DEVELOPMENT OF A RETENTION PROGRAM

THROUGH MOTIVATION-HYGIENE THEORY OF

SELECTED PRIVATE TEACHERS

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL

2022
Volume: 6
Pages: 11-22
Document ID: 2022PEMJ405
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7424058
Manuscript Accepted: 2022-10-12
Psych Educ, 2022, 6: 1073-1084, Document ID: PEMJ405, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7424058, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

Development of a Retention Program Through Motivation-Hygiene Theory of

Selected Private Teachers
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat*
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.

Abstract
In recent years, school administrators have had a continuous concern about the retention of private
school teachers. The Philippines is one of the countries that experience a constant turnover of
teachers especially in the basic education. This mixed method study examined the factors that
influence the private teachers to stay or leave private schools. To know the factors that most affect
them, Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory was explored in this study. An adapted survey
questionnaire was used in this study and it was accessed by 206 private teachers. Meanwhile, self-
made interview questions were constructed by the researcher and 16 private teachers were
interviewed. The researcher utilized a cluster sampling technique where the researcher divided the
population into multiple clusters for the investigation. The result of the survey and interview was
used as a ground basis to derive a retention program for private school teachers to alleviate the
turnover. The findings of this study were redounding to the benefit of the private schools considering
that a job retention program plays an important role in the private schools. The greater demand for
quality education in the private schools justifies the need for more effective strategies to retain the
teachers. Therefore, private schools that apply the job retention program derived from the results of
this study will be able to maintain the best and most qualified teachers in their institutions.

Keywords: retention program, motivation-hygiene theory, private school teachers

Introduction teachers which became a primary contributor to

In recent years, school administrators have had a
continuous concern in the retention of private school
teachers. The Philippines is one of the countries who
experience a constant turnover of teachers, especially
in basic education. Numerous teachers leave the
company or the profession each year in which
teachers’ retention became a significant problem
because it could cause teacher shortage and hiring and
training novice teachers in the private school (Sumipo,
2020).
To develop success in schools, their utmost priority
should be to attract and retain qualified and equipped
teachers. Dela Cruz (2016) agreed to this when she
mentioned that retaining teachers is one of the several
reasons for education effectiveness. The public and
private school partnered in delivering quality
education to the students; however, according to
Bulawat (2020), public and private schools have a
usual scenario when it comes to fresh graduates of
education, as most of them only secure a job in the
private school to become a training ground, acquire
experience, and to wait to pass the board exam then
later on apply to the public school. This behavior
should be changed as private schools are not all the
same.
teacher shortage (Sutcher, 2019). Public schools have
lower turnover rate compared to the private schools
with a high rate of turnover of teachers.Apparently, the
turnover rate in the private schools is almost twice
than that of the public schools (Schmitz, 2017).
Gradually, novice private school teachers have
dramatically increased their turnover rate; whereas in
the public institution, new teachers were most likely to
stay today. As a matter of fact, every age group except
teachers with 20 or more experience has increased
faster in the private than the public sector. The
National Center for Education Statistics conducted a
Schools and Staffing Survey among the public and
private school sectors. It was designed to provide in
the elementary and secondary education a descriptive
data. It covered topics from the teachers’ demand,
characteristics, conditions in schools, view in school
climate and problems in their respective schools,
compensation, and hiring and retention practices.
Contrary to the general accepted belief, teacher
retention rates arenot changing that much.It stays in its
high turnover rate. Teachers, regardless of what age
and year they have started, in their fifth year of
teaching about one-third of them leaves and within ten
years half were already gone. Thus, there is no drastic
decrease in teachers’ retention; it sticks with its high
turnover rate.

There is a high rate of attrition among the private According to the Department of Education (2019),

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Psych Educ, 2022, 6: 1073-1084, Document ID: PEMJ405, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7424058, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article
private schools have 263,430 teachers and it changes
over the years due to leaving teachers in the private
schools. However, in this type of situation in the
private schools, they were able to attract new
applicants who are novice, which makes it quite
complicated because private schools will lend time and
effort again to train these new teachers (Sumipo,
2020). Whereas, the public school sector also
experiences a turnover rate of teachers; however, it is
not as drastic as the private schools (Bulawat, 2020).
Many parents in the National Capital Region (NCR)
still prefer to enroll their children in private schools. It
was proven when the pandemic happened, although
there some private schools that had been closed due to
business loss, there are still private schools that are
still running. It is because many parents and students
believe in the quality of education in the private
schools even if there is a high price of matriculation.
