old employees on transfer proper orientation.