Effects of Financial and Psychological Incentives on Performance of Resident Counselors in North West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

The role of resident counselors in school institutions cannot be undermined and in a bid to facilitate performance, incentives are designed and implemented. Despite incentive provisions in Cameroon, performance of counselors are often surrounded by skepticism, thereby questioning the effectiveness of existing motivation packages. This study investigated the influence of financial and psychological incentives on the performance of counselors. A sample of 124 resident counselors (29.8% Males; 70.2% Females) was surveyed in the North West Region of country. A scale with an aggregate alpha of .75 was deployed for data gathering, and descriptive and inferential statistics used for analysis .Results revealed that financial incentives failed to predict variation in performance of resident counselors (β =.06; P> 0.05). Furthermore, it was reported that psychological incentives gave enough support to variation in counselor"s performance (β =.54, P<0.01). From the analysis, financial incentives have to be improved and dormant provisions activated as predictors of performance, while the re-engineering of psychological packages is imperative. Policy and practice implications of the results have been discussed within the context of current incentive provisions, and areas for future research have been identified.