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.