With this, private schools should be able to retain the
qualified and best teachers to maintain the quality of
education for the students. When the private schools
suffer from teacher turnover, it would not only affect
the flow of the workforce but would also highly affect
the quality of education that the school is promising to
the students. As training novice teachers will take a lot
of time and effort to make them equipped in the
teaching field.
The private schools of the District Swat of Pakistan
have experienced turnover of teachers also. It has been
found that the private school teachers leave the school
due to job stress and over workload (Khan et al.,
2017). Similarly, private teachers in Indonesia also
experience a quite high attrition rate of teachers.
Teachers in this country receive less reward and
appreciation from the management; hence,
dissatisfaction takes place among the teachers
(Hardianto et al., 2019).
Around the world, teacher turnover has been
acknowledged as a serious issue in education. Plans
for turnover remained remarkably consistent.
However, the reasons for them varied significantly
(Rasanen et al. 2020). The top reasons for teacher
turnover intentions were a lack of professional
commitment and school structure and workload issues.
Several areas of the teaching profession should be
changed at the same time to improve teacher job
satisfaction and retention. Agarwal (2017) affirms that
in any organization, employees are one of the most
important resources and they can be defined as the life-
blood of the organization. To remain competitive, they
should not focus only on hiring the best talents but
must be able to retain the best employees for a
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
long term and maintain them motivated and
determined. Employee retention is encouraging
employees in a long period of time to remain in the
organization.
According to Herzberg’s Theory, job satisfaction is
essential to any organization’s success and it is
connected to motivation as the major factor that affects
human behavior and performance. Many researchers
have discussed and conceptualized motivation.
Whiseand and Rush (1988) defined in the early years
that motivation is the individual’s willingness to
accomplish something to satisfy needs. Later,
motivation was defined by Robbins (2001) as a needs-
satisfying process, which means that the person will
give full effort in achieving goals when certain factors
satisfy his or her needs. Fuller, et.al (2008) contributed
a recent definition of motivation, according to them
motivation is a person’s persistence and direction of
efforts to achieve a specific goal or objective.
There have been a number of valuable studies of
employee retention over the last decade, all of which
present evidence which motivation has been highly
influencing employee retention in the company. It is
either extrinsic or intrinsic motivation. However, none
of these studies tailored a precise retention program
especially for the private school and there is a need for
a private school to have this program as the demand
for teachers’ retention is high in the private school to
retain the quality of education. The researcher of this
study is part of the Administration of a private school.
The researcher often handles interviews for the
interested applicants, and most of them came from the
private school. The researcher always asks the teachers
the reason why they are leaving the company and most
of their reasons are lack of benefits and the system of
the school. In addition to this, it was confirmed from
the applicants that there is no retention program in
their school.
This research study has a strong background when it
comes to the turnover rate of private school teachers; it
has been defended and researched that the attrition
among private schools is higher than the public school.
This issue could lead to a bigger problem because not
only the workforce was being affected, but also the
teaching ability of the teachers. Hence, there is a need
for a precise retention program for the private teachers
to maintain the best teachers in the school and to
continually provide a better and quality education to
the learners.
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Research Article
Research Questions
This study was proposed to know the best practices to
promote teachers’ retention in the private school. This
study sought to answer these questions:
1. What are the factors that give job satisfaction to the
private teachers to stay in the school?;
2. What are the factors that give job dissatisfaction to
the private school teachers to leave the school?; and
3. What are the best practices to develop a retention
program for the private school teachers?
Literature Review
Teachers in private schools have many advantages
over public schools when it comes to small class sizes,
comprehensible policies, thin management structures,
ideal teaching conditions, and common goals. Sumipo
(2020) sought to find out the factors which affect the
decisions of teachers to stay in the selected private
schools in Bohol. The researcher used Fredrick
Herzberg’s Motivation & Hygiene Theory, it was
concluded that motivational factors are the strongest
factors responsible for the retention of the teachers.
Teachers' decisions to stay at private schools were
influenced by motivational variables, particularly those
related to the profession itself, such as a passion for
teaching and a sense of fulfillment, According to the
findings, a comfortable working atmosphere with
favorable relationships with coworkers, administrators,
parents, and students would surely motivate instructors
to continue at their professions. Although private
schools may not be able to compete with public
schools on pay and benefits, if other requirements are
met, instructors will prefer more noble principles than
money and benefits.
Public schools in the Philippines are pictured as
greener pastures than private schools. However,
Bulawat (2020) investigated public schools because
there is a large turnover of teachers. In public school,
the teachers were given five to seven workloads and
the desire that greatly fueled their decision to leave the
public school is because of a lot of responsibilities as
well as lack of opportunity for career advancement. In
addition, failure to implement better company policy
and lack of technological support are also factors why
teachers leave the public school (Bulawat, 2020).
