East African Journal of Education Studies

The study explored factors influencing commitment among public servants: the case study of secondary school teachers in Morogoro Municipality. The study was guided by three objectives: to identify factors influencing public teachers’ commitment to secondary school, examine challenges facing committed public teachers in secondary school and identify strategies for improving secondary teachers’ commitments. The study employed a qualitative approach and explorative case study design. A sample of 18 respondents was drawn from 5 secondary schools for data collection. Data was collected using interviews and documentary reviews. The findings show that trust from the leadership who are headmasters, good leadership from the heads of the school and the prestige of being a teacher are some of the factors that influence the commitment of the teachers. Leadership ambitions, family relationships with students, and job competition are individual factors that influence commitment. Challenges facing committed public teachers in secondary school were lack of support from other members of staff


INTRODUCTION
Employee performance is a linchpin for the survival and wellbeing of an organisation (Bibi & Hessah, 2019).Higher job commitment leads to increased productivity as well as increased organisations' service quality delivery, productivity, and profitability (Gagné, 2005).This underscores the need for organisations to motivate their employees towards higher performance.Organisational commitment is an important employee motivation because it is typically assumed to reduce withdrawal behaviours such as lateness, absenteeism, and turnover, adversely affecting overall organisational performance (Handy, 2007).
Public service is a pillar of governance; without strong public services and committed public servants, there will be no efficient delivery of expected public goods and services or implementation of any political commitment (Creswell, 2003).Teacher commitment is an investment of personal resources and is closely connected to teachers' work performance.Individual teacher commitment can be identified in their professional practice.These centres of commitment are currently considered to be external to the teacher and include a commitment to the school or organisation, students, career continuation, professional knowledge base, and the teaching profession (Creswell, 2003;Uwezo, 2015).
Public employees in Africa are, on average, better educated than those in the private sector, and they have good job security compared to private institutions; however, government schools are the ones leading in poor performance in national examinations (Yuan, Yu, Li & Ning, 2014).The results show that there is no significant improvement in basic skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic (Uwezo, 2010(Uwezo, , 2015(Uwezo, , 2016)).
According to Mkumbo (2016), absenteeism and laziness have been cited as problems undermining work efficiency in public institutions.For instance, weddings, laziness, funerals, festivals, and other social activities contribute to absenteeism.This is a common habit in public offices.Mkumbo (2016) denotes that an effective teacher is a remarkable factor that predicts effective performance and the attainment of quality education.Performance in education puts a great demand on teacher commitment; when teachers are able to fulfil the professional responsibilities of teaching or achieve the education goals, committed teachers are determinants of quality education and academic performance of students or schools.Teachers' commitment is a significant aspect of achieving quality education.Thus, the success of education is based on teaching professional competence and commitment based on teachers' skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values, as well as accountability for effective teaching, which can be measured in terms of school performance (Mkumbo, 2016).
The use of contract employment is a common practice in government agencies seeking cost savings and alternative provisions (Lu, 2013).The employee-employer-client relationship in contracting involves a contracting organisation and the client organisation formulating a shared employer relationship, which can confuse employees as some see the contractor as their employer.In contrast, others see the client as their primary reference point (Coyle-Shapiro & Morrow, 2006).Research conducted by Vrangbaek et al. (2015) suggested that contract employment can negatively affect employees, including poorer working conditions, reduced job satisfaction, reduced benefits, and lower salaries.Leadership behaviour impacts the effects of contract employment, which varies by employment status and employee attitude and is not easily generalised (Felfe & Franke, 2010).Hughes and Palmer (2007) suggested that temporary employees develop transactional psychological contract obligations based on economic exchanges, and permanent employees develop relational psychological contract obligations based on long-term, open-ended, highly invested reciprocal relationships.Research conducted by Lapalme, Simard, and Tremblay (2011) found that temporary employees also develop relational psychological obligations that evolve independently with their direct employer and the company the employer supports.
The Teachers' Services Commission (TSC) in Tanzania, which deals with teachers' disciplinary issues related to professional misconduct, dismisses 200 to 300 teachers yearly for various professional misconduct (Betweli, 2013;TSD, 2018).However, issues regarding the school leader's responsibility for maintaining teachers' professional codes of conduct by observing professional rules and regulations and motivating teachers, whether positively or negatively, to comply with teaching conduct are not adequately considered.

