The relationship between job satisfaction, organizational commitment and retention of public secondary school teachers in Nairobi County; Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, the retention of public school teachers has been a major problem. This has led to poor performance in public schools. With education being the key to the development of any country, it is in the interest of the stakeholders of education to establish the causes of high turnover and thereby come up with measures towards retention of teachers. The government spends substantial funds in the training and placement of teachers, only to have a large percentage of the teachers leave the profession prematurely. This research was carried out in Kenya, particularly Nairobi County. The choice of Nairobi County was informed by the fact that a large proportion of teachers in this County leave the profession annually in search of better jobs. The study focused on the relationship among job satisfaction, organizational commitment and retention of public secondary school teachers. The specific objectives of the study were; to determine the influence of job satisfaction on the commitment of public secondary school teachers in Nairobi County; to investigate the influence of organizational commitment on retention of secondary school teachers in Nairobi County; to determine the influence of job satisfaction on the retention of public school teachers in Nairobi county and to investigate the joint influence of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on retention of public secondary school teachers in Nairobi County. The conceptual framework postulates that organizational commitment is affected by job satisfaction and the two variables jointly affect retention of public secondary school teachers in Nairobi County. This study used the cross sectional survey design and relied on primary data collected using a structured questionnaire. The respondents consisted of the public secondary school teachers. A total of 125 questionnaires were administered of which only 95 were completed and returned. This translated to a percentage of 75.4. The returned questionnaires were edited and coded before being analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Hypothesis testing was also carried through correlation and regression analysis. All the hypotheses were confirmed. The research findings revealed that there was significantly positive correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It also found a significantly positive correlation between job satisfaction and retention. In the same way organization commitment had a significantly positive correlation to retention. The two independent variables; job satisfaction and organisational commitment jointly had a significantly positive correlation to the dependent variable; retention. In view of the findings the researcher made recommendations that the government should improve factors that influence the job satisfaction of teachers in public schools. This would improve the teacher‘s commitment to their workplace and consequently retention.