There was a strong link between motivation and
hygiene factors, with the higher the motivation, the
better the hygiene factors. While motivating
considerations accounted for the bulk of teacher
turnover, the findings of the study revealed that they
were also decisive to leave the service due to the
massive quantity of paperwork they had to complete in
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
addition to their teaching and other responsibilities.
Hence, a large compensation was not always the
solution to make the teachers stay in the company.
Furthermore, there is trouble with teacher turnover
because it greatly affects the students and the school.
Addressing it is critical because not only academics
were affected but as well as the financial costs of
teachers’ turnover. Thomas and Hammond (2019)
researched in South America and the findings
expressed that there are higher turnover among
mathematics, science, special education, English, and
world languages teachers. In addition to this, lack of
support from the administration, low compensation,
and alternative certification are part of the factors of
teachers’ turnover. While recruiting teachers during
teacher shortages is vital, doing so in a way that results
in high turnover inflates teacher demand, making it
more difficult to fix shortages in the long run.
Teachers must be adequately retained so that all of our
nation's schools have enough well-prepared and
dedicated instructors, and teachers in our classrooms
have the time and skills to adequately serve all of the
learners. Customized policy interventions can help
address the fundamental issues that drive teachers out
of the classroom, stabilizing and eventually enhancing
the teaching workforce so that all children are better
served.
Turnover of teachers has been a problem across
different domains. In Indonesia this was not a new
issue for them. Hardianto, et al. (2019) investigated the
private schools as the researchers have seen that there
will disrupt the quality of education and achieve the
ultimate goal of education if there will be a continual
high turnover rate of teachers. There are 149
participants that participated in this study and it has
been revealed that rewards are the most important
factors that give the most negative influence among
the teachers. Hardianto et al. (2019) stated that
teachers work better if they were able to acquire
decent rewards because rewards have the highest
influence on teacher job satisfaction in Indonesia.
Additionally, teachers who have given the chance to
activities that will test their competencies have been
found to be more valued (Hardianto et al. 2019;
Zaraket & Saber, 2017; Addai et al. 2018).
Numerous factors pressure the teachers to leave the
school. A study about the relationship of job turnover
intention, workload, compensation, and conditions and
stress in the work in private schools has been sought
by Khan et al. (2017). There were 248 private school
teachers who participated in this study where they
were united in a decision that job stress and workload
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Research Article
have been the prior factors that affects the private
teachers to leave the organization. However, a good
compensation and benefits will help to lessen the
turnover rate of the employees in Indonesia.
Kamalaveni et al. (2019) contributed a comprehensive
view regarding the strategies and operations to retain
the qualified and talented employees. According to
them, retaining the workforce in the 21 st century means
people are in a dynamic environment which includes
growth, development, and technology. Managing
talent is a demanding task, and policies and practices
must be properly created in order to retain the best
employees. As this study shows, organizations are
using a variety of strategies and tactics to retain talent.
To avoid staff poaching, compete with competitors,
and stay competitive in a dynamic environment,
businesses must focus on attributes that improve
employee satisfaction and loyalty.
In many countries, teacher retention is a challenge
(Menon &Bracklin, 2021). The researchers
investigated the school leaders and teachers in India
which is a country that has a problem in teachers’
retention regarding how teacher retention impacts the
stakeholder of the school in private early childhood
schools. The researchers focused on the problem of
compensation for other workloads, positive workplace
relationships, flexible schedules, teaching autonomy
and recognition for work. Reducing workloads could
be a marker to avoid teacher attrition because
increasing salary is not always the solution, as
workload is part of their responsibility. However, it
must be considered the stress that may occur because
of increased workload. Teachers' attrition may
decrease in the long run if there is also a good
relationship in the workplace such as listening to their
concerns and taking positive action.
Thomas and Hammond (2019) stated that the major
reason that teachers discontent start when there is a
lack of support from the school management or
administration, large class size, and low salary, even
the factor that teaching profession isn’t a good career
option. The effects of teacher attrition are negative for
all the stakeholders of the school, including the
student, parent, teachers, and community. The
consequences of this leads to loss of experienced
teachers that can lead to poor effects on learner’s
learning (Rinke & Mawhinney, 2017; Gallang &
Riley, 2017). Teacher attrition also negatively
influences the efficacy and success of the school as an
integrated system, disrupting the educational outcomes
and learning environment (Thomas & Hammond,
2017). Furthermore, they affirmed that there is a
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
consequence that could be long term for both
individual learner and educational system. One of the
consequences is the development of a child,
specifically their personality, and social skills can also
be hindered because of teacher turnover from the
departure of a teacher with whom they connected
emotionally (Newberry & Allsop, 2017; Gallant &
Riley, 2017). The administration should be highly
emotional intelligence also to be a good team builder.
