Perfomance appraisal practices and their influence on teachers’ attitude to work: A study in selected secondary Schools in Kampala Archdiocese.

Abstract

Using selected secondary schools in Kampala Archdiocese, the study was intended to find out the influence of performance appraisal practices on teachers’ attitude towards work. Specifically, it sought to; establish the appraisal practices used to assess teachers’ performance in secondary schools in Kampala Archdiocese, establish the effect of such performance appraisal practices on teachers’ attitude towards work, and to establish the manner in which the practices influence teachers’ attitude to their work. A correlational research design was employed to establish whether or not and to what extent a relationship existed between the appraisal practices and teachers performance. Census and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the 196 respondents from a study sample population of 401 persons. Information was solicited through the use of face-to-face interviews with the head teachers and self-administered questionnaires which were distributed to teachers in the study area. Survey and questionnaire were used to collect data and after collecting data, descriptive statistics and percentages were computed with the help of SPSS computer package to analyze and facilitate discussion of findings. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to establish the relationship between the study variables. The study findings revealed that there was a strong positive relationship between performance appraisal practices and teachers’ attitude towards work in secondary schools in the Kampala Archdiocese (r = 0.824, p < 0.05). The study also found out that teachers are appraised, more than one performance appraisal method is used and there is a strong positive relationship between the appraisal practices and teachers’ attitude towards work. It was concluded that among others, teachers’ negative attitude towards the performance appraisal process is one of the difficulties which beset its conduct. The study recommended that among others, management ought to ensure that there is effective communication and information dissemination to teachers immediately after the performance appraisal is conducted, the appraisers ought to adopt a more cooperative approach during the appraisal exercise, get the full participation of teachers and change their attitude towards the performance appraisal process, sensitization should also be intensified on the relevance and purposes of performance appraisal on improving teachers’ performance.