“FACTORS THAT AFFECT PROMOTION OF TEACHERS IN SELECT SCHOOLS”

MAY ANN B. VILLANUEVA

FATIMA F. VILLANUEVA

JOHN REX V. VILLANUEVA

RENIEL MARK C. BASE

“A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the subject Human Resource

Management, Master of Arts in Education Major in Educational Management, Northern

Quezon College Inc., Infanta, Quezon”

ABSTRACT

The Researchers adopted a survey research design and the respondents consisted of 20

teachers from select schools. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire and

quantitative data was generated. The research findings indicated

Analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of the participants’ demographic variable to

the different factors that affect promotion. Primary data was collected using a

semi-structured questionnaire and quantitative data was generated in this study. The
research findings indicated significant differences in most of the factors relating to

promotion. Work experience and academic qualification were ranked highest and

employees agreed that they are factors influencing promotion in Mumias Sugar

Company Limited. Employees disagreed that the variables of who you know and not what

you know and constant pressure by worker on the supervisor were factors influencing

employee promotion in Mumias Sugar Company Limited. Analysis was conducted to

investigate the effect of the participant’s demographic variables on the promotion factors.

The implications of the findings in terms of human resource management are discussed in the

paper.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The main aim of education is to learn. In order for the learning to take place, the

environment in which the learning and teaching activity takes place is one of the most

important factors in determining the quality of the learning. In regards to observation and

research of teacher and teacher candidates, there has not been a common consensus among

experts and educators about how to have the best work environment necessary for the

teaching experience or develop their experience. Further, there is no accepted standard

practice for everyone in the media dimension, as it is in the curriculum and method

dimensions of the education system. Educational environments provided for teacher and

teacher candidates differ from country to country just as some countries also show changes
within themselves (Özcan, 2011, 200). The most important part of the education system is the

schools. School administrators and teachers have a big responsibility, creating the way

schools work, creating school goals, thus creating an effective and safe school. It is necessary

for school administrators and teachers to improve the quality of work life and to improve

working environments in order for school administrators and teachers to be connected to the

work they are doing, to be satisfied with their work, to be able to fulfill with satisfaction,

cope with stress and burnout, and to maintain strong communication with students, parents,

and teachers. School managers and teachers with a high level of work quality and working

conditions typically achieve the desired success and provide a more powerful means of

communication and the efficiency of their work (Akın Kösterelioğlu, 2011, 17).

EMPLOYEE PROMOTION

Employee promotion is defined by (Benowitz, 2001) generally as rewarding an

employee’s efforts by moving that person to a job with increased authority and responsibility.

A ‘Promotion may entail adjustment to a higher salary level. Promotion is a key aspect of

staff development that focuses on the identified potential of an individual staff based on an

objective assessment of his or her ability to perform responsibilities at a higher level in a

specific functional area or other related areas requiring similar skills set. Koontz (1993)

asserts that promotion is a change within the organization to a higher position that has greater

responsibilities and requires more advanced skills. It usually involves higher status and an

increase in pay. Promotion may be rewarded for outstanding performance or as a result of the

firm’s desire to better utilize an individual’s skills and abilities.

Karimi (2010) observed that promotion is an important stage in human resources

procurement. In any given institution, employees take positions and others possess special

skills that make them suited to hold specific responsibilities. This makes the human resource

personnel to promote some people in the process. Some are prepared through succession

planning while others are recruited from outside the organization. In the past, promotion was

used to measure career success of employees. Organizations kept ambitious people

challenged with a regular career ladder of jobs, all offering increased responsibility and

compensation: not everyone can be the chief executive officer but many could_make regular

progress. As organizations have become flatter and leaner, cutting out layers of management,

the approach of regular promotion is no longer available (Benowitz, 2001).

Mamoria (2005) advanced that promotions have the satisfaction of the promoted

employee’s need for self-esteem, belonging and security. They also provide an opportunity

for self- actualization through more vaned and challenging assignments. Individuals differ in

their abilities and skills, jobs differ in demands they place on individuals and promotions are

a way of the organization to match individuals to these jobs for which they are best suited.