Employees are most satisfied in the workplace when
the administration knows the importance of
relationships and inspiration and encouragement and
this could lead to teachers’ retention.
Azeez (2017) strongly agreed that organizational
growth will benefit with the retention of employees,
however, the most challenging task of a company
today is employee satisfaction and retention. Truly,
employee’s motivation is the key to any success of the
organization because it consists of the drive and
commitment of the employees to their daily role. The
absence of motivation can affect the workforce that
could cause low productivity that would fall short in
reaching the objectives of the company. As employees
are the lifeblood of the organization, it is important
that they are driven. The work of the employees should
be balanced and wouldn’t consume all their energy. A
study using the same theory was explored in a hospital
in Oman among the job satisfaction of medical
laboratory professionals. Alrawahi et al. (2020) sought
to know the motivational elements that are correlated
with job satisfaction. The researchers concluded that
the absence of hygiene factors that were identified in
the study such as health and safety, heavy workload,
salary, recognition, and policy cause job dissatisfaction
among the medical laboratory professionals. Arawahi
et al. (2020) concluded that these specific factors must
be addressed to the hospital managers to improve the
motivation of health workers.
Methodology
This research study aimed to utilize the Motivation-
Hygiene Theory to know the satisfiers and dissatisfiers
of the private school teachers in order to develop a
retention program for them. It is essential to
understand first the factors that influence most the
private school teachers to stay and leave the school to
finally develop the best retention program, making this
a qualitative type of research. There have been
evidences of studies that are similar to this one. The
literature has been designed to present rather than
examine their research accomplishments and is more
concerned with their shortfalls and the need for greater
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Research Article
research. This study focused on developing a retention
program through hygiene-motivation factors on private
teachers. The reason for choosing such a sample is
mainly because as reflected by literature, the
population of this group is increasing and there is a
high attrition among the private teachers (Sumipo,
2020).Though this was a well-defined topic, there is
still a lack of retention program for the private school
teachers that was derived from the studies which made
this study use literature from primitive origin as no up-
to-date data existed.
Research Design
This study utilized the mixed method. Data were
collected through interviews composed of open-ended
questions, and a survey questionnaire. It sought to
identify the factors that affect the teachers’ retention,
how the motivation factor (intrinsic motivation) and
hygiene factor (extrinsic motivation) solve the
turnover of the teachers, and to know the best practices
to help the private schools maintain the best and
qualified teachers in the school. The researcher utilized
a cluster sampling technique where the researcher
divided the population into multiple clusters for
research. Then, the researcher selected random groups
using simple random sampling technique for data
collection and data analysis.
Research Context and Participants
The participants of the quantitative study are 206
teachers in Metro Manila. The survey questionnaire
was accessed by 58 private schools and there were 206
teachers who answered the survey. Among the
participants, 128 were female teachers (62.10%) while
78 were male teachers (37.90%). There were more
licensed teachers in the private school which were 161
(78.20%) teachers while there were 45 (21.80%)
teachers who were not licensed. On the other hand, the
participants of the qualitative study came from four
private schools, and the researcher was able to
interview four teachers from the first school, five
teachers from the second school and seven teachers
from the third school with a total of 16 teachers.
The ethical considerations explained while circulating
the questionnaire via electronic form were as follows:
(1) Guaranteed privacy of data for the ones agreeing to
participate; (2) Their willingness to participate or
abstain from participating, but once the questionnaire
was agreed to be filled the participant had to answer all
the questions and the design was in such a way that not
a single question could be skipped without answering,
else they could not proceed to the next question; (3)
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
The information they have provided would be treated
with the utmost level of anonymity and confidentiality
and to prove this fact, the ‘Name’ part was held as
being ‘optional’; and (4) It was mentioned that upon
completion of this research the data will be secured
within the College of Education, National University
of the Philippines.
Research Instrument
Survey. To gather the necessary data, the researcher
used a survey questionnaire via Google forms. The
questionnaire had a series of statements and the
participants were asked to specify the degree of their
agreement accordingly. The questionnaire had a 5-
point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to
“strongly agree”. All questions that were used in the
survey were derived from Ewen, et al.,1966; Graen,
1966; Sergiovanni, 1966; House andWigdor, 1967;
Lindsay, et al., 1967; Maidani, 1991; Pizamand Ellis,
1999;and Klassen, et al., 2010. Each factor’s
numerous questions were asked for the computation of
the average and to enhance the accuracy of the
measure.
