Motivating teachers through performance management

This book explores the impact of the performance management system on the motivation of high school teachers in Zimbabwe. Operating from an interpretive paradigm, the book employed a qualitative research methodology to elicit data from teachers and school heads from a cluster of four schools that were treated as a case. The goal setting theory was used as the main theoretical framework guiding the study while complemented by Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory and Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory. Four secondary school heads and forty teachers participated in the study by way of completing questionnaires, participating in in-depth personal interviews and contributing to focus group discussions. The study revealed that the performance management system while good in principle, did not motivate the teachers in the cluster. The greatest obstacle was government inability to award performance related pay to deserving teachers, inadequate training of teachers as well as the acute shortage of resources to support the system. The system could therefore be improved if central government actively engages all school personnel right from the planning, implementation and evaluation phase.