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Contribution of Job Security on selected Secondary School Non-Teaching Staff Service Delivery in Seme Sub-County, Kisumu County, Kenya

  • Yambo John M. Onyango
  • 1139-1146
  • Feb 17, 2023
  • Education

Contribution of Job Security on selected Secondary School Non-Teaching Staff Service Delivery in Seme Sub-County, Kisumu County, Kenya

Yambo, John M. Onyango
Department of Educational Administration Planning and Economics Kisii University, Kenya

Abstract

Job security in education is a critical issue. The students are to be guided well both spiritually, academically, economically and socially. The objective was to explore the effect of  job security on secondary school Non-Teaching Staff Service delivery in Seme Sub-County, Kisumu County, Kenya. The target population was 76 participants which comprised of one Sub-County Education Officer, 25 bursars 25 head cooks and 25 head security officers. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to get all of them for they were few hence 100 percent. Data collection instruments include questionnaires for the non-teaching staff. Interview schedule was employed in collecting information from one Sub-County Education Officer. Validity was done by the experts in the department of educational administration in the school of education. To ensure reliability of the developed instruments, they were pre-tested by being administered to 10 respondents from the neighboring sub-county that was not included in the study.  After two week there was re-test. The data was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient which yielded 0.67 and was deemed reliable. The descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The results of the study will help the government in formulation of policies, programs, interventions aimed at improving the service delivery in schools. Findings revealed that the respondents agreed that job security affects their service delivery in schools representing 69%. Only 31% were of the opinion that it does not affect their service delivery. The study recommended interventions to be put in place to address service delivery that affect non-teaching staff.

Key words: Job security Secondary School Non-Teaching Staff Service Delivery

Background of the study

Generally, service delivery, has been looked forward to by all consumers especially in the education sector. The work of Kelley and Peterson (2017) in San Francisco, America, reiterated that the educational institutional workers have received little remuneration than the work they are normally expected to do. It has been accepted and agreed upon that quality education and the act of service delivery come before pay. Nevertheless, it has been agreed by a majority of people that any employee who is not properly motivated cannot be deliver quality service as required (Taylor 2017). According to Piriyathanalai and Muenjohn (2012), employee satisfaction with their work related factors affects the organization’s achievement of its objectives. They posited that the satisfaction of employees influences their service delivery, cost of service, and service quality in any organization. While the work of Kelley and Peterson (2017) used observation schedule to do data collection the current study used structured questionnaires and an interview schedule to collect data hence fill the research gap.

Furthermore, Stronge, Richard and Catano (2018) postulated that employee satisfaction may be viewed as the engine that converts changes in the internal environment to the employee individual performance and service quality that lead to the necessary external customer service improvement as well as customer satisfaction level. Without understanding such fundamentals, it becomes impossible to understand the nature of the public service. To create employee satisfaction that will result in service quality and organization performance, organization needs to attempt to overcome so many employee various basic needs and requirement. Studies by Stronge et al. (2018)  used ex-post facto design the current study used descriptive survey to fill the research gap.

In Spain, the work of Castanheira and Costa (2020) supported this view by suggesting that having employee satisfaction is necessary but never sufficient forever. Since it is generally accepted that human needs is endless. Employee satisfaction often depends on both internal and external factors, tangible and intangible. However, this is generally true that when individual needs are satisfied employee morale increases and so is the delivery of service (Hurley & Estelami, 2007). According to Suraya and Yunus (2018) the Malaysian context has it that the service delivery in the public institutions such as schools, hospitals, and governmental organizations was not at its best possibly due to corruption and nepotism. As a result, the public institutions registered poor performance accompanied with low quality service delivery.

Studies done in South Africa and Tanzania by Shava and Tlou (2019); Nyagiati and Yambo (2018) respectively, maintained that employee service delivery is a function of ability and motivation, where ability is comprised of the skills, training and resources required for performing a task and motivation is described as an inner force that drives individual to act towards something. Further, in Uganda, especially in Kitgum District Northern region, employee performance in institutions results in a more motivated work force that has the drive for higher productivity, quality, quantity, commitment and drive (Opu 2018).           Additionally, Barbara (2019) opined that over the past decade, the government of Uganda has been carrying out public service reforms focusing on streamlining of quality of service delivered; harmonizing pay benefits; and putting in place interventions to enhance the efficiency of service. Despite the reforms in the public service, wage bill has remained high relative to GDP and Government revenue (ROK, 2011). In addition, the gains from staff reduction earlier envisaged, including productivity, improvement and better service delivery, have remained elusive.

There is little if any that has been researched on the influence of the non-teaching staff job security on the employees’ service delivery in educational institutions in the country. Whereas World Health Organization (2000) reviewed standard rationales and conditions for service delivery of health workers in hospitals, the current study dealt with the contribution job security on non-teaching staff service delivery in educational institutions to fill the research gap.

