5. RESULTS

This chapter is organized into four sections. The first section presents a description of the study sample including its socio-economic characteristics. The second section focuses on the nature of workplace conditions for the teaching professionals and their (professionals') affective orientations towards work. The third section zeroes in on the t-tests for mean differences in workplace conditions and in affective work orientations for male and female teachers. The final chapter presents t-tests for group means in the valuation of workplace conditions.

5.1 Sample Description

The sample covered by this study was drawn from 35 educational institutions. Out of this number, 7 (20%) were located in Gaborone City Council, 12 (34.3%) in Selebi-Phikwe Town Council, 3 (8.6%) in Serowe Sub-district, 7 (20%) in Tutume Sub-district and 6 (17.1%) in Kgatleng District. The institutions studied included 23 (65.7%) primary schools, 8 (22.9%) community junior secondary schools, 2 (5.7%) senior secondary schools and 2 (5.7%) colleges. All institutions studied were government maintained.

Out of the 1,123 surveys distributed to respondents, 948 were satisfactorily completed and returned. This represented an overall response rate of 84.4%. The response rate, however, varied across the four categories of educational institutions studied. For the primary schools, 503 out of 566 surveys (88.9%) were fully completed and returned, and 208 satisfactorily completed questionnaires out 246 distributed (84.6%) were obtained from junior secondary schools. The number of questionnaires completed and returned was 130 out of 181 surveys (71.8%) from the senior secondary schools and 107 out of 130 (82.3%) from the colleges. Based on the response rates for the various categories of institutions studied, therefore, 53.1% of the surveys analysed for the study were from primary school teachers, 21.9% from junior secondary school teachers, 13.7% from senior secondary school teachers and 11.3% from college tutors.

About 31.3% of the total respondents were from educational institutions located in the Selebi-Phikwe Town Council school district while 22.6% were from Central Tutume school district. The rest 20%, 13.2% and 12.9% were drawn from educational institutions housed by the Gaborone City Council, Kgatleng and the Serowe/Palapye educational districts, respectively. About 53.1% of the respondents were working in institutions located in rural areas while the rest 46.9% were urban based. Of the total 948 respondents, 837 (88.3%) were citizen employees and 111 (11.7%) were expatriate workers.

5.2 Respondents' Socio-Economic Characteristics

Those studied included 684 (72.2%) females and 264 (27.8%) males. Their ages ranged from 19 years to 65 years with the mean age being 36.6 years. Table 1 summarizes the age of the respondents using age categories. As evident from the table, the bulk of the respondents were young adults. With respect to marital status, 46.3% were single/never married, 45.7% were married, 3.2% were separated/divorced and 2.4% were widowed.

Table 1. Respondents' age

The highest level of formal schooling completed by those studied ranged from junior secondary to Masters degree and above. While 8.3% were secondary (junior and senior) school graduates, 46.9% were primary teacher training college graduates, 13.7% had university diplomas, 14.2% held bachelors degree qualifications, 6.4% had postgraduate diploma in education and 10.5% had masters degrees and above. In terms of professional qualifications, only 7.1% were untrained teachers and the rest 92.9% were trained teachers.

Asked about the responsibilities held at school, 66.8% of the respondents indicated that they were class teachers, 9.2% were assistant class teachers and 11.7% were subject coordinators. About 6.8% were departmental heads, 3.2% were deputy principal/deputy head-teacher and 2.3% were principals/head-teachers. About 68.2% of the respondents were not responsible over any workers while 21.7% supervised between one and 10 workers, 6.1% 11 to 30 workers and the rest 4% supervised 31 and above workers. The highest number of workers supervised by a single respondent was 60.

The mean gross monthly income earned by the respondents was Pula 2,775.76. The minimum earning recorded was Pula 800 while the maximum was Pula 9,000. Table 2 presents categories of monthly earning for the respondents. As evident from the table, about 64.8% of the respondents' earned gross monthly incomes of below Pula 3,000.