Interview. The questions for the interview were
formulated by the researcher and were validated by
three (3) validators. The interview guide consisted of
forty-four (44) questions. The questions were based on
the theoretical framework of this study to suffice the
answer of the research questions.
Data Gathering Procedure
Quantitative Procedure. The researcher sought help
from the Federation of Apssam Mapesa Mappresa
Association to send the survey link among the private
school members of this organization. The researcher
sent a permission letter to the President if she can send
the survey link to pursue this study. The researcher
was able to grant access and successfully sent the
survey link to the private schools. The survey was
completed in one sitting. The researcher assured the
respondents of the confidentiality of their responses as
the researcher asked for their private information such
as name, gender, district, etc. The gathered data was
tabulated by the researcher, and sought a statistician
for statistical computation and analysis. The statistical
treatment is descriptive statistics such as mean and
standard deviation.
Qualitative Procedure. The researcher did a focus
group study to answer the interview questions. The
group was chosen as regards their demographic traits
and the questions were designed based on the topic of
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interest. The researcher carefully planned the series of
discussion designs to obtain the information from the
private school teachers. The researcher individually
asked therespondents to participate in the interview.
The researcher aimed to let the participants narrate
their experiences in teaching in the private schools.
The interview was done via Zoom.
Results and Discussion
This study was proposed to determine the best
practices that promote teachers’ retention in private
schools.
The Factors that gave Job Satisfaction to the
Private School Teachers to Stay in the School
Table 1. Descriptive Analysis for Herzberg’s
Motivational Factors on Retention of Private School
Teachers
Table 1 shows the descriptive analysis of quantitative
data for Herzberg’s motivation factors in relation with
the retention motives of 206 selected private school
teachers. The evaluative statement with the highest
mean revealed that the respondents were proud to
work for the school because it recognizes their
achievements (4.57). This is followed by two
evaluative statements with similar mean revealing that
they felt that they have contributed towards their
schools in a positive manner (4.54) and their job
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
allowed them to improve their experience, skills and
performances (4.54). The evaluative statement with
the lowest mean revelaed that they would choose
career advancement rather than monetary incentives
(4.28). The motivational factor with the highest grand
mean was Achievement (4.54) while the lowest was
Advancement (4.39). The motivational factor with data
closely related to the average was Achievement (SD =
0.66) while the factor with large variance between the
data and the statistical average was Recognition (SD =
0.74).
Metz (2018) has identified achievement motivation as
a significant element of organization behavior as it
influences the performance, job satisfaction and
commitment of an individual. Achievement motivation
also correlates to work-life balance which this relation
is supported by the two-factor theory of Herzberg
(Metz, 2018). Mahmoudi (2017) concluded that
achievement motivation is a great factor in increasing
the effectiveness of work quality in an organization.
Table 2. Descriptive Analysis for Herzberg’s Hygienic
Factors on Retention of Private School Teachers
Table 2 shows the descriptive analysis of quantitative
data for Herzberg’s hygienic factors in relation to
retention motives of selected private school teachers.
The evaluative statement with the highest mean
revealed that colleagues were important to them(4.59),
followed by another idea that their colleagues were
helpful and friendly (4.54). The evaluative statement
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with the lowest mean revealed that they were
encouraged to work harder because of their salary
(4.05). The hygienic factor with the highest grand
mean was Relation with Peers (4.55) while the one
with the lowest was Money (4.07). The hygienic factor
with the lowest variability of data around the mean
was Relationship with Peers (SD = 0.66) while the
hygienic factor with the highest dispersion of dataset
relative to the mean was Money (SD = 0.97).
Asaari et al (2019) concluded that money is a great
motivation and has a positive strong relationship with
the employee’s performance. It has been stated that if
the money motivation increases, the performance also
increases. Companies should be aware of that
providing and developing good reward program that
includes salary is one of the best strategies to retain the
employees as this is one of the most attractive
strategies especially in a country with difficult
economic conditions. Hence, employees would
experience security with their physiological and
security needs which eventually would give an
outcome of satisfaction of the employees. Asaari, et al.
(2019) declared that unnecessary delays of this would
cause poor motivation; thus, salaries should be
increased regularly. However, there should be a
classification with the increase of salary. The
researcher believed that there are certain employees
who deserve a salary increase depending on the
performance.
