Effectiveness of human resource management practices in enhancing secondary school teachers' performance in Narok district.

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the Effectiveness of Human Resource management (HRM) practices in the enhancement of teaching staff performance in secondary schools in Narok district. The research was made necessary by the poor performance in national exams being experienced in the district and what appeared to be low morale, poor working relationships, negative work culture and ineffective approach to problem solving which may have greatly contributed to this situation. The study specifically aimed to identify the human resource management practices used in secondary schools in Narok District, establish the extent to which the HRM practices influenced the performance of the teaching staff in the schools, assess the attitude of the teaching staff towards HRM practices being used, determine the impediments to adoption of ideal human resource management practices and identify ways to overcome these impediments. The study was guided by the Human Capital Advantage theory which focuses on developing superior policies in key areas such as selection and recruitment, training and others to ensure qualified people are employed and develop high levels of skills. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population of 450 comprised head teachers, deputies and the teachers. The sample size of 207 was arrived at through the stratified sampling technique. The study used questionnaires and interviews as instruments of data collection. The data collected was analyzed through both the qualitative and quantitative techniques. The study findings clearly indicated that the schools did not make use of many management practices. The most widely used practice in many of the schools was incentive provision. The results showed that the poor performance of the schools could probably be linked to the non utilization of the key management practices. These results provide insightful discussion on challenges facing institutional management personnel.