INFLUENCE OF PRINCIPALS' MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES ON TEACHERS' JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PORT HARCOURT LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, RIVERS STATE.

ABSTRACT This study investigated influence of principals' motivational strategies on teachers' job performance in public senior secondary schools in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State. Four objectives, four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The total population of the study was 610 which comprises 17 principals and 593 teachers from the 17 public senior secondary schools in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State. The entire population was used as sample which infers census sampling technique. The instrument for the study was a 20 items self-structured questionnaire titled: "Influence of Principal Motivational Strategies on Teachers' Job Performance Questionnaire" which was on a 4-point rating scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. It was validated by the researcher's supervisor and 1 expert in Measurement and Evaluation, all in the Faculty of Education, Rivers State University. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha statistics which yielded reliability indexes of 0.87, 0.88, 0.76 and 0.86. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the z-test was used in testing the formulated null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that principal motivational strategies such as principal's reward and recognition, teacher autonomy, professional development and open communication influence teachers' job performance in public senior secondary schools in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that principals should recognize teachers efforts through rewards and recognition to help in building confidence in teachers and enhance job satisfaction and collaboration.