ABSTRACT
The study
attempted to examine the influence of organizational climate and teachers' job
productivity in selected senior secondary schools in Mainland Local Government
Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. In this study, relevant and extensive literatures
were reviewed under sub-headings. The descriptive research survey was used in
the assessment of the opinions of the selected respondents with the adoption of
the questionnaire and the sampling technique. A total of 100 (One Hundred)
respondents were selected and used as participants for this study the
respondents were made up of (50 males and 50 females). A total of four null
hypotheses were generated and used in this study using both the percentage
frequency counts and the t-test statistical tools at 0.05 level of
significance. After the data analyses, the following results were generated:
There is a significant relationship between one school climate and the others
in Lagos State, there is a significant difference between the productivity of
teachers who work in open school climate and those who work in close school
climate, there is a significant gender difference in the productivity of
teachers due to school climate in Lagos State, Nigeria and finally, there is a
significant difference between factors that determine open and closed school
climate in Lagos State, Nigeria. The following recommendations were made by the
researcher: It has been found that a significant relationship exists between
organizational culture and teachers' productivity at the secondary schools in
Lagos State, Nigeria. Based on this finding, it is imperative that teachers in
the school should be provided with incentives that would help them to work in
an environment that is conducive, in which their jobs are enhanced and promoted
too. Teachers should be satisfied with their jobs for them to carry on well in
the work assigned to them in the schools. Not only that, teachers at the
secondary schools in Lagos State should understand the school culture so that
they would 'be able to work well and produce maximally.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of
Contents vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 8
Purpose of the
Study 9
Research Questions 10
Research Hypotheses 10
Significance of the Study 11
Scope of the Study 12
Definition of Terms 12
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
Introduction 14
Concept and nature of Organisational
Climate 14
The importance of Organisational or
School Climate 22
Determinants of Organisational
Climate 24
Measuring
Orgnaisational Climate 27
Diagnosing Organisational Climate
in Schools 27
Importance of
School Productivity 34
Approaches to School Productivity 35
Policy Evolution,
Formulation and Objectives in Nigerian Education System towards School
Productivity 39
Summary of Literature Review 54
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY AND
DESIGN
Introduction 56
Research
Design 56
Population
of the Study 56
Sample
and Sampling Technique 56
Research
Instrument 57
Procedure
for Data Collection 57
Procedure
for Data Analysis 57
CHAPTER
FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
Introduction 58
Demographic
Characteristics of Respondents' Bio-Data. 58
Descriptive Analysis of Research Questions. 60
Testing of
Hypotheses 66
Summary of Findings 68
Discussion of
Findings 69
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Introduction 73
Summary of the
Study 73
Conclusion 74
Recommendations 74
References 77
Appendix 83
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The term "Organizational Culture"
is currently in vogue, the concept of organisational climate has generated much
more research and until recently was used by most organizational theorists such
as Daal (1995), Firestone and colleagues (l997) and Corbett (1991) to capture
the general feeling or atmosphere of the schools, unlike culture from the
beginning.
Organisational climate has been tied to the
process of developing measuring instrument (Pace and Pace, 1988).
Climate was initially conceived as a general
concept to express the enduring quality of organizational life. It was noted by
Reno (1999) that a particular configuration of enduring characteristic of the
ecology, Milieu, social system, and culture would constitute a climate, as much
as particular configuration of personal characteristic constitute a
personality. According to George and George (2000) organisational climate
include those characteristics that distinguish the organisation from other
organizations and that influence the behaviour of people in the organisations.
They introduced into their definition of climate a set of measurable properties
of the work environment based on the collective perception of the people who
live and work on the environment and demonstrated to influence their behaviour.
Over the years, there has been some consensus on the basic properties of
organisational climate. Poole and
Marshall (1995) summarized the properties as follow:
(a) Organisational climate is concerned with large units, it
characterizes properties of an entire organisation or major sub units.
(b) Organisational climate describes a unit of organisation rather than evaluates it or indicate emotional
reactions to it.