Study Objectives
• To identify factors influencing public teachers' commitment to work in secondary schools.
• To examine challenges facing committed public teachers in secondary schools.
• To identify strategies for improving secondary teachers' commitments to work.

METHODOLOGY
The study applied a qualitative approach because it allows the researcher to gain a deep and clear understanding of respondents' knowledge, feelings and experience.

Factors Influencing Public Teachers' Commitment in Secondary School
Teachers from government schools have different factors that influence their working in stations.
The factors are trust from their leaders, good leadership from their heads of schools, the prestige of being a teacher, ambition for greatness, family relationships with the students they serve, and employment competition.

General Factors
This sub-section provides some general factors that influence commitment in public secondary schools.These include leadership trust, good leadership and prestige being a teacher.These factors shape the understanding of the factors influencing teachers' commitment in secondary school.

Leader's Trust
The study revealed that the teacher's commitment increases as they are believed and appreciated by their leaders.It was shown that trust increases commitment as the teachers perform their work confidently and become flexible to be creative for the betterment of their schools.This has created a lot of self-confidence and teachers are more committed.Being trusted by their leaders in various activities in the school such as being given the chance to be in charge of academic, discipline or finance The above findings are supported by Rego et al. (2012), who assert that trust in a leader is an important factor in an organisation; it gives leaders the confidence to do their job properly.

Good Leadership
Teachers acknowledged good leadership of the heads of schools being responsible in their work.
Leaders have been with them side by side in professional matters and even outside of work and thus become part of their lives.These school leaders have shown that they care about the teachers even if they have personal issues outside of the workplace.
The head teachers live with these teachers as very close friends and not as people who meet to work.

One of the respondents said:
There are mistakes in work, but I really like how the headmaster tries to correct you when you make a mistake, he does not say anything, but he speaks politely and he shows you your mistakes in a good way, you see yourself as guilty, you confess and ask for forgiveness, then you continue with work.This shows you that he cares about your contribution, but he knows that you made an unfortunate mistake, so he reminds you to continue being a better teacher (Teacher 5, Kilakala on June 1, 2023).

Another adds:
A headmaster is a person who likes to promote others in work; he believes that surrounding one with people who have great views makes it easier for the school to achieve its goals.There are days when he takes all the teachers out to discuss the challenges we are facing.He also strives to make us one thing, and we do not have groups among staff members.Since I have been here for 13 years, 5 teachers have left and gone to become leaders in other places.This is encouraging to see that he is not afraid to make someone else great.Some heads of schools are afraid of staff members to shine because they can threaten their leadership position; this makes them love teachers who do not have the qualifications to be leaders, like teachers who only have a diploma (Teacher 3, Kola Secondary School on May 30, 2023).
The findings of Adekola ( 2012) revealed that employees who are committed to the job will also try to achieve the organisation's objectives.
Commitment and leadership style discussed by previous scholars indicated that leaders always positively influence employees' commitment (Pahi et al., 2009).Furthermore, these studies showed that leadership contributes to a healthy organisational environment, motivation, trust, and high morale, which is how staff members develop a sense of commitment to the organisation.Work performance and loyalty to the organisation are influenced by high commitment (Suliman & Abubakar, 2014).Committed employees are always keen to learn new skills to enhance their performance and provide better customer service.Also, commitment is the best indicator of performance, job satisfaction, and turnover.
The study found that teachers like what they do and do not need external forces to be motivated to do their jobs at a high level.They are proud of being teachers to help students achieve their goals.Individuals who love their work show optimism, resulting in a commitment to fulfilling their responsibilities.A person who enjoys their job is also more likely to learn new skills, become more efficient, and solve workplace problems more