This matching process over time occurs through promotion (Benowitz, 2001). Kimathi

(2000) added that promotions further strive to retain and motivate quality employees and

deliver a message to poor quality employees either to improve or to go. There are two types

of promotions, namely; career ladder promotion where an employee who has occupied a

position with full potential for a period of time is upgraded to the higher grade level after

demonstrating the potential to perform duties effectively and the non-competitive promotion

where an employee in a career ladder position is automatically promoted without having to

submit an application or compete with others for promotion for a position (Mamoria, 2005).
 1. FACTORS INFLUENCING EMPLOYEE PROMOTION IN
ORGANIZATIONS
Koontz (1993) cites length of service as a factor influencing employee promotion in

organizations. In these organizations, supervisors feel that an employee’s loyalty as expressed

by length of service deserves the reward of promotion. Merit as a factor is adopted by

organizations as a way of motivating their employees to perform better. Merit is seen as a fair

method of rewarding those whose performance is considered exemplary and in the process

encourages everyone to strive to perform better. Currently, many organizations motivate their

employees by linking rewards like promotions to excellent performance at work and

achievement of the relevant qualifications for the position at hand. Here the use of

performance appraisal basically entails trying to reward employees for their best work, by

promoting them while hoping that this incentive will encourage other employees also to

strive to work harder in future (Benowitz, 2001). Organizations have developed performance

evaluation instruments that tie promotion to performance which in essence links an individual

career progression to his or her level of performance or to a rating of competence. On the

other hand, qualification as a factor influencing employee promotion is directed towards

contributing to the accomplishment of mission goals by staffing positions with high- quality

employees capable of performing the relevant duties. Several studies (James, 2000;

Taniguchi, 2006; Woodhams & Lupton, 2006; Moshe, Ofer & Javier, 2012) contend that

depending on the organization, there are other factors influencing employee, namely; work

experience, multi-disciplinary professional knowledge , gender, age, marital status, tribalism

or ethnicity, educational similarities, similarities between employers and employees, success

in projects, organizational politics- social relations with the “right” people, constant pressure

by worker on the supervisor and luck.

RESEARCH PROBLEM
 This case study aims to identify factors that affect promotion of teachers in

select schools.

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following question:

1. What is the Demographic Profile of the respondents in terms of the ff?

a. Gender

b. Age

c. Religion

d. Marital Status

e. Education

f. Years in Service

g. Teaching Position

2. What are the respondent’s feeling in terms of their promotion?

3. What are the factors that affect promotion of the select teachers?

4. What suggestions/recommendations can be made to address the identified problem

regarding promotion?

Objective of the Study

To identify factors that affect promotion of teachers in select Schools and make

suggestions/recommendations to address the identified problem regarding promotion

Value of the Study

The findings of the study will be helpful to the Department of Education in ensuring

fairness in organizational promotion policies. The results of this study will also inform policy

makers in the Department of Education on factors influencing employee promotion so as to

enable them make informed decisions on how to improve employee satisfaction and

organizational commitment.
 The findings of the study will benefit human resources managers in refining

promotion policies already in existence by highlighting the adequacy or inadequacy of

promotion policies.

Related Literature

Teacher promotion has become an important issue in school administration and is one

that deserves more academic attention. One of the reasons for this is the development in the

late 1980s of School-based Management (SBM), which has affected and shaped school

administration world-wide. While SBM varies in name; running under such synonyms as

school-site autonomy, school-site management, decentralized management (Hanson, 2003),

and in forms of control, namely, administrative, professional and community (Leithwood

and Menzies, 1998), it is at base a proposal to decentralize and debureaucratize school

administration and to promote participatory decision-making in different levels of each

school (Caldwell and Spinks, 1992; Sackney and Dibski, 1994). Schools practising SBM

are empowered to set their own goals in connection with their special needs, and the school

members have a higher degree of freedom and greater responsibility in the use of resources

and in their method of task performance (Cheng, 1996).

Studies examining teacher careers are limited in range and number (Maclean, 1992).

According to Glaser (1968), one of the main problems that is associated with undertaking a

study of various aspects of work careers, including promotion at work, is that despite many

people appearing to be interested in the area, it is rarely openly discussed. The reason appears

to be that many people do not want to talk about their careers except under the most

exceptional circumstances, perhaps because they do not want to acknowledge the self-interest

that is implied by anyone who pursues a work career and promotion.

 Bobbitt et al. (1991) distinguished teachers as movers, stayers or leavers in terms of

their career plans and intentions. Movers were those seeking promotion, stayers were those

who do not and leavers were those who do not plan to stay in teaching. Draper and

McMichael (2000) based their work on that of Bobbit et al. (1991) and examined the

assumption of inevitability of application for promotion by considering those who were

interested in applying for promotion beyond ‘principal teacher’ (head of subject department)

level in secondary schools.

