Human Resource Practices and Teacher Engagement in the Rural setting of Ugandan Schools

Abstract

The study sought to examine the relationship between human resource practices andteacher engagement in secondary schools in the far north district of Arua. The study waspremised on the counter- productive work behaviors of some secondary school teachersworking in the rural setting of Uganda. There was however, lack of local empirical studieson the factors driving this trend. Cross sectional research design was adopted for thepurpose of the study using a sample of 226 respondents out of the total population size of514 teachers in the selected local government. Pearson Correlation and regression analysiswere used to find out the extent to which HR practices predict teacher engagement. Theresearch findings showed a positive Correlation between the study variables. The studyconcludes that there is need for the policy makers and school administrators to introduceand effectively apply HR practices namely recruitment and selection, reward, performancemanagement, staff development programmes and employee involvement aimed at inducingteachers’ engagement despite the upcountry setting in which they work. An earlier versionof this paper was presented at the 19thAnnual international management conference ofMakerere University Business School, September 2 -5, 2014.