Individuals Factors
The following are the factors that greatly influence public teachers' commitment to secondary schools:

Leadership Ambition
The study found that ambition is a general disposition that leads people to show higher commitment to pursuing goals.They want job opportunities like promotions, excellent job performance, status, or recognition.The above findings are supported by Hirschiand Spurk (2021) who observe that ambitious leaders desire increased influence and promotion in the organisational hierarchy.Highly ambitious leaders tend to be assets to the organisation they belong to.These leaders strive towards difficult goals, achieving success for themselves and the organisation.They thrive in the face of challenges and tend to devote substantial effort and time towards work, making them good candidates to lead during times of crisis.Hirschi and Spurk (2021) Finally, ambitious leaders also tend to be lifelong learners, inspiring others in the organisation to work on their personal and professional development.

Family Relationship with Students
The study established that the bond between the teacher and the student they serve in one way or another causes these teachers to improve their performance.Some teachers have a very close relationship with the community they work in; for example, some have been married, and others are natives of those communities.This makes them feel that they have a big responsibility to ensure that they become the best teacher to make their school do well.This shows that some teachers are teaching their siblings like their younger siblings, their brothers' or sisters' children and some even their brothersin-law and sisters-in-law.This makes them commit to being responsible for them because the fate of their lives is in their hands and they, as close relatives of these children, should set an example for other teachers who do not have family relationships with these students.
I was born here, and some of my close relatives are studying here; for example, my sister's son is studying here, and I have my uncle`s children also studying here.So, I am expected to make sure that I put myself into my work to create an environment for them to do well in their final exams (Teacher 1, Mzumbe Secondary School on June 2, 2023).

Job Competition
The study found that some of the respondents are scared of job competition due to the lack of employment opportunities, especially in the government sector.The number of college and university graduates is increasing rapidly compared to the job opportunities provided.Some research respondent identifies that nowadays, there is a high level of job scarcity, which leads to job competition.He has spoken by showing that many people in the street have a great education level but are not lucky enough to get a government job like him.Respondent identified the fear from the government that one day they will end their contract.The above findings are supported by Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984) who theorised that, under certain conditions, unemployment becomes an effective tool for extracting maximum worker effort without the need for costly workplace monitoring or supervision.The Shapiro-Stiglitz thesis on the role of unemployment as an important driver for employee attitudes and workplace behaviours is particularly relevant in the context of employee commitment.Its non-coercive nature, as a psychological state that allows employees to feel loyal to their organisation, precludes the use of direct monitoring as a means of improving organisational commitment and offering them a sought-after opportunity for gainful employment.In such a social exchange of relational setting, it is also plausible that the external threat of high unemployment, which could potentially threaten the organisation's existence, might galvanise employees to become more loyal towards their organisation.

I got this concern after
Yet, higher aggregate unemployment during an economic downturn could heighten feelings of job insecurity among employees, detrimental to their level of commitment to the organisation.Admittedly, evidence suggests that employees who experienced the layoffs of fellow employees but they themselves survived a layoff had their perceptions about their organisation and their levels of commitment negatively affected (Brockner et al., 2004).

Challenges Facing Committed Public Teachers in Secondary School
Public teachers in secondary school face various challenges at work.Some of these challenges are discussed below;