Statement of the Problem

Service delivery is key to various service providers. Most consumers expect the best. The parents and other educational stakeholders tend to enroll their students in schools with up to date service delivery. This has been where its workforce, training, availability of resources, ICT, promotion procedures, security measures and culture of the systems among other factors are liked by consumers. The government has been organizing various in-service courses and training programs on security measures for the non-teaching staff service delivery. Despite the government effort to provide security, service delivery in various educational institutions is still wanting especially in Seme sub-county. Most of the logistics business organizations focus their attention primarily on external customer satisfaction and contacts that take place between the organization and the external customers. A tendency to measure only what is easily quantifiable (such as financial performance and productivity) even though other aspects such as employee satisfaction and service quality may be crucial to a company’s competitive success is equivalent  to  ignoring  the  full  potential  of  the  business. Like education stakeholders, customers and patients, employees engage in numerous encounters to satisfy the many needs they have in the course of carrying out their job responsibilities. This study therefore sought to investigate the contribution of non-teaching staff service delivery and come up with recommendations that if the government uses would improve quality service not only be delivered in Seme sub-county but also in other educational institutions within the country.

Effect of Job security on non-teaching staff Service Delivery

Job security describes the surrounding conditions in which an employee operates. According to Kelley and Peterson (2017) the job security can be composed of threats in work place, physical conditions, such as office temperature, or materials used in work. It can also be related to factors such as temporary or permanent job engagement. In Britain, according to Clarke, Koch and Hill (2018), work-life balance is generally associated with  equilibrium between the amount of time and effort somebody devotes to work and personal  activities, in order to maintain an overall sense of harmony in life. To understand work-life security,  it  is  important  to  be  aware  of  the  different  demands  upon  us  and  our  personal resources-  our  time  and  our  energy-  that  we  can  deploy  to  address  them. Studies by Castanheira and Costa (2020) in Spain pointed out that job insecurity has been reported by many workers as a threat to their service delivery. This therefore  call for all employers to provide a safe and secure  working conditions for all at any given time. While the work of Clarke et al. (2018) involved 56 administrators, the current study used 75 non-teaching staff to fill the research gap.

Research done in Africa, especially in Nigeria by Baki, Basfirincis, Cilingir and Murat (2019) indicated that those workers who have some form of control over their job security tend to suffer less stress-related ill health. This comes with clear implications for the concept of job security balance organizations can implement various work-life balance initiatives that may assist employees to better balance their work and family responsibilities, gain improvements in well-being and provide organizational benefits. According to Ogundele, Sambo and Gambo (2019) there are a large variety of family friendly policies  which  include,  but  are  not  limited  to  the  following: flexible working hours, job sharing, part-time work, compressed work weeks, parental leave, telecommuting, on-site child care facility. All these promote efficient service delivery in the work place (Josephine 2016).

According to Achiyo and Yambo (2020) the job security also constitutes the demand for work that  employees are required to meet. For instance, time and distance from place of residence and work place with insecurities that comes with them. When an employee is unable to meet the demands of work (within the time available), a work pressure problem arises that can lead to work stress and work burnout (Okoth. & Yambo 2016). Work stress can eventually cause the employee to feel excessively tired, exhausted, and depressed, as well as to suffer physical ailments hence fell insecure (Salami, Ojokuku &Ilesanmi 2019). Furthermore, research by Kiruja and Elegwa (2017) reiterated that the employee could possibly become overstrained or, if the situation persists for a lengthy period of time, start to suffer from burn-out hence weak and poor service delivery. In every work place, the workers have needs which a workplace must fulfill in order to avoid demotivation. As put forward by Opu, 2008); Yambo (2022) when workers lack motivation, they tend to resort to anti-work behaviors such as absenteeism, negligence of duty, late-coming, failure to meet deadlines, display of open frustration, and these entire factors work negative to the performance and credibility of an organization. This makes the service beneficiaries to compline to school management for instance. According to Shava and Tlou (2019;Yambo (2012) schools need to place all efforts to ensure that incentives such as intrinsic motivators, extrinsic motivators, and performance management approaches are used in order to retain, attract, increase workers efforts, satisfaction and commitment. This would eventually improve service delivery in schools.

Methodology

Research Design

The design of the study was descriptive survey. Kothari (2003), states that descriptive survey design provides information about variables more clearly. The descriptive survey enabled the researcher to study the relationship between the dependent and independent variables especially the relationship between job security taking into consideration service delivery in schools in Seme sub county, Kisumu County, Kenya.

The Study Area

The research was conducted in Seme Sub-County schools, Kisumu  County. The area where the schools are located lies in the shores of Lake Victoria Vihiga County to the East and around seventeen kilometers in to Lake Victoria. Economically, the people are anglers, subsistence farmers  ROK (2011). The land topography is undulating in the western side but largely plain on the eastern side. The Luo speaking communities are the predominant people who attend the schools. The area is drained by two main rivers, Awach and Magada which are permanent rivers draining into Lake Victoria. The main economic activities are among others fishing, subsistence farming, small-scale and pastoralism. The area receives moderate rainfall and has one maxima period spanning between March and July. These rains are not very reliable sometimes leading to crop failure.

