THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB SATISFACTION AND PERFORMANCE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHER IN ISOKO NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF DELTA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Man is a “wanting animal” so says Abraham, Maslow in his work, theory of motivation. This implies that no sooner is one of the needs satisfied than another emerges. The process is unending. It continues from birth to death. This assertion no doubt is cogent with the economic theory of human wants. According to the economist, human wants are unlimited. Thus the more you satisfy them; the more you observe that others are queuing for satisfaction. Wants, they observe particularly increase with the progress of civilization. Both assertions go to suggest that has numerous desires, which he constantly seeks to satisfy. As a result, it is the desire to fulfill these unending needs so as to live a comfortable life that compels man to join an organization where he hopes to get the means of satisfying these needs. This the organization does by boosting the morale of the employee and this is seen in “the extent to which an individuals need are met or satisfied, and the extent to which the individuals perceives that satisfaction as steming from his job situation”.

Keith Davia observes job satisfaction

is thje favourablenessor unfavourableness

with which employee view their work.

It results when there is a fit between

Job characteristic and wants of employees.

It expresses the amount of congnence between

ones expectations and of the job and the

rewards that the job provides.

In other words, job satisfaction means how an employee views his job whether it is satisfying his needs or not. Basically people not just working for working sake, and organizational goals/objectives and for industrial harmony to prevail. It workers, teachers inclusive, find every thing satisfactory in their jobs, then there will be no cause for them not to perform or live up to the expectations of both the management and general public. The performance or a teacher in particular or any other workers for that lies on the degree of satisfaction he/she gets from the job. Since job satisfaction involves expectations compared with rewards, it late to a psychological contract which an individual makes while joining an organization. The contract stipulates each employees, psychological involvement with organization. In making the contract, the employees agrees to give a certain amount of work and loyalty to the organization and in return seek economic rewards, security, treatment as human being etc. the honouring of the terms of the contract by both parties leads to job satisfaction. However, where and when an organization honour only part of the contract as the economic aspect, leaving the others, the workers will be dissatisfied. Where there are prolonged frustration, poor quality of work, lateness, absenteeism, quarrelling with colleagues, disputes with management etc are always the negative actions.

The word frustration has almost become endemic within the teaching profession in Nigeria due to the governments, attitude towards teachers remuneration, allowances, promotion, provision of working tools and recognition of their services as nation builders. More often than not, the yardstick for measuring teachers in public examinations such as the senior secondary certificate examination (SSCE) drop out rate and rate of indiscipline among the youths. When these parameters show negative, teachers heads are called for along this line, the present assumption of a falling standard in our educational system has been blamed on teachers by the government and the general public. Teachers on their par blame the government and the general public. Teachers on their part blame the government for falling to provide the conducive atmosphere that would enhance the teaching learning process. At this point in time, the questions that readily come to mind are: are teachers in our public/state owned secondary not willing to work and why? Secondly, are teachers in private owned and federal owned hence perform better than their counterparts in state/public secondary schools. It is an open secret that when teacher from the state owned secondary schools are privately employed by parents to coach their children at home, they perform better. This is a point to the fact that their failure to perform lies not in their training but in their relationship with their employers. The situation simply put arise from the failure of the management to honour her own side of psychological contract said H. Koonts no system is bad in itself but the management of its human resources. He further observed the primary task of managers it to get.

People to contribute activities which hen to achieve the

mission and goals of the enterprise. Be that it may,

to guide peoples, activities in the expected direction

requires knowing to the best of any managers,

ability, what leads people to do things and what motivates them.

