EXAMINATION OF PRINCIPAL’S COMMUNICATION STYLE AND  TEACHERS JOB PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Educational leadership in contemporary time is witnessing dramatic changes, owing to various factors ranging from social to political, technological and economic. The educational policy makers and administrators are therefore faced with the challenge of ensuring effectiveness in the delivery of qualitative education towards the attainment of educational goals and objectives. Educational production like other forms of production demands human, material and financial resources. The effective leadership of other resources is contingent upon the proper leadership of human resources, which requires the establishment and maintenance of effective communication system. The point to stress here is the importance of communication in the leadership of human resources in school organization, which has not been fully utilized for effective human resource leadership.

In a school system, the achievement of educational goals and objectives may be impossible without committed teachers who are the main facilitators of teaching and learning. Taking practical steps at improving teachers’ commitment by both government and school owners is crucial because teachers who are highly committed are likely to stay longer on the job, perform better, get actively involved in the work and school programmes and go extra miles to ensure that the school achieves its set goals and objectives. Teachers’ job commitment may be affected by so many factors among which are; relationship between teachers and students, the quality of the work being done by teachers, working environment, policies and decision making process, motivation, and interaction between teachers and principals among others. The interaction between principals and teachers can be determined by the communication system in the school.

Communication system in any organisation be it formal or informal organisation is very vital to the survival, smooth running and success of the organisation. The transfer of information from one person to another within an organisation lies on communication process without which managerial, administrative and academic functions may not be possible. In fact, all administrative functions of planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting as identified by Gulick (1937) cannot be effectively carried out without effective communication. Mckinney, Barker, Smith and Davis (2004) submitted that communication is essential to effective team performance, and communications for any organization is like blood flow in the human body. This corroborates the fact that no organisation can exist without communication and survival of any organisation is a function of communication in that organisation. According to Stephen (2011), communication is a critical factor in directing and mobilising the workforce towards the accomplishment of the organizational goals or objectives. It is the vehicle through which the basic management and administrative functions are carried out. Managers and administrators direct through communication, they co-ordinate through communication, and they staff, plan and control through communication. It is a give and take method involving the sender and the receiver (Nakpodia, 2006). Communication in schools takes place between and among principals, teaching and non-teaching staff, students as well as other stakeholders. The goals of schools are shared by the principals, who are the main managers of secondary schools, with relevant individuals within the school system through communication. It could therefore be said that without good and effective communication, the achievement of educational goals in a school may be a mirage. In schools, communication happens at all times and in many ways. However, principals have certain communication styles or patterns when sharing their ideas and thought and these styles or patterns to a great extent could determine the effectiveness of communication within a school system. The styles that a principal decides to adopt in coordinating the affairs of a school could go a long way in either increasing or decreasing the morale of staff members especially the teachers.

Performance is something, a single person does. Performance of the teachers in schools is highly affected by motivation. Teachers are when motivated their performance automatically reached towards high level. In schools teacher’s performance can be mapped well through arranging training programs for the teachers and they will get motivated and their confidences will also increases. Motivation has a direct and positive effect on job performance when we properly account for effort. Effort has a positive effect on job performance. It was difficult to obtain support for the view that motivation has a significant effect on job performance. Teachers’ Performance Dessler, Griffin (2005) explored that the performance of a teachers’ is determined by three factors i.e. motivation, work environment and ability to do work.

According to Chandrasekar (2011) examined that the workplace environment impacts on teachers’ morale, productivity and job performance both positively and negatively. If the work place environment is not liked by the teachers’ so they get de-motivated and their performance also affected. Poorly designed work timings, unsuitable authorities or duties, lack of appreciation, and lack of personal decision making opportunity. People working in such environment are not satisfied they feel stress on themselves and it impacts on employee’s job performance. Performance of teachers in all education system, the performance of teachers is one of the handfuls of factors determining school effectiveness and learning outcomes. Mohanty (2000) explains that teacher performance as the most crucial input in the field of education. Teachers are perhaps the most critical component of any system of education.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There have recently been public outcries in Nigeria over the fall in teachers' job dedication in secondary schools. Studies have linked low levels of teacher work commitment to issues such as poor incentives, insufficient school resources, and low social recognition, among others. However, communication has been identified as one factor of teacher effectiveness as a valuable instrument in the operations of any firm. It is also crucial to remember that the manner in which information is translated to a receiver may play a key impact in determining its usefulness. In his study, Ayatse (2005) noticed that communication is required to define and convey the enterprise's goals. Because the talents and skills they possess will enable them to demonstrate work behaviors that are suitable and relevant to the job performance. According to researchers such as Aarya Nijat and Jennifer Murtazashvili (2015), most school administrators rose to positions of leadership not because of their professional expertise but because of their years of service, gender, relationships with higher authority, and other factors. In this sense, it is evident that such school administrators will use a "fly by the seat of their pants" approach to distributing information to their subordinates, as opposed to a professional communication style. In such cases, subordinates are constantly dissatisfied with the administrator's overall administrative style.