Table 2. Respondents' gross monthly income

The mean tenure for those surveyed was 11.69 years. Actual years of service ranged from 1 to 42 years. While 29.6% had served for periods of 1 to 5 years, 24.4% had been working from 6 to 10 years, and 16.5% for 11 to 15 years. The tenure for the rest 13.1%, 8.6% and 7.8% ranged from 16 to 20 years, 21 to 25 years and 26 and above years, respectively. Since joining the teaching profession 51.1% of the teachers had never been promoted, 24.5% had been promoted at least once, 17.6% twice and 6.7% had been promoted three times and above. About 34.9% of the respondents had never been transferred since joining the profession, 21.1% had been transferred at least once, 18% twice 13% three times and the rest 13% had been transferred more than three times.

5.3 Overview of Workplace Conditions

Based on a scale of 1-15 points, overall, the teaching profession in Botswana can be said to be characterized by moderate to high intrinsic rewards, moderate extrinsic rewards and support conditions and by low to moderate levels of workplace stresses. As evident from Table 3, overall mean scores in intrinsic rewards ranged from 7.85 points for participation in decision-making to 11.53 points for task significance. Those interviewed reported moderate participation in decision-making (7.85), upward communication (9.12), professional growth (9.20) and autonomy (10.06), but they were high in task significance (11.53). On the other hand, mean scores for those extrinsic factors measured utilizing scales ranged from 8.58 points for promotional opportunities to 10.22 points for job security. Teachers perceived moderate job security (10.22), promotional opportunities (8.58) and access to managerial positions (8.72).

The scores for workplace support conditions ranged from 8.99 points for grievance procedures to 10.35 points for work group cohesion. The scores recorded for supervisory support (10.33), work group cohesion (10.35), grievance procedures (8.99) and socialization practices (9.22) all fell within the moderate level. Concerning workplace stresses, the results showed that the teaching profession was characterized by low levels of role ambiguity (5.72) and sexual harassment (5.58) and by moderate levels of role conflict (7.79) and resource inadequacy (9.93) and by high levels of work overload. Finally, the teaching profession was found to be moderate in pre-entry discrimination or discrimination in recruitment to the profession (6.61) and in global (overall) gender based discrimination (7.18).

Table 3. Workplace conditions for teaching professionals

^a For all items measured using scales of 1-15, the scores are rated as follows: 1 -5 = low; 6-10 = moderate; 11-15 = high.

5.4 Perceived Gender Differences in Workplace Treatment

The basic question underlying the study is whether the teaching profession favours males over females. To address this question, the study commences by testing for gender differences in perceived global (overall) discrimination and in discrimination during recruitment into the profession. As evident from Table 4, both male and female teaching professionals perceived moderate levels in the former and low levels in the latter. However, means for both forms of discrimination were higher for females relative to males by .22 and .42 points, respectively. The t-test scores for the two variables showed that while perceived levels in global discrimination was equal for both sexes, females were significantly higher (p< .01, two-tailed test) in perceived discrimination during recruitment. Table 4 also presents the group mean differences in intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, workplace support, and workplace stresses that female and male employees could differ in. A more detailed discussion of these workplace rewards and conditions is presented below starting with intrinsic rewards.

5.4.1 Intrinsic Rewards

Overall, mean scores for intrinsic rewards for males and females showed that both sexes perceived moderate levels of participation in decision-making, autonomy, upward communication and professional growth opportunities. The perceived levels in task significance were high for both the male and female sub-samples. However, results of t-tests for independent sample means showed that, relative to their male counterparts, women teaching professionals perceived workplace disadvantages in terms of chances for conveying information to higher hierarchies in the administrative bureaucracy, and the importance of the tasks they performed to the survival of the work organization. Women teaching professionals were found to be substantially lower in both upward communication (p< .001, two-tailed test) and task significance (p< .01, two-tailed test) than males. However, females were significantly higher in participation in decision making (p< .001, two-tailed test) compared to their male counterparts. No significant differences were observed for group means in autonomy and professional growth. Nevertheless, women's mean scores were slightly higher than men's by .13 and .03 points, respectively.

