Monetary Reward and Teachers' Performance in Selected Public Secondary Schools in Kano State (original) (raw)

This is a conceptual study that intends to examine the relationship between monetary reward and teachers' performance in Some Selected Kano State public secondary schools. Secondary schools are the bridge between primary education and higher institutions in Nigeria. The need for students to acquire more knowledge and skills beyond primary level in Nigeria has become imperative and hence the need for secondary school education. Therefore, teachers performance is of utmost concern since improvement of teachers' performance can lead to effective performance of students and the education sector at large. The study is going to be quantitative and will adopt survey research design. Cluster sampling technique will be used to obtain responses from the sample of 375 teachers. Regression analysis will be used for Data analysis through SPSS version 17. 1.0 Background to the Study The need for individuals to perform for the organization to function effectively is very important. Job performance is carrying out an activity expected from an employee largely influenced by the reward in place. When an employee does what is prescribed as the content of his job, he performed. Individual job performance is of high relevance for the existence and well being of organizations (Sonnentag, Volmer & Spychala, 2010). Armstrong (2010) argued that one of the most important, if not the most important, of the responsibilities undertaken by managers of organisations is to ensure that members of their entities achieve high levels of performance. These arguments justify the fact that performance of an organization is a reflection of the performance of employees and that the better the employees perform, the better the organization perform and vice versa. Therefore, there is the need for both government and private organizations to employ appropriate reward mechanism for compensating employees' contributions and ginger them towards higher performance. Monetary reward is a measure of influencing individual's drive to act towards desired direction. Monetary rewards comprised all rewards that have a monetary value and add up to total remuneration such as base pay, pay contingent on performance, contribution, competency or skill, pay related to service, financial recognition schemes, and benefits such as pensions, sick pay and health insurance (Armstrong, 2010). The importance of monetary reward cannot be over emphasized. Guajardo (2011) found that monetary rewards are the strongest incentive in Africa, especially salary increase or performance based rewards. Armstrong (2010) argued that monetary rewards are the core element in total reward. Similarly, a study conducted by Narsee (2012) in South Africa found that monetary reward is the most important reward category. These findings cannot be far from the fact that people work so that they can satisfy their various needs and wants from the reward they get. Therefore, a good monetary reward package attracts not only competent workers and retain them, but also determine their commitments and attitudes towards work, and teachers in Kano State are not exception. Teachers' performance is very vital such that poor performance by teachers (lateness, absenteeism, laziness) can seriously compromise teaching quality, learning outcomes, and social development (Bennell & Akyeampong, 2007). Akiri and Ugborugbo (2009) opined that the quality of education depends on teachers as reflected in the performance of their duty. A study by Salman, Mohammed, Ogunlade, and Ayinla (2012) has found that majority of teachers and students have agreed that payment of poor remuneration, in terms of salary and allowances for teachers, affects their performance which as a result contributed greatly to students' mass failure in Ondo State, Nigeria. Thus, what is the effect of salary, allowances, and benefit as monetary reward package on teachers' performance in Public Secondary Schools in Kano State? Furthermore, extant literatures on the relationship between monetary reward and teachers/job performance reported mixed conclusion. For example, a study by Engellandt and Riphahn (2004) in Switzerland found that surprise bonus payments is an effective incentives for employee effort. Ahn and Vigdor (2010) concluded that monetary incentives (bonus) lead teachers to try harder in USA. Similar study by Charity and Timinefere (2011) found that monetary reward has significant positive effect on employees' performance in Nigeria. A study by Gungor (2011) in Turkey revealed that financial rewards have positive effects on employee performance. Similarly, a study by Yamoah (2013) reported a significant relationship between teachers' rewards and job performance in Ghana. Lack of motivational factors such as salary, rent allowances and transport allowances negatively affect teachers' work performance in Ethiopia (Negussie, 2014). On the other hand, a study on teacher performance pay conducted by Adkins (2004) in Florida, USA found that most teachers and other instructional respondents disagree that teacher performance pay provides an