Based on these, one can presume and confidently too, that teachers will perform credibly well if they are rightly motivated. By this is meant, paying their salaries and other entitlement regularly and promptly, and providing them with adequate working facilities. There is no gain saying that people work harder when there are incentives, for remuneration according to Armstrong  “is part of the reward system used by an organization to motivate people to join, to stay and to work hard and efficiently while, they are there”. Thus school administrators and particularly employers of teaches must have to inject into their schools those salient ingredients that will motivate teachers to achieve. Teacher’s salaries are known to have been delayed for up to a month or more while working tools are particularly non existence. As a result, teachers can hardly be expected to be happy with their conditions of services. This has resulted in a massive drift from the profession and general feelings of apathy among the youths towards taking up the chalk. In fact, many teachers look towards taking up at the job as a stepping-stone towards something better. All these account for the barrage of strike action and threats of some by teachers in the different states of the country.

In the 1977 National Policy on Education, a lot of moral boosting promises were made to teachers, some of which include:

1.                  To enhance teachers commitment to the term of their performance

2.                  Promotion opportunities will be created at all level of education to allow for professional growth.

Despite the good intent of this, teachers still grumble. However, it is one thing to recommend or propose but another to implement. It is therefore, this situation of dissatisfaction among teachers that moved the researcher to try to find out what is responsible for job dissatisfaction among secondary school teachers in Isoko north local Government Area of Delta State and how it affect their performance.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Complaints about poor condition have become endemic to members of the teaching profession in all ages and times. In Nigeria teacher’s problems have always been treated with levity and foot dragging approach, a situation not unconnected with the mistaken notion of our leaders that teachers cannot constitute a formidable threat to the corporate policy. What more the Nigerian public had inherited from the missionaries, way back in the colonial days, the misinformed idea that teachers reward and secured for them in heaven, a notion, which has continued to shape their view of the profession. However, in a materialistic society like ours has come to be, this situation can no longer hold ground. The result has been a constant class between teachers and their employers, leading to low performance on the part of the teachers.

In view of the above, this study will seek to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and teachers performance among secondary school teachers in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State. In pursuance of this goal, the following questions will be answered.

1.                  Do teachers, performance affect the payment of their salaries been delayed.

2.                  Is their performance affected when they are denied participation in the schools decision-making process?

3.                   Does lack of teaching aids affect teachers performance?

4.                  Does lack of equipment affect teachers performance?

PURPOSE OF STUDY

According to M. S. Viteless, every industrial concern has the responsibility of fulfilling the three conditions that make for the progress of the establishment. These are to “increase productivity, promote employee satisfaction and adjustment to work and to curtail industrial strike”. In Nigeria, where education is perhaps the large industry, handling the ;largest number of employees the achievement of these objectives is necessary for the sound and profitable is to achieve the cardinal goals of the National Policy of Education, accurate information must be made available through researches of this nature say to the effectiveness of various appeals or incentives which can be used to gain the co-operation of teachers in increasing efficiency and productivity. This involves an exact determination of the various wants and needs of teachers, which requires gratification through the work situation. Only with such a knowledge as can be provided by a research on the relationship between job satisfaction and workers performance can the management and administrations arrive at a balanced and effective programme of personal policies and practice which will provide maximum results in the attainment of goals which simultaneously have significance for our educational system, the teachers and the nations at large. Thus, the central purpose of this study is to determine how job satisfaction affects teacher’s performance among secondary school teachers.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

There was a need for this study because of the need delineated the relationship between job satisfaction and teachers performance which can only be assessed along selected components as payment of salaries and allowances, participation in schools decision making process, availability of teaching aids, equipment and facilities. However, both assertions go to suggest that man has numerous desires, which he constantly seeks to satisfy.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following null hypotheses will be dully tested.

1.                  There is no significance relationship between payment of their salaries and allowances.

2.                  There is no significance relationship between teacher’s performance and participation in school decision-making process.

3.                  There is no significance relationship between teacher’s performance and lack of teaching aids.

4.                  There is no significant relationship between teacher’s performance and lack of facilities as chairs, laboratory equipment, adequate classrooms etc.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is designed to cover all the post-primary schools in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State. In all, there are fifteen secondary schools in the government. Out of this numbers seven arte located within Olomu town while the rest are in Isoko, Ijere, Umotu, Ahgalope, and Unukpo.