Table 4. Mean differences in workplace conditions^a

^a Significance tests are for sector mean differences with t-tests.

^b Significant but not in the hypothesized direction.

*p<.05; **p<.01; ***P<.001 (two-tailed tests).

5.4.2 Extrinsic Rewards

With reference to extrinsic rewards, significant gender differences were observed only in pay. Women's monthly incomes were found to be substantially lower than the men's were. On average, women were earning Pula 898.10 less than men were per month. No significant differences were observed for the extrinsic rewards of job security, promotional opportunities, promotional rate and access to managerial positions for males and females. Nevertheless, consistent with expectations, females' mean scores in promotional opportunities, promotional rate and access to managerial positions were slightly lower than the males'. Regarding job security, however, women, relative to men, perceived slightly higher job security.

5.4.3 Workplace Support

The results showed that both male and female teaching professionals perceived their jobs to be characterized by moderate levels of supervisory support, work group cohesion, grievance procedures and socialization practices. No substantial gender differences were found for all workplace support conditions studied save for grievance procedures. As evident from Table 4, women perceived their jobs to be offering substantially fewer avenues for airing their complaints than men did (p< .05, two-tailed test). Although no substantial mean differences were observed for work group cohesion, as expected women teachers scored slightly less than men teachers did in this support condition. On the contrary, the insignificant female mean scores in perceived supervisory support and socialization practices were slightly higher than those recorded for males.

5.4.4 Workplace Stresses

The study found that while male teaching professionals considered their jobs to have moderate workloads, their female counterparts perceived high workloads. The sexes, however, considered their jobs to be moderate in role conflict and resource inadequacy and low in role ambiguity, and sexual harassment. Tests for differences of group means showed that, relative to men, women considered themselves to be substantially more overworked (p< .001, two-tailed test) and considered their roles to be substantially lacking in clarity (p< .01, two-tailed test). In addition, female teachers reported receiving substantially more conflicting job requests (p< .01, two-tailed test) and perceived substantially higher levels of sexual harassment in the workplace (p< .01, two-tailed test) compared to male teachers. No significant differences were observed in mean scores for resource inadequacy. However, women reported slightly higher levels in the shortage of role resources.

5.5 Gender Differences in Affective Orientations

The second objective of this study was to assess gender differences in effective orientations toward work among teaching professionals in Botswana. Generally, the teaching professionals in Botswana are characterized by moderate levels of job satisfaction (9.57), professional commitment (10.7), commitment to the work organization (8.94) and intent to stay with the employing organization (9.07). Results for gender differences in these affective orientations toward work produced a similar pattern for both male and female teacher (see Table 4 for group mean scores).

Although both groups recorded high levels in professional commitment (10.03 for males and 10.81 for females), females were slightly higher in their commitment to the profession by .10 points. In addition, males and females reported moderate levels in organizational commitment and intent to stay but, relative to males, females were higher in both affective orientations by .94 and .61 points, respectively.

Results of t-test, utilizing a .05 or better level of significance (two-tailed test) showed that female teaching professionals were substantially lower in job satisfaction than male professionals were. The female mean score of 9.38 points was .65 points lower than that of the males. In addition, female teachers were shown to be significantly higher in both commitment to the employing organization (the Ministry of Education/Teaching Service Management) and in their intention to remain teachers than their male counterparts were. No substantial differences were observed in professional commitment but the mean score for women was slightly higher than that for men.

5.6 Gender Differences in the Valuation of Workplace Conditions

This section explores the differences that may exist in the importance male and female teaching professionals in Botswana attach to various workplace conditions. The objective is to assess whether male and female teachers operating in the three categories of educational institutions studied place different values on intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, support conditions and a work environment relatively devoid of stresses. Mean scores were computed for each gender group and the t-test was utilized to check for group mean differences. Scoring for each workplace condition analysed ranged from 1 to 5 with a score of 5 representing `of great importance' and a score of 1 indicating `not important at all' as can be seen from table 5.