Lack of Support from Other Staff Members
The study revealed that some teachers in their comfort zones do not like what these highly committed teachers do, which is why they do not support them in their responsibility.Committed teachers have experienced jealousy from their fellow teachers who are school staff members, especially those who are not well committed.They consider them as slanderers due to their poor responsibility.It is normal for humans to compare themselves with others, but if the comparison is not based on the pursuit of equality and justice, then personal thoughts and selfishness will prevail, which causes negative envy.One respondent said: Some teachers think negatively about me; they feel that I am recommending myself to the head of school so that he will favour me for some things like managing the national exams.All this is due to my closeness with the head of school.But if you look at the truth, they do not like to respect the authority of the head of the school.Everyone has shortcomings, but we are here to ensure that the responsibility of serving these students is successful with quality.For example, the teacher agrees to hold sessions on Saturday, but he does not come and does not give any information, and someone wants the school to do badly and forgets that he is a part of the school (Teacher 4, Kola Secondary school on May 30, 2023) The above findings are supported by Ganegoda and Bordia (2018) who posit that organisations rely on work teams, and individuals' ability to function effectively in team environments has important implications for a company's performance.When co-workers are envious, it is toxic because they create a culture in which putting others down builds themselves up.Such organisational cultures, in which the success of others provokes envy instead of support, can be incredibly destructive (Carucci, 2019).According to researcher Mowdayand Steers (1979), envy not only negatively impacts company cultures, it also damages team morale and, ultimately, leads to employee disengagement.It is no surprise that the stronger the feelings of envy, the less dedicated and productive employees become (Carucci, 2020), and ultimately the team performance drops.

Interferences from Family Matters
The study established that family matters like family duties and responsibility, in one way or another, hinder their commitment.The respondents identify that being committed at work has caused trouble in one way or another in their families.They spend most of their time working while they have family duties and responsibilities to fulfil.Being very committed to work has caused some of the time that they were supposed to spend with their families to be used to accomplish the tasks given to them by their supervisors.One respondent said: My wife has been complaining about not staying home to help her with responsibilities such as raising children due to too many work responsibilities.When I return home, I am so tired that I need to rest, so I miss the time to be with my family more closely.During the holidays of December, I get more time, but when we open school, I return to the schedule of having less time.It is something that bothers me a lot.There are days I have to fake being sick to stay at home at least to maintain the same family environment (Teacher 1, Kilakala Secondary School on June 1, 2023).

Another one adds:
My husband is very angry that I come to work on holidays, especially Saturdays, but you find that the headmaster needs me to manage some things, such as supervising classroom construction, and you find that you are running after the scheduled time for the classes to end, so the construction must continue until Saturday.There are days you receive information to prepare while you are at home, and you need to complete it at a given time, so you have to put aside family matters and complete the assignment within the appropriate time.This makes it less time to do family things (Teacher 2, Kola Secondary School on May 30, 2023).
The above findings are supported by McCormick and Ilgen (1985).Long work hours may have negative consequences for families and workers who struggle to balance work and home life demands.Work-family researchers have long assumed that time commitment contributes to conflict between employees' work and nonwork lives (Duxbury, Higgins & Lee, 1994).For example, a commonly measured form of workfamily conflict is time-based conflict, defined as conflict that occurs when the amount of time devoted to one role (e.g., worker) makes it difficult to fulfil the requirements of another role, e.g., father (Carlson, Kacmar, & Williams, 2000).Similarly, the rational model of work-family conflict holds that conflict increases in proportion to the amount of time spent in the work and family domains (Duxbury & Higgins, 1994).Yet despite the common assumption that time plays an important role in work-family conflict, surprisingly, few scholars have actually measured work time and its effect on the relations between work and family domains.

Workloads
Through this research, another challenge committed teachers in public secondary schools face is too much work from their superiors.Caring about what they do and doing it with high commitment makes the leaders of these teachers use these teachers regularly so that they can achieve some of their tasks on time efficiently and without getting complaints during the implementation of the work.One respondent says: I have more responsibilities than other teachers.You will not find that I do not have extra responsibilities every day.For example, the district Statistics and Logistics Officer (SLO and Ward Education Officer (WEO) send their work to me, and they need to do it on time.You will see how you get extra homework outside of your classroom duties, which you have to do effectively to make sure students understand so they can do well in their exams (Teacher 3, Mkundi Secondary School on June 2, 2023)

