Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.

Abstract

This dissertation considered the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of staff members towards the current induction practices, as well as the effectiveness of these practices in two private national secondary schools in Kampala district, Uganda. Induction plays an important role in enabling new hires to socialize, as well as to acquire skills that will enable them to perform their jobs efficiently. It is also a pre-cursor for many other human resource management practices like mentorship and performance management. Despite this, there is limited research and information on the induction practices in private secondary schools in Uganda. Therefore, this study set out to fill the literature gap, as well as to provide an insight on what is happening on the ground with regards to induction of new hires in schools. A literature review was used to establish the importance of induction, and the importance of the perceptions and attitudes of staff members and leaders towards induction. Semi­-structured interviews were used to acquire the perceptions and attitudes of staff members and leaders. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and volunteering in one school, whilst in another school, the head teacher selected the participants. The data were analysed with thematic analysis, and three major themes were identified: Interpretations of induction; Influence of different factors on the perceptions and attitudes towards induction; and Inconsistency in the views the leaders and other staff members had about the sufficiency of induction. It was found that whilst there is valid knowledge about induction, it is at times confused with other human resource practices. Most staff members and leaders perceived induction to be of great importance; however, some did not think it was. There was a notable negative attin1de towards inducting older people who have been newly hired,as well as a negative attitude from older new hires being inducted by leaders they perceived as younger than them. It was also discovered that staff members in both schools received different information with regards to their roles and induction due to a lack of formalized induction programmes. Therefore, there is a need for formal induction programmes in private secondary schools in Uganda.

Course: Educational Leadership and Management - MSc

Date Deposited: 2024-01-18

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14295.html