Thematic analysis of qualitative data gathered from
focus interviews and essay questions in the
questionnaire generated themes that account for the
factors that gave job satisfaction to the private school
teachers to continue rendering service to the schools
they are currently employed.
Achievement. This factor refers to the sense of
achievement the private school teachers feel when
perceive that they are competent to teach, their
teaching is effective, they finish their tasks on time and
have rich experiences related to their job.
Competence to teach. This refers to the private school
teachers’ perception that they are able to do their job
well. “I am satisfied with my work. I know I am doing
my job and responsibilities well,” testified one
participant.
Effectiveness of teaching. Private school teachers feel
sense of achievement when they perceive that the
students effectively learn from them. This is evident in
their responses like, “I feel accomplished and satisfied
when I see my students learned and applied the lessons
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
that I taught”; “The achievement I need to be
significant in school is to see my students learn a lot
and apply all the values that I taught…”; and I feel
satisfaction at my work when I share my knowledge to
my students and they learned something that can
benefit them in the future. Teachers feel accomplished
when their students learned and apply what they
taught. “Producing globally competitive 21st century
learners” is considered as an achievement by a
participant.
Finishing tasks on time. Private school teachers feel
extremely accomplished when they complete projects
ahead of schedule or before the deadline. When asked
what makes them feel satisfied or accomplished in
their work, relevant responses are “Every time I
finished my work on time”; “For me, accomplishing
the task everyday is my achievement”; and “When I
accomplished my task on time.”
Rich experiences related to being a teacher.
Relevant factors that added to the sense of
achievement of the respondents are the opportunities
given to them to lead, organize and coordinate diverse
school programs and activities. Having opportunities
to emcee school programs are well-appreciated by
many respondents. One participant noted, “The
contribution to the school that makes me proud is
when I was the one who became emcee in the
program.” Other experiences that are considered as
achievement by the teachers are being part of
establishing the Supreme Student Government, being a
key person in the application of a Senior High School
strand in their school, creating free website for online
classes, decorating the venue for school programs,
being a Scout Master, being in-charge of the United
Nations activities, and being leader of a dance troupe.
Advancement. This factor relates to the gratitude of
the private school teachers toward their institution for
funding their graduate education and equipping them
with cutting-edge communication and information
technology.
Graduate Studies. Participants believe that the school
promotes advancement “by allowing teachers enroll in
master’s studies.”
Information and Communication Technology. The
private school teachers appreciate the schools that
adapt with the changes, train teachers to become
successful educators of the 21st century, and provide,
as one participant put it, “a learning with the use of
advance technology where both teachers and learners
cope with the fast pace of learning modalities.”
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Work Itself. Teaching provides non-monetary rewards
that private school teachers appreciate.
Exercise of Generativity. The participants perceive
that teaching gives them opportunity to exercise
generativity, i.e. a concern for establishing and guiding
the next generation. They would stay in their current
job for the love they have for their students and the
satisfaction they get every time they are able to share
knowledge with other people. Majority of the
participants claimed that what makes them excited in
their work are their students. When asked what makes
them excited about their work, they replied “Thinking
about students makes me feel excited”; “To see the
students and to teach them”; “To see the achievement
of my students” and “My students make me excited at
work. Because of them my work becomes easy.”
Emotional Reward. The private school teachers
perceive teaching to offer emotional reward. This
manifested in their responses such as “I am happy and
content with my job. As a teacher it feels great
knowing that the students learned from me.” Being an
educator brings satisfaction of giving love and being
loved.
Recognition. Recognition highly motivates the
participants in this paper to stay in their current
workplace. Private school teachers feel valued, happy,
satisfied, grateful, inspired and motivated when they
and their efforts are recognized. As one participant
expressed it, “I am feeling valued when we are
recognized and it pushes me to work harder.”
Expressions of gratitude. Praises, motivating words,
compliments and affirmation, acknowledgement of
efforts, congratulatory messages, and smiles are
expressions of gratitude that give job satisfaction to
private school teacher. Receiving words of gratitude
like ‘thank you’, ‘good job’, and ‘congratulations’
keep them motivated.
Tokens of Appreciation. It makes private faculty
members happy when their efforts are being
appreciated through incentives, certificates and
plaques. Participants suggested “to give certificate to
performing teachers at the end of the school year.”
Receiving cash gifts is also a swell motivator. What a
joyous moment for them the school administrators
provide food to celebrate finished events and well-
accomplished tasks.
Growth. This factor refers to the improvement the
private school teachers have gained by attending
seminars, participating in various school programs,
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
adapting to online teaching modality.