Another adds:
Being committed and being honest makes you come home every day very tired from a lot of work.I am responsible for serving students remedial lessons every day at 07:00 AM and in the evening on some days.Outside of academic responsibilities, I have a lot of work for the students, but most of the time, I prepare school information, and it comes every day as it is required, and sometimes it is demanded in short time, and you have to fulfil all the responsibilities on time (Teacher 2, Mzumbe Secondary School on May 29, 2023).
The above findings are supported by Gagné (2005), who asserts that if you want something done, you give it to a busy person to do.That might work in the short term but will quickly cause an imbalance in the workload.The risk is burning out your top performers.When you are good at something and show you are responsible, hard-working and a high achiever, the reward for great work is often more work.Managers might be viewing it differently.They might see it as giving their top employees more opportunities.The high achievers see it as poor performers getting away with less work.Gross and Friedman (2004) observe that the nature of high achievers pushes them to take one extra project or spend extra hours, making their managers comfortable with awarding them more work.Instead, The path forward is to give them more exposure to senior leaders (e.g., one-on-one with board members) to fulfil their expectations for recognition and provide them with a platform to tell their success story.

Patriotism
Being patriotic makes one commit himself without being influenced by anyone.He/she puts work interests first and not his/her own interests first.Patriotism is seeing pride in serving others.
Many teachers are not patriotic with this work; the guarantee of the future of the students we serve is in our hands.The government pays us on time; some have very high salaries compared to private teachers.But if you compare the commitment, the private teachers have a higher level of commitment than us.We government teachers must pay close attention to this issue.Teachers should know that there are many young people on the street who have the qualifications to be teachers like us.We are not supposed to spoil this chance we have been given by our government to serve this country (Teacher 3, Kihonda Secondary School on May 31, 2023).Kagan, Itzhakiand Melnikov (2017) observe that patriotism to work prompts nurses to leave their families and report for duty, even knowing that they are putting themselves in danger.However, patriotism as a variable that might affect nurses' intention to report for work in emergencies has not been investigated.Patriotism has religious and cultural dimensions.Cultural differences explain the discrepancy in organisational commitment between Israeli-born nurses and immigrants.

Rewards for Hard Workers
Respondents believe education supervisors can take some measures to reinforce all teachers to be highly committed workers.They believe if there is motivation for those who are committed to work, this will help everyone to go for that reward.One of the respondents says: If motivation could be provided for those who are dedicated to their work, I think it would encourage the commitment of all teachers.These gifts should be given with transparency, fairness, and equality.There should be no favouritism; for example, teachers should be paid 5,000 for every A in the national examination (Teacher 3, Kilakala Secondary School on June 1, 2023).

Another respondent adds:
I always believe that government teachers are very good employees, like the employees of private schools, but most government teachers are not committed because the government contracts are pensionable and permanent.But if there are incentives for employees who are more dedicated, it will stimulate competition in the workplace.For example, some private institutions like banks have a technique to find the best employee of the month.This helps to make the competition to serve customers (students) with love.
For me, to have an employee of the month is good, but to get the best employee of the month, there would be three groups involved in choosing the best employee of the month in the school to get the best employee of the month fairly and equally.Those groups are all student leaders, the second group is staff members and the last one is the school supervisor, which will include the Ward education officer (WEO), Head of School and Second master (Teacher 2, Mkundi Secondary school on June 2023).
Motivation to employees has a number of benefits not only to the employees but also to the organisation in which they work.Nahavandi (2016) views motivation as the means to ensure the effective utilisation of skills and abilities those individuals have been able to develop.Motivation creates a feeling of satisfaction with the present situation and conditions and encourages ambition to continue working with the company.When carefully planned and implemented, it enhances workers' morale, increase organisational efficiency, and provide opportunity for loyal employees (Malhotra, 2007).When there is evidence of potential competency, motivation can be a reward for past performance (Harrison & Hubbard, 1998).Motivation must be implemented based on clear procedures known to management and staff.Job satisfaction plays a significant role in the organisation.Therefore, managers should take concrete steps to improve job satisfaction.Job satisfaction is a set of favourable or unfavourable feelings with which employees view their jobs, specifically the nature of their jobs, the quality of supervision they receive, co-workers' pay and promotional avenues.Job satisfaction affects job performance, employee turnover, and low absenteeism.High job satisfaction results in high work performance, less employee turnover, and less absenteeism (Bussing, 2002).