(c) Organisational climate arises from routine organisational
practices that are important to the organisation and its members.
(d) Organisational climate influences members’ behaviours and
attitudes.
School climate is a broad term that refers to
teachers' perceptions of general work environment of the school, it is
influenced by the formal organisation, informal organisation, personalities of
the participants and organisational leaderships.
Bertes (1998) suggests that organisational or
school climate is a set of internal characteristics that distinguish one school
from another, and influences the behaviour of its members, Bertes further
stated that school climate is a relatively enduring quality of the school
environment that is experienced by participants, affect their behaviour and is
based on their collective perceptions of behaviour in schools. According to
Kunz (1994), the definition of Organisational climate is set of internal
characteristics, is similar in some respects to the description of personality.
Indeed, the climate of a school may roughly be conceived as the personality of
a school that is, what personality is to an individual, is what climate is to
the school or organisation.
The distinctive feature of the school climate
is the open, closed and climate continuum. The open school climate is
characterized by high degree of trust and esprit and low disengagement. This
combination suggests a climate in which both the principal and faculty are
genuine in their behaviour. The principal sees through example by providing the
proper blend of structure and direction as well as support and consideration -
the mix dependent upon the situation.
Arnold (2001) explains that in an open school
climate, teachers work well together and are committed to the task at hand.
Given the reality - centred leadership of-the principal and a committed
faculty, there is no need for burden of some paper work (hindrance), close
supervision production (emphasis) or impersonality or a plethora of rules and
regulations (aloofness). In this type of school, acts of leadership emerge
easily and appropriately as they are needed. The open school is not
pre-occupied exclusively with either task achievement or social needs satisfaction,
both emerge freely.
Frankly speaking, the behaviour of both the
principal and the entire faculty is cordial and authentic. In this situation,
there is teacher-principal relationship, principal-students relationship and
principal - community relationship in the school.
This situation of good climate in the school,
no doubt, brings about high teachers' morale and motivation which in any case
brings about an increased-, teacher productivity in the school organisation
(Uzomah, 2003).
The principal’s vision is logically and
intimately tied to two other premier and frequently cited characteristics of
effective schools - an academic school
climate (or culture) and high expectations for students achievement
(Ajunwa, 1991).
Generally, an organisational climate or
culture consists of shared values, rules, ideology goals, and conceptions
regarding the organisation. Walter and Stanfield (1988) said of the importance
of school culture that ''Culture is the 'normative glue' the consistency in
values, that holds the organisation together".
In an academic climate, staff and students
are aware of and they value goals of high achievement. Researchers agree that
principals, influenced by school boards and district superintendents, play a
vital role in creating such an atmosphere through their beliefs, attitudes,
expectations, and activities, Cohen (1993), for example, reported that
effective principals emphasize high achievement and express optimism about the
ability of all students to meet instructional goals.
Blum (1994), similarly found that effective
principals believe and emphasize, to start, that learning is the most important
reason for students to be in school; that
all children can learn, and that school makes the difference between
success and failure. Good and Brophy (1985) also stressed that effective
principals are able to create a strong sense of community that includes shared
values and culture, common goals, and high expectation for both students’
achievement and the staff’s performance that creates it. One teacher in a
school, with a strong academic orientation, said "I have taught in other
states and other schools, but until I came here, I never realized how enjoyable
teaching could be. It is not that the students are better, it is just that
everyone here seems to value learning". And another teacher commented,
"we're all pulling together" (Rutherfond 1985).
In less effective schools, teachers are not
to share a common understanding of school - wide goals and expectations. If
goals are mentioned at all, it usually in regard to personal goals or else
department goals in secondary schools.
There is also an affective side to a
favourable school climate or culture. Cohen (1993), for example, pointed out
that a good sense of school community requires not only shared goals but the
creation of a moral order that includes respect for authority, mutual trust,
and a genuine caring about individuals and their feelings and attitude. Odden
(1988) similarly mentioned staff collegiality, staff - student collegiality,
and again, caring attitudes about kids" as important parts of the school
climate.