Seminars. Teachers value when their school sends
them to seminars and conferences or organizes internal
training programs. Throughout the interviews, the
participants brought up this theme a number of times.
Adapting to online teaching modality. Many
respondents noticed some level of growth after having
adapted to the new teaching modality. Upon learning
strategies to deliver instruction online due to the Covid
19 pandemic, private school teachers became
technology savvy. This gives them some sense of
pride.
Constructive Criticism. Participants credit
constructive feedback for some of their improvement.
They reported that constructive criticism helped them
change even though they felt scared and degraded
when their flaws were pointed out. The comment, “It
was the honest criticism that helped me to improve my
teaching style. I'm grateful for this kind of evaluation,”
demonstrated this.
Company Policy. This factor refers to the various
facets of school management that encourage teachers
to continue serving their institution and to be proud of
it.
Good governance. Respondents who perceived that
their schools maintain good, fair and consistent policy
intend to stay in their institutions. They appreciate how
their schools prioritize the welfare of the students and
teachers. “I feel proud of the school that I work
because their policies are focused on the well-being of
their students and employees,” testified one
participant. Another participant pointed out, “I am
proud of the school when they are consistent with their
policy.” The private school teachers are motivated
when the school policies include reward mechanism
like giving certificates, awards, and plaques to
deserving faculty members. Benefits like scholarships
are also highly appreciated.
Care and support for teachers. Teachers in private
schools are more likely to continue working in
environments that foster growth and care. Some of the
responses given in response to the question of what
school policy keeps them from leaving their current
school include: "their plans which are always
discussed with us," "they want the best for all
teachers," "the love and warmth being shown to us,"
and "those that help us to be globally competitive
teachers." Respondents like the lee-ways given to
teachers like giving the non-board passers to teach and
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“when someone make a mistake they would give him
another chance.”
Quality of Education. Private school teachers feel
pride when their institutions have a good reputation of
producing competent learners. One participant replied,
“Yes, I see myself reaching my retirement age in this
institution because it has great stories of the successful
teachers and students.” They are satisfied also when
their schools are able to compete with other schools in
academic and non-academic contests.
Relationship with Peers. Among the factors on
retention, harmonious relationship with colleagues is
identified as the main reason for the private school
teachers to stay in their current schools. Participants
claim that their kind and appreciable co-teachers are
the source of their happiness and good vibes in the
workplace. A participant acclaimed, “My colleagues
are important to me because they are the one who
inspires me to go to work every day.” The solidarity
makes their work much easier.
Camaraderie. The participants reported high
appreciation to the mutual trust and friendship among
people they spend a lot of time together. Camaraderie
is a strong retention factor proved by these responses,
“Having teammates that I respect and trust, I feel
motivated to do my best,”; “We do not hesitate to
share constructive criticism within the team and I
believe that we help each other to grow both as
professionals and as human beings”; and “My
colleagues help me even through the hardest part of
the job. That's why I'm very thankful.” These teachers
value the assistance they receive when they don't
comprehend some instructions, when they need to
brush up on computer-related technical knowledge, or
when they need to learn how to facilitate new teaching
approaches. A teacher described her colleagues as this:
“They are my friends. We help each other, we learn
from each other also. The respondents appreciate how
their co-teachers support and lift one another. “Even
when co-teachers are busy, they always reach out to
me”; “They are always ready to help”; and “They
always have open arms for me in times of need” are
responses that reflect how the private school teachers
are motivated by their relationship with colleagues.
Being treated as family. Many respondents who
intend to continue rendering service in their current
workplace described their colleagues as family and
their school a second home. Proved by responses like
“My colleague here is very approachable not only
inside the school but also outside. We treat one another
as family”; “They treat me well. They love me. They
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
helped me a lot especially during difficult time”; and
“We are like close relatives who help and support one
another”, a workplace that resembles the nurturing and
supportive characteristics of a family promotes loyalty
and retention.
Work Security. Majority of the respondents perceives
that their jobs provide sense of security. This relate
work security to occupational safety,
Occupational safety. “I feel safe every time I am at
school” is a response that summarizes the sense of
safety the private school teachers feel about their
workplace. The respondents believed they are
protected inside the school campus because of the
security guards and CCTV cameras installed in
strategic areas of the school. Furthermore, they believe
that they can trust each other for protection: “We are
all safe and secure. The school has a security guard
and installed with CCTV cameras and of course we
protect one another.”