Targeted Population

This study targeted the following groups as tabulated below:

Table 1 Target population

Respondents Target population Sampling Tech Sample
Sub County Education officer 1 100 1
Bursars 25 100 25
Head Cooks 25 100 25
Security Officers 25 100 25
Total 76   76

From table 1 the target population was 76 people who were from the selected population. This included 1 SCEO, 25 bursars, 25 head cooks and 25 security officers from the selected secondary school no-teaching staff in Seme sub county.

Sampling Techniques

The study adopted purposive sampling techniques to get one Sub-County Education officer, 25 Bursars, 25 head cooks and 25 security officers. This sampling was based on 100 percent which is a number considered to be statistically representative enough (Bloomberg & Volpe (2008).

Data Collection Instruments

Data collection instruments included structured questionnaires for the bursars, head cooks and security officers. The questionnaires were considered ideal for collecting data from these respondents because they were able to interpret and record the questionnaires on their own (Kothari, 2003). In the structured questionnaires, the question items helped the researcher to get information from the respondents. Interview schedules were produced for the one Sub-County Education officer for it was only one person.

Validity

After the researcher had developed the instruments, the experts from the Department of educational administration in Kisii University reviewed and scrutinized the contents and relevance of the instruments in order to determine their validity and to ensure that the instruments accurately measured the variables intended for them. After examining the documents, they also provided feedback and recommendations, which the researcher later incorporated in the final questionnaire used in the study.. This allowed the researcher to make improvements on the documents for use in the study.

Reliability

To ensure reliability of the developed instruments, the questionnaires and interview schedules were pre-tested by being administered to 10 respondents from both the staffs and the patients that were excluded in the study. The selection of the 10 respondents was done using purposive sampling procedure. The pre-test was later subjected to a test-retest analysis technique in order to gain the desired reliability coefficient of 0.67 indexes (Bloomberg & Volpe (2008).

The test-retest technique was also used to estimate the degree to which the same result would be obtained with a repeated measure of accuracy of the same concept in order to determine the reliability

In conducting the test-retest, the developed questionnaires and interview schedules were given to the 10 respondents from the staffs and patients. The answered questionnaires and interview schedules were scored, and the same instruments administered to the same group of subjects after a period of two weeks. The other questionnaire responses were scored and the comparison between the two answers obtained made. The Pearson’s product moment coefficient for the test-retest was employed to compute the correlation coefficient in order to establish the extent to which the contents of the questionnaires were consistent in eliciting the same responses every time the instrument was administered. A reliability coefficient of 0.67 and above was considered acceptable. Hence, the questionnaires were accepted as reliable.

Data Collection Procedures

The questionnaires were then personally delivered to the subjects by the researcher, ensuring that each subject understood what was required to be done. The respondents were required to give their own personal opinion of what they feel was required in the questionnaire. They were given enough time to fill the questionnaires and keep them ready for collection by the researcher. The appointments for visits was made with the respondents in advance, but if found absent on two visits, then the respondents were skipped and replaced with others. The purpose of the study was clearly explained to the respondents in order to remove doubts, which might interfere with the study while responding to the questionnaires, thus assuring them of the confidentiality.

Data Analysis

After data collection, the responses to the questionnaires and the interview schedules were coded, and then data entered into the computer for analysis. The data, which largely came from individual respondents, was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Frequencies, histograms, bar graphs, pie charts, and percentages were used for descriptive statistics. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 of the computer programme was used for the analysis of the data.

Ethical Considerations

Consequently, the researcher in this study sought permission from the respondents before engaging them in the study. Due to this, no participant was forced to share, give views, or discuss information that they feel uncomfortable in indulging or participating in. Responses given by an individual have not been shared to any other person except those directly involved in the study. All of the participants were assured of their confidentiality and were given the choice of withdrawing in case they feel uncomfortable with participating.

Findings

Response on whether Staffs’ Job Security Measures affects their service delivery

Table 2 Job Security Measures influences service delivery

Responses Frequency Percentage
Strongly Disagree 3 4%
Disagree 8 10.6%
Agree 12 16.1%
Strongly Agree 52 69.3
Total 75 100%

From table 2 most respondents  64 (85%) agreed that job security actually influence service deliver in schools, this therefore calls for adequate intervention including taking care of workers security which Castanheira and Costa (2020); Laura (2016) reiterated that this brings work stability for service delivery.

Job security and service delivery

Figure 1: Job security and service delivery

Most of the respondents agreed that staffs’ job security affects their service delivery in schools representing 69%. Only 31% were of the opinion that the staffs’ environment does not affect their service delivery. Service delivery was  affected by job security (Kelley & Peterson 2017).

Conclusion

However, the employees were not satisfied with the job security and housing schemes that are available at the school

Recommendation

Every place of work place needs adequate security and workers to be motivated for appropriate service delivery in educational institutions.

References

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