Intensive Supervision from Supervisors
Traditionally, when people talk about "supervision", they are usually referring to the managerial or leadership function of overseeing the productivity and progress of employees, typically the employees who report directly to the supervisor.According to Bernard (2005), supervision is the ability of superiors to influence the behaviour of subordinates to take a particular course of action.It is the art of influencing people towards achieving organisational goals.He further clarifies that quality of supervision, therefore, refers to the superiors' effectiveness in influencing the subordinates' behaviour in taking a particular course of action.

CONCLUSION
The findings of this study show that the lack of commitment among teachers is not accidental.The findings show that the more the teachers are motivated and involved in different school activities, the more they work.It's the job of educational leaders from school to national level to ensure all teachers are well attached with school organisation to be committed to work.

Recommendations
The following recommendations are made to raise the level of commitment among teachers: Improving Teacher Job Contract: It has been shown that many teachers are not committed to work due to the contracts given to them by the government.These contracts make them not afraid of losing their jobs because no factors constrain them in ensuring that they commit themselves to work to bring good results to the students and the nation.
Motivation: Heads of school should bear in mind that quality services from teachers do not come as an accident but rather as something which is being strived for through proper motivational strategies of the so-called service providers (employees).School management should involve employees in the whole process of motivating them in order to get positive results at school.This will help the management to understand what motivates staff, when they should get motivated and who should be motivated.
Delegation of Power: The government would be giving the budget for the school's management to the school board.This would make the responsibility of hiring and firing be in their hands.At the moment, teachers' bad behaviours are not given immediate punishment, thus making students and schools in general have teachers who are a burden.Also, the suspension of teachers is lengthy and bureaucratic for permanent and pensionable terms of employment.But if the authority to suspend teachers is in the hands of the school board, this will allow the head of the school to work with the kind of teachers willing to devote themselves wholeheartedly to serving students.

Recommendation for Further Studies
Further studies on factors influencing commitment to work among primary schools and college level can be done.Future studies can also expand the study by involving the parents/caregiver, school board and students.But also, some private teachers at secondary schools will help much to go deeper on this topic.

REFERENCES
effectively.When you love what you do, you like various aspects of your work, such as the tasks you perform, your responsibilities, and the goals you attempt to achieve.One respondent said: Wall et al. (1986)g this job.I am a religious person, and one of the most jobs which God blesses a person for doing is teaching students.Being responsible for preparing students to become the adults of the future generation is a big deal.Also, if you teach students with love, it helps you to have a great treasure in society (Teacher 1, Kola Secondary School on May 30, 2023).The above findings are supported byWall et al. (1986)when you love what you do, you tend to feel a sense of purpose and belonging.Whether it is because your company's values align with your own or you feel valued for your contributions, your working hours tend to pass by faster, and you can often leave the office feeling upbeat at the end of each workday.While every day may not be amazing, a job you genuinely love will help you maintain a positive attitude on even the most challenging days.
Some teachers believe that the best leader is one who can dedicate himself to others, so dedication to work prepares him to become a better leader later.Most teachers who hold master's degrees believe that they have enough education level that can be used to lead others.One teacher said: Adekola, B. (2012).The Impact of Organizational Commitment on Job Satisfaction: A Study of Employees at Nigerian Universities.International Journal of Human Resource Studies.2. 1. 10.5296/ijhrs.v2i2.1740.