Supportive Work Environment and Teacher Performance among Public Secondary School in Homa-Bay County, Kenya

Abstract

IntroductionMost people spend more than half of their entire lifetime in closed work environment hence the need for a healthy and supportive work environment (ILO, 2018). To retain talented workforce for better organizational performance, it is important to provide a supportive work environment (SWE) (Naz et al, 2020). According to Boswell, Tully and Mills (2017)), the climatic component of a workplace including supervisory/peer support, adequacy of working resources and physical facilities as well as prospects to apply learned behavior form SWE. On their part, Yusliza et al (2020) considered perceived climate, supervisory relationship, peer group interaction, perceived organisational support, and personorganisation fit as factors composing SWE. Many scholars (Kundu&Lata, 2017; Okello, Sichari&Odera, 2017;Naz et al, 2020) have strongly linked SWE with employee retention. Paucity of information seems to exist regarding the relationship between SWE and performance especially among teachers in public secondary schools.In the success of education curriculum delivery continuum, importance of teachers cannot be gainsaid. Teachers are professionals who have a positive effect on student learning and development through their ability to deliver learning content (Kuncoro&Dardiri, 2017). They employ their good pedagogical, professional, communication and interpersonal skills to deliver curriculum requirement for the enhancement of student performance (Alyaha&Mbogo, 2017). This is an important contribution especially in the secondary level of learning which provide a gateway to tertiary education, a key component of economic development of a country (Baumann&Winzar, 2014). Conducive work environment can gift comfort and security to teachers in carrying out their instructional works and other duties (Kuncoro&Dardiri, 2017). Whereas SWE has been largely associated with employee retention especially in profit making entities, focus on how the same influences performance of the teacher remains limited.