Reward systems and teacher performance in public primary schools: a case study of Kira municipality, Uganda.
Abstract
The success of any organization is significantly based on its ability to achieve its strategic goal
and objective, that is mostly achieved while relying and focusing on motivation level of its
employees, and it is non-financial rewards that increase intrinsic motivation within employees
yet most organizations have been emphasizing extrinsic rewards such as money, which for one
reason or the other don’t energize or drives employees for better performance. Therefore, the
current research study sought to examine how reward systems influence teacher performance
in public primary schools of Kira Municipality. The specific objectives of the study were : to
establish the type of reward systems adopted in Kira Municipality for public primary teachers,
to examine the effect of financial rewards offered by Kira Municipality on motivation of the
public primary teachers, To examine the effect of non-financial rewards offered by Kira
Municipality on motivation of the public primary teacher, to determine the relationship
between reward system, motivation and public primary teachers’ performance in Kira
Municipality The study adopted a mixed method design on a target population of 190 public
primary teachers and staffs of Kira Municipality of which a sample of 128 was selected using
simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Data was collected from 109 respondents
by means of a questionnaire supplemented with interviews, descriptive statistics, correlation
and regression analyses were used to examine the effects of the variables i.e. financial/nonfinancial
rewards, motivation and performance. The regression findings revealed that financial
rewards and non-financial rewards offered by Kira Municipality had a positive and significant
effect on motivation of the public primary teachers as shown by a positive Beta coefficient
(B=0.366, P-value=0.000) and (B=0.542, P-value=0.000) respectively. The study findings
further showed that motivation had a positive weak but significant relationship with public
primary teachers’ performance in Kira Municipality (r=0.249, P-value= 0.000), and that
reward system had a positive weak but significant relationship with public primary teachers’
performance in Kira Municipality (r=0.194, P-value<0.05). This shows that as public primary
teachers are motivated by rewards, their performance increase though at a lower level.