Thornton and Bricheno (2000) further studied the relationship between gender, role,

position and promotion aspirations. They found that while reasons reported for not seeking or

achieving promotion were multifaceted, the known and experienced disproportionate

promotion of men, plus the frequently traditional gender differences in work–home

orientation and contextual/situational expectations, contrived to limit the career development

for a significant number of women.

The overall success of an educational institution depends on teachers’ commitment

which is directly related to the level of motivation they have within the institution. Teachers

are the main resources for schools’ business activities, the issues of teachers’ motivation

critically decide schools’ success. Saraswathi (2011), defines motivation as the willingness to

exert high levels of effort, towards organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to

satisfy some individual needs. Motivation is the force that causes people to behave the way

they do. It could be further seen on the strength of the person's motives. Motives are needs,

wants, drives or impulses within an individual.

Teacher commitment is an investment of personal resources and is closely connected

to teachers’ work performance. Individual teacher commitment can be analyzed to identify

centers of Commitment in their professional practice. These centers of commitment are

currently considered to be external to the teacher, and include commitment to the school or

organization, students, career continuance, professional knowledge base, and the teaching

profession (Croswell, 2003).

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This case study will use the descriptive correlational method of research. Descriptive

research involves description, recoding, analysis and interpretation of conditions that

currently exist. The main aims are to describe the nature of a condition as it exists at the time

of the study and to explore the causes of the particular situation.

Respondents of the Study

This study involved twenty (20) public school teachers in selected schools in island.

The respondents took finalization of recruitment of being Teacher I in the Department of

Education in the Division of Quezon.

Sampling

Respondents were selected using Purposive Sampling. In this manner, respondents were

selected according to their appropriateness to the study.

Data Collection

Primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Questionnaires are

less expensive, provide informants with time to respond and can be easily adopted where the

field of investigation is vast and spread over a wide geographical area. It is also superior in

situations requiring information of personal nature. The questionnaire was divided into two
 parts. Part A focused on personal information of the respondents whereas part B obtained

information on possible factors that influence the promotion of teachers. The process entailed

the researchers visiting select schools to drop and pick the questionnaires.

Data Analysis

Quantitative data was generated in this study. The researchers analyzed data using

percentages, mean scores and frequencies in order to arrive at conclusions. Percentages were

used to summarize and reflect the relative weight of factors influencing employee promotion

as perceived by the respondents. The frequencies were used to examine the distribution of

responses to each of the factors. The means showed the magnitude of the weight a particular

factor was given.

CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The research objective was to identify factors that affect the promotion of teachers in

select Schools. This chapter presents the analysis and findings with regard to the objective

and discussion of the same. The findings are presented in percentages, frequency and mean.

1. Demographic Profile of the Teacher Respondents

1.1 Profile of the respondents in terms of age

7/20 or 35 %, the biggest age group in respondents are aged 26-30. 5/20 or 25%

belong to 31-35. 5/20 or 25% belong to 36-40. 2/20 or 10% of the respondents and 1/20 or

5% belong to 46-50.
Graph 1.1: Profile of the Respondents in terms of Age

Percentage
35
30
25
Percentage
20
15
10
5
0
26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50
Mean

: 34.1

1.2 Profile of the respondents in terms of Gender

Using purposive sampling, 65% of the respondents were female and 35% were male.

Graph 1.2: Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Gender

Percentage

70
60
Percentage
50
40
30
20
10
0
Male Female

1.3 Profile of the respondents in terms of religion

Majority of the respondents are Roman Catholic, which is 70% of the total respondents,

while 20% are Seventh Day Adventist and the remaining 10% is in the other religion.
 Graph 1.3. Profile of the respondents in terms of religion

Percentage

60

50

40 Percentage

30

20

10

0
FELT NOT FELT

1.4 Profile of the respondents in terms of Marital Status

The result reveals that 80% of the respondents were married and 20% were single. It can

be assumed that a large number of the respondents have families that they attend to aside

from their respective jobs.

Graph 1.4. Profile of the respondents in terms of marital status

Percentage

60

50

40 Percentage

30

20

10

0
FELT NOT FELT
 1.5 Profile of the respondents in terms of educational attainment.

14/20 or 70% of the respondents are with master’s units. This suggest that all these

teachers are qualified for promotion. 6/20 or 30% of the respondents are without master

units making them unqualified for promotion.

