TEACHERS’ TURNOVER INTENTIONS: ROLE OF HRM PRACTICES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KENYA

Abstract

Employees play a key role in the achievement of organizations’ objectives and thus every organization endeavors to ensure employee retention. However, as the organization endeavors to do this, they are faced with the challenge of employees’ turnover intentions. Although it has been suggested that Human Resource Management (HRM) practices may affect employees’ turnover intentions, the extent of this effect has been inconsistent in previous studies. Moreover, literature on HRM practices and turnover intentions in Kenyan context is limited hence prompting this research. The study thus sought to investigate the effect of compensation, career management, performance appraisal and training on turnover intentions of teachers in public secondary schools in Murang’a county Kenya. The study had its basis on Social exchange, Organization equilibrium and Expectancy confirmatory theories. The target population was 3752 Teachers Service Commission (TSC) teachers in 304 public secondary schools in Murang’a county Kenya. A two multi stage random sampling method was applied to select a sample size of 40 schools and 400 teachers. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire and interview guide were data collection tools. The study used descriptive statistics and logistic regression and content analysis for data analysis. The study findings indicated that compensation and training significantly influenced turnover intentions while career development and performance appraisal insignificantly influenced public secondary schools’ teachers’ turnover intentions in Murang’a county Kenya. Policy implications of study findings have been discussed.