Some schools of thought believe that being forceful in communication with subordinates will help the organization work better. Other schools of thinking believe that aggressive, passive, manipulative, and other styles, if applied correctly, may be the magic that propels an organization to success. One begins to question whether there is a better communication style. To what degree may any communication style improve staff performance in secondary schools? All these are the thrust of this study on   principal’s communication style and its impact on teachers job performance in secondary education.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The broad objective of this study is to examine principal’s communication style and its impact on teachers job performance in secondary education. Specifically, the study seeks:

i.          To establish if relationship between aggressive communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools

ii.        To determine the relationship between inclusive communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools

iii.      To investigate the relationship between  between open communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools.

iv.      To determine the relationship between  between assertive communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools.

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following questions were developed to guide the study:

Ho1. There is no significant relationship between aggressive communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools.

Ho2. There is no significant relationship between inclusive communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools..

Ho3. There is no significant relationship between open communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools.

Ho4. There is no significant relationship between assertive communication style and teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of this study   would go a long way to help future researchers and students alike. The study would be of benefit to the teachers in the aspect of staff development because of the crucial role they play in the educational industry. The study would also be of benefit to school managers and policy makers as it would help them to improve on communication style and job satisfaction among teachers. The study would be of benefit to all stakeholders in educational industry because understanding the relationship between communication at work and improved performance would enable cordial relationship with teachers to increase productivity.

It would also help the government to see the need for adequate financial provision, to provide necessary communication medium that would help to foster ease passage of information to motivate teachers in the industry. Knowing the importance of communication on teachers’ productivity would encourage teachers for in-service programme to improve their skills thereby be of great benefit to students’ learning and their professional growth. The recommendations of this study would also assist in no small way, the employers of labour like the Federal/State Ministry of Education and other agencies in their administration to achieve greater performance and efficiency. In addition, it is hope that it would serve as a useful addition to the existing literature, especially for other researchers who intend to investigate on similar topic. They would find the outcome of this study a reference point.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study centers on relationship between principal’s communication style and teachers job performance in secondary schools. This study covered selected  secondary Schools in Ukwa East  Local Government Area  in  Abia State. Ukwa East local government was chose suitable for this study because of the number of secondary schools situated around  that would enhance collection of necessary data for the study.

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the scanty literature on the subject owing that it is a new discourse thus the researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering only selected secondary schools in Ukwa East  Local Government Area  in  Abia State. Thus findings of this study cannot be used for generalization for secondary schools  in other  States within Nigeria. Additionally, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work will impede maximum devotion to the research. Howbeit, despite the constraint  encountered during the  research,  all factors were downplayed in other to give the best and make the research successful.

1.8 DEFINITION OF IMPORTANT TERMS

The following were operationally defined:

Communication: this is the exchange of information, ideas and facts between two or more people.

Staff: these are all the employees in the schools system.

Organisational Structure: this is a process of logically grouping activities, delineating authority and responsibility and establishing work relationships will enable both the organisation and members to realize their mutual objectives.

Assertive style: is a style in which the administrators clearly state the opinion and feeling and firmly advocate for their right and needs without violating the right of others.

Passive style: this style allows others to deliberately infringe on their right.

Passive-aggressive style: this style use sarcasm appears cooperative why purposely doing thing to annoy and disrupt.

Aggressive style: this is a style in which the administrator tries to dominate others.

Performance: is a systematic and purposeful quantification of work outcomes over a period of time.

Leadership: is the quality or responsibility of leading a group of people to achieve a specific goal.

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