Graph 1.5 Profile of the Respondents in terms of Educational Attainment.

Percentage

60

50

40 Percentage

30

20

10

0
FELT NOT FELT

2. Employment Status of Teacher Respondents

2.1 Profile of the respondents in terms of teaching position.

The result reveals that 95% of the respondents are still in teacher I position and only

5% of the sample population is in teaching II position. This implies that with regards to the

mean percentile score according to respondent’s ages are very tremendous when it comes to

promotion.

Graph 2.1 Representation of Teaching Position of the Respondents.

 Percentage

60

50

40 Percentage

30

20

10

0
FELT NOT FELT

2.2 Profile of the respondents in terms of length of service.

5/20 or 25% of the respondents are within 3-5 years in the service, 11/20 or 55% of

the respondents are within 6-10 years in the service, 3/20 or 15% out of 20 are 11-15 years

in the service and 1/20 or .05% of the respondents is already 16-20 years in service. The data

in terms of length in service shows that 20/20 or 100% of the respondents are qualified for

promotion considering their length in service combined with other qualifications.

Graph 2.2 Profile of the respondents in terms of length of service.

Percentage
60

50

40 Percentage
30

20

10

0
FELT NOT FELT
2.3 Perception regarding individual Promotion

12/20 or 60% of the respondents felt that their promotion is slow even if they are

qualified for a promotion. The remaining 8/20 or 40% said that they do not feel that their

promotion is slow.

Graph 2.3 Respondents Perception regarding Individual Promotion

Percentage
60

50

40 Percentage
30

20

10

0
FELT NOT FELT

2.4 Factors that affect their promotion

Out of the 12 respondents who perceived that they have a slow promotion, 8/12 or
66.7% said that they “Did not pass the Criteria for Reclassification” for the next higher
position. 5/12 or 41.66% are “aware of Promotional/Reclassification Policies for T-II but did
not participate in any”. 3/12 or 25% the respondents said that Personal Issues/Concerns are
the reasons that affect their promotion. 2/12 or 16.6% said that Administration does not
encourage/support Promotion.

CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of findings

The primary objective of the study to identify the factors that affect the promotion of

teachers in select schools. From the data analysis it was shown that the biggest age group in
 respondents are aged 26-30. It is also showed that 65% of the respondents were female and

35% were male. Majority of the respondents are Roman Catholic, which is 70% of the total

respondents. The result reveals that 80% of the respondents were married and 20% were

single. Furthermore, 14/20 or 70% of the respondents are with master’s units. This suggest

that all these teachers are qualified for promotion. 6/20 or 30% of the respondents are

without master units making them unqualified for promotion.

In terms of the teacher’s employment status, the result reveals that 95% of the
respondents are still in teacher I position and only 5% of the sample population is in teaching
II position. 55% of the respondents are within 6-10 years in the service. In addition, 12/20 or
60% of the respondents felt that their promotion is slow even if they are qualified for a
promotion. The remaining 8/20 or 40% said that they do not feel that their promotion is slow.
In terms of the factors affecting their promotion, Out of the 12 respondents who perceived
that they have a slow promotion, 8/12 or 66.7% said that they “Did not pass the Criteria for
Reclassification” for the next higher position. 5/12 or 41.66% are “aware of
Promotional/Reclassification Policies for T-II but did not participate in any”. 3/12 or 25% the
respondents said that Personal Issues/Concerns are the reasons that affect their promotion.
2/12 or 16.6% said that Administration does not encourage/support Promotion.

Conclusion

Recommendations

Promotions are a sensitive, emotionally loaded subject and the use of non-rational decisions

regarding promotions can cause wide negative outcomes to organizations. It is important that

organizations should perform surveys periodically to enable the human resource management

professionals identify patterns or changes in employees' perceptions regarding the factors

influencing promotions and ensure that promotions are only achieved using rational

decisions. To make promotion policies even more effective, the management needs to review

carefully the performance appraisal systems as a tool for measuring performance and refining

promotion policies already in existence by highlighting their adequacy or inadequacy.

Educational Management Administration & Leadership ISSN 1741-1432 DOI:

10.1177/1741143205056216 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi)

Copyright © 2005 BELMAS Vol 33(4) 423–447; 05621

PING-MAN WONG, Department of Educational Policy and Administration, Hong Kong

Institute of Education, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong, Pr China. [email: pmwong@ied.edu.hk]