According-to Ayo (2000), principals can take
many concrete steps to aid the development of an academic orientation and high
achievement expectations, virtually all of which reflect their instructional
leadership role. The following eight categories of suggestions stem from
research on the observation of effective schools and effective principals.
(1) Principals
can take an active and personal role in raising awareness of the need for
school improvement and higher achievement expectations and gaining consensus
for the changes. For example, they can communicate the expectation that
instructional programs can and will improve over time. Especially, principals
can empower teachers to work together to plan and incorporate improvements.
They can ensure that instructional improvement strategies are given high
priority and high visibility. Principals also can create procedures from
eliciting parents’and community’s support for improvement plans by speaking at
PTA meeting (Patty, 2001).
(2)
Principals can help build consensus on school rules and patterns of
acceptable behaviour among staff, students and administration that are
consistent with and promote an academic orientation (Mundi, 1994).
(3) Principals can be active in creating the
concrete improvement themselves. For example, they can plan, secure, and
monitor in-service staff development opportunities, obtaining staff input on
the content of the training, be active and supportive in helping teachers learn
to use new instructional approaches, and establish expectations for good
curriculum quality through the use of standards and guidelines. They can help staff
establish priorities and plan instructional improvements supervise and
coordinate implementation of plan components, and monitor the results (Cobbler,
1999).
(4) Principals also can actively elicit parents’
involvement in the schools' instructional efforts, for example, by enlisting
parents’ time as office and classroom aides, parents' energy in organising
school - wide festivities and parents' money for expansion of school program
(Hallinger and Murphy, 1987).
(5) Principals
can create reward systems for students and teachers that support an academic
orientation and stimulate excellence in students’ and teachers’
performance. For example, they can help create motivational devices such as
school slogans, buttons, T-shirts or songs emphasizing school identity and
academic achievement. Walter and Stanfieid (1988) described how school slogans
help create proper values for teachers and students: "A child's right to
an education is non - negotiable, "Move out of the comfort zone", and
win with class, lose with dignity.
One popular strategy is the use of posters
that proclaim to anyone entering the building (i.e. students, teachers,
parents, community members and others) the vision, expectations, mission,
direction, and goals of a school.
(6) Principals can make certain reward that
student, staff and school accomplishments and awards are visible in the
building and to parents and the public. Good public relations work through
newspapers, radio and television and strengthen school pride and school
identity by praising good work and individual strengths, and by taking an
interest in their personal well-being, principals can develop and maintain
positive staff relations.
(7) A central and well-documented behaviour of
effective principals is monitoring students’ progress, especially as reflected
in test scores for each grade, each class, and each student such behaviour
intrinsically reflects an academic focus and academic values. Principals can
share results with teachers and elicit agreement on standards. Discrepancies
from standards are used to guide corrective action.
(8) Principals
can acquire materials and personal resources needed for effective instruction
and use them creatively in accordance with academic priorities.
(9) Principals are responsible for the creation
of a safe and orderly school environment. There are many interrelated
suggestions regarding the actions principals can take. They can protect
teaching and learning time from interruption, for example, by limiting public
time from interruption, for example, by limiting public address system
announcements (or classroom phone calls) to specified times, preventing class
interruptions by message etc.
Statement of the Problem
The close school climate is the antithesis of
the open school climate. In the dosed climate trust and esprit are low,
and disengagement is high in the school. In this situation the principal and
teachers appear simply to go through the motions, with the principal stressing
routine trivial and unnecessary busy work (hindrance) and the teachers
responding at minimal levels and exhibiting little job satisfaction. The
principle of ineffective leadership
in this situation
is seen in
close supervision (production emphasis).
