Impact of Organisational Career Development on Schools Outcomes in the Primary Education Sub-sector in Ntungamo District

Abstract

This research is focused on the study of the effectiveness of organisational career development approach to impact on the schools outcomes through the transformation of the quality of schools leadership. The objective of the study was to find out whether there is any impact being made by the organisational career development strategies on the performance of the principals, whose good quality leadership would be expected to in return influence the schools outcomes – which is the measure for school performance. In this thesis, the background of the management of principals under the decentralized central-local government relations has been highlighted. The three main variables include: organisational career development, quality of schools leadership and schools outcomes. Three main career development strategies that include employee training, performance assessment and organisational support that are used by most organisations, including Ntungamo District Local Government Administration were been measured. As a result of the provided career development, principals quality of leadership was expected to have been improved. In return, the quality of leadership was measured as a mediating variable that positively impacts on the school outcomes. Two hypotheses were adopted for the purpose of guiding the later analysis of these relationships. The data was collected by means of a survey. Questionnaires distributed to the principals were the main source of data. The collected data was finally analysed using regression analyses which showed the types of associations among the independent, mediating and dependent variables. The trend of association between the applied variables was later discussed under the implications section, giving due attention to the fact that the relationships found did not adhere to the trend of some of the other already produced works on organisational career development. Some of the control variables especially the academic qualification, sex, length of principalship of the research respondents and the number of years the principals have spent in the schools they are currently leading were included in the summary of the findings section for purposes of providing background information about the respondents. Finally, recommendations and conclusions were made and after, the acknowledgement of the limitations to the research. The limitations to the study were more related to the scarcity of contextual information and that was a major hindrance to the research especially in the process of writing the literature review. The small sample of the principals who participated in the study proved to be a challenge at the level of data analysis. The recommendations made were in accordance with the analysis result and the implications of that analysis.