Employee empowerment and employee attitudes towards work in government-aided secondary schools in Nakawa Division

Abstract

The study examined the influence of employee empowerment on employee attitudes among government aided secondary schools in Nakawa Division. It was guided by three research objectives which were; To examine the influence of employee competence, employee autonomy on employee attitudes in government aided secondary schools in Nakawa Division and the relationship between employee effectiveness and employee attitudes. The study used a cross sectional survey design with both qualitative and quantitative results. The study population involved teachers, head teachers and their deputies, bursars and administrators. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. In data analysis, Means and Standard Deviations, correlations and regressions were used to show the magnitude of the effect the independent variables have on the dependent variable. The study findings revealed that employee competence had a positive significant relationship to employee attitudes (r=.635, p=.000) with coefficient of determination R2=0.404 which shows that 40.4% variation in employee attitudes is explained by changes in employee competence. Findings also revealed that employee autonomy significantly affects employee attitudes (r=.486, p=.000) with a coefficient of determination R2 of .236 that indicates 23.6% chance change in employee attitudes is explained by employee attitudes. Also it was found out that there is a positive significant relationship between employee effectiveness and employee attitudes (r=.767, p=.000) with a regression coefficient determination of .588 meaning that 58.8% chance change in employee attitudes is explained by changes in employee effectiveness. It was therefore concluded that: There is generally less employee empowerment in government aided schools. Government aided school. Themselves have endeavored to put in place ways of how to empower the competencies of employees at different levels in their schools. However this is not sufficient enough to enable them to fully deploy their effectiveness at work. Most employees do not feel their self worthiness as a result of working in these schools. It was therefore recommended that there is need to revitalize the different sources of income like PTA in these schools, involve all departments in training and skills development and emphasize aspects like delegation and rotation of different roles in these schools.