Influence of principals’ power utilization on teachers’ empowerment in public secondary schools in Garissa county, Kenya

Abstract

There is a global concern on the principals’ power utilization. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of principals’ power utilization on teachers’ empowerment. The objectives were: to establish the effect of principals’ legitimate power utilization on teachers’ empowerment, to determine the influence of principals’ expertise power utilization on teachers’ empowerment, to ascertain the influence of principals’ reward power utilization on teachers’ empowerment and to establish the influence of principals’ referent power utilization on teachers’ empowerment. The study utilized mixed method and the the simultaneous triangulating model with descriptive survey design. Targeted populace was 14,184 which included 41 principals, 780 teachers, 13,339 students and 24 MoE/TSC officers. The sample was 760 which included 33 stratified randomly sampled, 330 teachers and 384 students sampled using Fisher formular. The 13 MoE/TSC officers were purposively sampled. Questionnaires for learners and teachers were used while interviewing schedule was for MoE/TSC officers and the principals. Piloting was done in Wajir County using a sample of 76 participants which is 10 % of the total sample. The pilot sample included: 4 principals, 36 teachers and 36 students purposively sampled from the same schools. These piloting participants were not included in the final sampling. The investigator requested specialists to analyze the validity of tools. As for reliability there was test-retest technique employed. Cronbach’s Alpha was utilized to find the reliability of the instruments. Alpha worth of 0.700 was attained and the instruments termed consistent. Triangulating was used to assure credibility. In-depth interviewing was embraced to examine dependability of non-numerical tools. Numerical facts were scrutinized in descriptive and inferential (linear regression) statistics by means of tables, occurrences and percent rates. Qualitative data was offered by thematic scrutiny in narrative form and verbatim citing. The study established that problem solving skills were not used, expertise training was not seen and cerebration of achievements was missing. The study concluded that legitimate, expertise, reward and referent powers influenced teacher empowerment positively. It was recommended that principals should utilize all these powers and should beef up the use of these powers in schools. Further research was recommended to be done on these powers elsewhere with different participants.