Relationship between principals' distributive justice practices and teachers' job performance in public secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria

This study determined the relationship between principals’ distributive justice practices and teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in Anambra state. The study adopted a correlational research design. One research question guided the study and one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population for the study was 7,027 teachers in the 266 public secondary schools in the State. The sample consisted of 702 teachers from the six educational zones in the State. The sample was drawn using multi-stage sampling procedure which included proportionate stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Two structured questionnaires developed by the researchers titled: “Principals’ Distributive Justice Questionnaire” (PDJQ) and Teachers’ Performance Questionnaire (TPQ) were validated by three experts and used for data collection. Cronbach’s Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the items in the instruments and these yielded co-efficient values of 0.75 and 0.72 for PDJQ and TPQ respectively. The researcher with the aid of 12 research assistants administered a total of 1405 copies of the questionnaires on the respondents. At the end of the exercise, 644 copies representing 91% were successfully completed, retrieved and used for data analysis. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The result of the finding indicated that there is a very high positive relationship between principals’ distributive justice and teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that Principals should at all times treat teachers with respect and sensitivity and explain rationale for decisions to teachers thoroughly. By doing this, principals will dismiss any wrong perceptions teachers may have regarding his decisions and this will help create positive climate that will induce improved teacher performance.