Principals’ administrative practices influencing implementation of performance appraisal in public secondary schools in Mbooni east sub county, Makueni county, Kenya

Abstract

The intention of this research was to examine Principals’ Administrative Practices that influence the implementation of Performance Appraisal in Public Secondary Schools in Mbooni East Sub County, Makueni County, Kenya. The research objectives were to; determine the influence of the utilization of relevant personnel; creation of structures of performance appraisal; facilitation of training for teachers and principals’ manipulation of teachers’ morale on implementation of performance appraisal in Mbooni East Sub County, Makueni County. The study was based on the Expectancy Theory of Motivation formulated by Victor Vroom in 1964. Descriptive study design was adopted in the study and targeted all the 47 principals as well as 389 teachers in the Sub County. Stratified sampling technique and Simple random sampling were used to select 119 teachers and 16 principals giving a total of 135 respondents which translated to 31% of the target population. Data collection was done using questionnaires as data collection tools. Quantitative data was coded and analyzed via descriptive statistics using SPSS Software. Data was processed and displayed utilizing frequency distribution tables, pie charts, and bar graphs once it had been analyzed. The survey discovered that principals' utilization of appropriate workers had a larger favorable impact on performance appraisal implementation, with 93.8 percent of principals as well as 86.5 percent of teachers agreeing. Principals’ creation of structures of performance appraisal positively influences its implementation with 98.3 % of the principals agreeing that they have at least a substantially appointed deputy principal. Teachers are facilitated for training on performance appraisal by most principals (69%) while majority (94%) of the teachers agreed that they are sensitized on performance appraisal and finally principals’ manipulation of teachers’ morale promotes the implementation of performance appraisal as supported by 64.7% of teachers agreeing that performance appraisal impacts positively on their environment and execution of duties. This study has yielded important empirical data and information on how principals’ administrative practices influence implementation of performance appraisal and may aid public secondary school principals in appreciating their role in implementing performance appraisal in schools. The study has also provided literature in the field of implementation of performance appraisal which would help future researchers in similar studies and lastly, the findings would aid policy makers, especially those in the Ministry of Education and the Teachers’ Service Commission, to develop strategies to empower Principals in public secondary schools to effectively implement performance appraisal. The researcher recommends that, the employer of teachers considers training a teacher in every school whose main task will be performing teacher appraisal as well as finalizing the online appraisal process.