Work Motivation of Higher Secondary Teachers

The term work motivation refers reasons that emanating from individual's intrinsic values to choose to teach and sustaining teaching, and the intensity of teacher motivation which is indicated by effort expanded on teaching as influenced by a number of contextual factors. Atkinson (1964) defined work motivation as the contemporary immediate influences on the direction, vigour and persistence of action. Teacher’s work motivation depends on teacher’s assertiveness to his work. Work motivation is a set of active forces that originate within and beyond an individual's, to initiate work-related behaviour and to determine its form, direction, intensity and duration. Work motivation helps a teacher to increase his performance level and willingness towards a task. It is important for any school or college to understand and create a healthy atmosphere to encourage productive and enthusiastic behaviours in teachers. The present study aimed to conduct a differential analysis on the work motivation of higher secondary teachers with respect to certain background variables namely, gender (men & women), marital status (married & unmarried), subject (arts & science) of teacher and locality (rural & urban) and nature (government, govt. aided & self-financed) of school. The teachers working at higher secondary level in higher secondary schools of Karur District of Tamil Nadu State were the population of the present study. The findings of the present study revealed significant difference in the work motivation of higher secondary teachers based on their gender and marital status. Women teachers and married teachers reported to have cultivated better work motivation than unmarried teachers and men teachers. With regard to locality of school, teachers from urban schools were better than the teachers from rural schools in their work motivation. Also, the findings revealed no significant difference in the work motivation of higher secondary teachers based on their subject (arts & science) and the nature (govt, govt. aided & self-financed) of school. It is assured that the findings of the present study would help teachers and administrators of schools to look for the ways of enhancing work motivation in them. Also the findings of the present study would be helpful in imbibing the importance and the needy values of work motivation by the teachers at all levels.