Factors influencing job satisfaction among public secondary school teachers in Rachuonyo South District

Abstract

ABSTRACT Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience. Job satisfaction among teachers is very crucial to the long-term growth of any educational system around the world. However, many teachers in Kenya are leaving the teaching frontline for jobs in other sectors .For this reason, the study sought to find out the factors influencing job satisfaction among public secondary school teachers in Rachuonyo South District. The study conducted a descriptive survey study with a sample of 270 teachers from all the public seconadary schools in Rachuonyo South District who were obtained using stratified random sampling. Structured questionnaires were used to obtain views on factors influencing job satisfaction. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages. Factor analysis was also used to identify the underlying variables that explain the pattern of correlation within the set of observed variables in the study. The study established that factors influencing job satisfaction included empowerment, job enrichment, compensation, supervision, interpersonal relations, organizational policies, workload, communication, advancement and achievement of targets. The degree of these factors influencing job satisfaction however varied. The teachers indicated that they were satisfied with communication, achievement of targets, organizational policy interpersonal relation and supervision while they were dissatisfied with advancement, compensation, job enrichment and workload. The study recommends that the school administration should give the teachers more varied and challenging tasks. The Teacher’s Service Commission and the Ministry of Education should ensure the salary and benefit package is consumerate to the work done by teachers. The study also recommends that the ministry of education should review the curriculum to reduce the teacher’s workload or increase the number of teachers in schools to reduce the workload of teachers.