Human Resource Management Practice and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction: The Case Study of East Wollega Zone Secondary Schools, Western Ethiopia

Introduction: Human resource management is the most important function in any organization; because it is related with the responsibility of using resources for the purpose of achieving the goals of the organization. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Human Resource Management Practice and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in government Secondary Schools.

Methods: The research design for this study was correlation research. Both quantitative and qualitative research approach was used. Data was collected through questionnaire and interview. Respondents were selected using random sampling technique and a total of 155 respondents were participated. Also, five school principals were purposively selected and participated in the study. The data collected were organized, analyzed, tabulated and interpreted using simple percentages, means, standard deviation, analysis of variance and Pearson correlation.

Results: Major findings of the study are: majority of respondents reported poor teaching staff resource planning (M=2.14, SD=1.18), provision of training and development on various issues was inadequate (M=2.24, SD=1.32), performance appraisal practice was not based on clear and transparent procedures (M=2.05, SD=1.15), a good number of teachers were feeling moderate job satisfaction to the existing work environment (M=3.24, SD=1.35). Correlation analysis indicates significant positive interaction between human resource management and teachers job satisfaction (r=0.55, p=0.00).

Discussion: The importance of human resource management was not acknowledged and well understood by the educational leaders. Effective human resource management can improve workforce utilization in schools and it will potentially increase the job satisfaction of teachers. Performance appraisal and supervision activities were taken as the retinue activity in the schools under study .This may have impact on teachers' job satisfaction, self improvement and school goal achievement. Thus, school administration need to design strategic system that invites the school principals in the activities of human resource management.