ORGANIZATIONAL CYNICISM AS A CORRELATE OF TEACHERS’ ENGAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE.

Abstract

This study seeks to ascertain organizational cynicism as a correlate of teachers’ engagement in public secondary schools in Anambra State. The study was a correlational research design. Three research questions guided the study and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population for the study was 4,947 teachers in the 263 public secondary schools in the State. The sample consisted of 989 teachers from the six educational zones in the State. The sample was composed using multi-stage sampling procedure which included proportionate stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Two structured questionnaires developed by the researchers titled: “Organizational Cynicism Questionnaire” (OCQ) and Engagement Questionnaire (EQ) was used for data collection. The instrument for the study was validated by lecturers in the Faculty of Education. Cronbach Alpha reliability statistics for internal consistency was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and this yielded co-efficient values of 0.79 and 0.80 respectively. The researcher with the aid of six research assistants administered a total of 989 copies of the questionnaires on the respondents. At the end of the exercise, 951 copies representing 97% were successfully completed, retrieved and used for data analysis. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients. The results of the findings include: that there is a low negative correlation among teachers’ perceived organizational cynicism (cognitive and behaviour and their engagement in public secondary schools in Anambra State amongst others. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others:  The management of public secondary schools should discourage teachers in various schools from engaging in cynical behaviours which tend to lower their levels of engagement; however, they should go a step further, by initiating a sustainable mechanism that will address the reasons behind the exhibition of cynical behaviours by teachers.