PERCEIVED JOB AUTONOMY AND WORK ENGAGEMENT AMONG TEACHERS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract This study examined the relationship between perceived job autonomy and employee engagement in public secondary schools in Bayelsa State. The cross-sectional research design was employed in the study. A questionnaire for perceived job autonomy and employee engagement was used to generate data for the study with Cronbach’s alpha reliability scores above .80. The respondents to the research instrument comprised 312 public secondary school teachers drawn from 144 public secondary schools in Bayelsa State. Data generated were analyzed with Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) at the 0.05 level of significance. The results showed a significant relationship between meaningful work and the measures of employee engagement (.752, .614, and .512), respectively for hypotheses 1 to 3. Given these findings, it was concluded that there is a significant empirical relationship between perceived job autonomy and employee engagement among teachers in public secondary schools in Bayelsa State. Based on this conclusion, it was recommended among others that School administrators should encourage feelings of autonomy by showing that they trust their employees to carry out tasking assignments to enhance teachers’ vigor. Keywords: perceived job autonomy, vigor, dedication, absorption