Formal declaration and impersonality (aloofness)
as well as a lack of consideration for the facility and an inability and
unwillingness to provide a dynamic person examples, this misguided tactics,
which are not taken seriously, produce teacher frustration and apathy. The
behaviour of both principal and teachers in the closed school climate is least
genuine and their relationship least cordial. In fact in-authenticity pervades the
atmosphere of the school; thus there is teachers’ low morale, poor motivation,
low interest and the resultant effect is poor work performance and low
productivity in the school,
This research therefore aim/at examining the
organisational climate and teachers' job productivity Lagos State schools.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this is to attempt and
investigate into the organisational climate and teachers' job productivity in
selected secondary schools in mainland Local Education District of Lagos State.
Other specific objectives of the study
include to:
(1) Examine
whether there is relationship between principal-teacher relationship and
teachers' productivity in the school.
(2) Investigate whether there is relationship
between teacher-teacher relationship and teachers' productivity in the school.
(3) Evaluate whether there is relationship
between teacher-parents relationship and teachers' productivity in the school.
(4) Assess whether there is relationship between
teacher-student and teachers' productivity in the school.
(5) Find out whether there is relationship
between school-community and teachers' productivity in the school.
Research Questions
These research questions helped to guide the
conduct of this study:
(1) How will
positive principal-teacher relationship impact on teachers' productivity in the
school?
(2) How
will positive teacher-teacher relationship impact on teachers' productivity in
the school?
(3) How will effective teacher-parents'
relationships promote teachers' productivity in the school?
(4) How positively will effective
teacher-students' relationships promote teachers' productivity in the school?
(5) In what way will school-community relationship
promote teachers' productivity in the school?
Research Hypotheses
These research hypotheses were formulated and
tested in this study:
(1) There was
no significant relationship between principal-teacher relationship and
teachers' productivity in the school.
(2) There was no significant relationship between teacher-teacher
relationship and teachers' productivity in the school.
(3) There was no significant relationship between
teacher-parents relationship and teachers' productivity in the school.
(4) There was no significant relationship between
teacher-students relationship and teachers' productivity in the school.
Significance of the Study
This study will be beneficial to the
following individuals:
(1) School
Principals: The study
and recommendation of this study will be a great benefit to school principals,
who will get more insights and more information on the essence of school
climate in the school as it affects teachers’ overall productivity with this
study many principals who adopt close leadership styles in the school as it
affects teachers overall productivity would have a rethink and turn a new leap
as that style of leadership does not augur well for high productivity of
teachers and even students.
(2) Teachers: Teachers will indeed, gain a lot in this study because,
it will enable them to know the impact of school climate on their productivity
in the school system. The findings and recommendations of this study will
enable teachers have good rapport with their principals if they want a
conducive atmosphere that will be beneficial to the students. The study will
help teachers to know that the kind of relationship they have with the
principals will no doubt affect the students who are part of the stakeholders
in the school system.
(3) Students:- The findings and recommendation of this study will give
students the impetus to know that without good school climate where there
should be principal-teacher relationship or student-teacher relationship, there
cannot be conducive school atmosphere where meaningful teaching/learning
process is carried out.
(4) Society:- The society will see this study as a veritable resource
materials and a reference materials as well. With the findings and
recommendations in this study, people in the larger society will be able to
differentiate between open climate and the close one in the school. Also
upcoming researcher will find this study a reference maternal too.
Scope of the Study
This study will investigate the effect of
organisational climate on the teachers’ productivity in selected secondary
schools in Mainland Local Government Area (LGEA) of Lagos State.
Definition of Terms
(1) Hindrance:
A person or thing that makes it more
difficult for somebody to do something or for something to happen.
(2) Intimacy: The state of having a close personal relationship with
somebody.
(3) Disengagement:
To free somebody from the person holding them
or to become free.
(4) Esprit: Feeling of pride, care and support for each other.
(5) Production: The process of growing or making goods or materials,
especially large quantities.
(6) Aloofness: Not friendly or interested in other people, to show no
interest in people.
(7) Consideration:
The quality of being sensitive towards others
and thinking about their wishes and feelings.
(8) Thrust: The main point of an argument, a policy.
(9) Productivity:
The rate at which a worker produces goods,
and the amount produced, compared with how much time, work and money is needed
to produced them.
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