Social protection. Private school teachers may find
work security in their relationship with colleagues and
school administrators. “I see myself that I will retire in
this company because of how they treat me”; “I am
very sure and secure with my job here. My directress
and principal are very kind and understanding”; and “I
feel safe because my co-teachers treat me as family”
show the sense of security the respondents have as a
result of their connections with co-teachers and school
administrators.
Government mandatory contracts and benefits.
Some respondents relate work security with salary
increase, employment contracts and benefits mandated
by law. They tend to stay to educational institutions
that comply with these.
Relationship with supervisor. As motivational
reasons for private school teachers to stay on the job,
this factor is emphasized by a highly supportive
supervisor, mutual respect, and constructive criticism.
Supportive supervisors. Private school teachers who
plan to continue working at their current institution
praise their supervisors for being a good mentor and
approachable, saying that they are "always concerned
about my current status and weekly ask me what else I
need for my students," "always at my back," "guiding
and helping me," “a friend that I can count on” and
"supportive of me."
Mutual respect. The respondents express high regard
to the school authorities but also appreciate being
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valued for who they are and what they bring to the
institution. When conflicts arise, they want their
supervisors to talk to them in a nice and professional
way. If the topics are delicate, they prefer a private
meeting where they can only speak with the parties
concerned.
Money. Although the participants uttered that they are
motivated more by other factors rather than money,
many of them asserted that receiving a pay raise will
inspire them to remain at their current job. While half
of the participants claimed that their salaries are
enough for their personal, day-to-day needs, the other
half admitted that they long for additional
compensation.
Salary increase. Many participants suggested salary
increase and “to give the teachers the compensation
that they deserve.”
Extra pay for extra work. Some participants
suggested additional pay for every hour of overload.
Working Conditions. This refers to both social
environment and physical conditions in the
workplace.
Favorable social environment. Respondents highly
valued “a great atmosphere where love and
compassion exist.” They appreciate open and honest
communication among administrators and colleagues.
Conducive physical conditions. Many respondents
decided to stay in their current workplace because of
“the atmosphere that encourages teachers to perform
well.” They appreciate schools that are well-ventilated,
conducive to learning and complete with facilities and
equipment needed for teaching.
The Factors that gave Job Dissatisfaction the
Private Teachers to Leave the School
Qualitative data gathered through interviews with the
private school teachers generated themes pertaining to
the factors that make the respondents dissatisfied and
may cause them to leave their current workplace.
Learning modalities due to the pandemic. The
Covid-19 pandemic's effects on learning modalities
caused some private school teachers to have trouble
adjusting. They found it challenging to interact with
the pupils while teaching online. One of the
participants testified that "there are challenges
encountered which demand a teacher to have plenty of
tolerance and understanding in dealing with the 21st-
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
century pupils."
Work-related stress.“As a teacher, my work is an
everyday battle where I should be prepared to fight a
lot of struggles” is the sentiment of one of the
respondents. Participants find it difficult to do the
tasks they need to comply with every day. “I feel
overwhelmed with paperwork and deadlines” and
“Having several assignments to complete at once,
meeting tight deadlines, and receiving too few
resources to properly handle responsibilities” are some
of the stressful comments of the participants.
Teaching Various Subjects. “I am loaded with
different subjects,” one of the participants sadly
commented. Another reason why private school
instructors might quit their jobs is that they are
required to teach a variety of subjects in different
grade levels that have nothing to do with their area of
academic expertise.
Seeking Better Opportunities. Participants who
planned to leave their workplace want to explore other
career opportunities aside from teaching. Some people
think their existing educational institutions won't be
able to give them the chances they want. One even
thinks that continuing in her current position would
prevent her from achieving the personal growth she
desires. Another reason the private school teachers
plan to leave their existing jobs is to look for
employment in public schools.
Conclusion
The following conclusions were drawn from the study
results: First, this mixed method study explored and
examined the high attrition rate of private teachers and
their decision to stay when most of them are licensed,
professional teachers. Through the gathered data and
interviews, the researcher fully understood the
importance of having a retention program to each
private school.
Second, the study concluded that teachers who are
being paid well, rewarded emotionally, have a good
relationship with supervisor and colleagues, and have a
work-life balance have the motivation to stay in their
current workplace. This result lead to a more in-depth
analysis for this research to generate a retention
program, objectives, and strategies for the private
school.
Finally, the Retention Program that was derived from
this study could be usedby the private schools to
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maintain the best and qualified teachers as this would
not only result in a low turnover rate but would also
preserve and maintain the quality of education for the
betterment of the students and, in the long run, it
would benefit the country itself.
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Affiliations and Corresponding Information
Lois Jamin B. Tambuyat
Build-Up Knowledge Academy
Manila, Philippines
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