Human resource practices, teacher engagement, psychological contract and teacher performance in secondary schools

Abstract

The study was set out to examine the relationship between HR practices, teacher engagement, psychological contract and teacher performance in selected secondary schools in Arua District. The study was guided by the following objectives; to find out the relationship between HR practices and teacher engagement, to establish the relationship between HR practices and psychological contract to examine the relationship between teacher engagement and teacher performance and to find out the relationship between psychological contract and teacher performance. Correlational research design was adopted for the purpose of the study using a sample of 226 respondents out of the total population size of 514 teachers in Arua District. Frequency distribution table was used to describe the demographic features of the respondents and the results showed that most respondents were married, male Diploma holders ranging in the age bracket of 26-35 years. Pearson correlation and regression analysis were used to find out the extent to which HR practices, teacher engagement and psychological contract predict teacher performance. The research findings showed a positive correlation between the study variables. HR practices and Teacher engagement had (r=.50, p≤.01), HR practices and psychological contract had (r=.77, p≤.01), Teacher engagement and Teacher performance had (r=.35, p≤.01) and Psychological contract and Teacher performance had a positive relation of (r=.15, p≤.05). There is need for the policy makers and school administration to introduce and effectively apply HR practices like recruitment and selection, reward, performance management, staff development programmes and employee involvement aimed at inducing teachers to fulfill their part of the invisible agreement and hence enhanced teacher performance.