As evident from table 5, both male and female teaching professionals, generally speaking, highly valued virtually all workplace conditions analysed. With 5.0 points being the highest possible score, mean scores for the sexes were above 4.0 points for all workplace conditions with the exception of workgroup cohesion whose mean scores fell below the level for both males and females. The specific differences in mean scores for males and females are explored below following the order utilized elsewhere in the study starting with intrinsic rewards.

5.6.1 Intrinsic Rewards

The results presented by table 5 show that, overall, both men and women considered intrinsic rewards to be `quite important' or better. The mean ratings for all intrinsic rewards were above 4.0 points for both sexes and ranged from 4.53 t0 4.62 points for males and from 4.35 to 4.55 points for females. Male teachers, nevertheless, were slightly higher than were female teachers in their valuation of all four intrinsic rewards analysed. The mean scores for men in participation in decision making, autonomy, task significance and professional growth were higher than those for women by .03, .15, .18 and .07 points, respectively. Results for t-test, utilizing a .05 or better level of significance (two-tailed test), however, only showed significant sex differences in the valuation of autonomy and task significance with women attaching less importance to both rewards relative to men.

Table 5. Gender differences in valuation of workplace conditions ^a

^a Significance tests are for gender mean differences with t-tests.

*p<.05; **p<.01; ***P<.001 (two-tailed tests).

^b The five workplace stresses are analysed in terms of adequate work load, role clarity, lack of conflicting job requests, adequate resources and absence of sexual harassment.

5.6.2 Extrinsic Rewards

Results for the importance attached to extrinsic rewards showed a pattern consistent with that observed for intrinsic rewards. Both male and female teaching professionals considered extrinsic rewards very important to both male and female teachers. For both sexes, mean ratings in the valuation the three extrinsic rewards studied ranged from 4.57 to 4.60 for males and from 4.38 to 4.58 for females. Relative to males, female teachers were found to be slightly lower in the importance they attached to pay and promotional opportunities; the differences in mean scores were .06 and .19 points, respectively. The results of the t-test, utilizing a .05 or better level of significance (two-tailed test), showed significant sex differences only in the valuation promotional opportunities with male teachers valuing it more than their female counterparts did. The extrinsic rewards of pay and job security were equally valued by both sexes.

5.6.3 Workplace Support

Based on Table 5, all four workplace support conditions, except work group cohesion, were considered quite important by both male and female teachers. The mean scores for supervisory support, grievance procedures and socialization practices were ranged from 4.31 to 4.57 for males and from 4.12 to 4.59 for females. On the contrary, mean scores for work group cohesion were 3.40 and 3.34 for males and females, respectively. The results of the t-test showed that male and female teachers did not differ significantly in terms of the value attached to all support conditions analysed. That is, they valued these types of workplace conditions equally. However, with the exception of socialization practices, males, relative to females, were slightly higher by .06 and .19 points in their valuation of work group cohesion and grievance procedures, respectively. On the other hand, female teachers were shown to be slightly higher (by .02 points) in their valuation of socialization practices compared to their male counterparts.

5.6.4 Workplace Stresses

Five variables conditions - work overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, resource inadequacy and sexual harassment - were analysed as workplace stresses. They are analysed in terms of adequate workload, role clarity, lack of conflicting job requests, adequate resources and absence of sexual harassment. The results were consistent with those realised for the workplace analysed above. Both male and female teachers highly valued work environments characterized by balanced (or adequate) workloads, clear role expectations, non-conflicting job demands, adequate resources with which to perform assigned roles and absence of sexual harassment. The mean scores in stresses ranged from 4.35 to 4.75 for males and from 4.21 to 4.61 for females.

In addition, the results showed male mean valuations for clear role expectations, non-conflicting job demands, adequate resources and absence of sexual harassment to be (slightly) higher than female male valuations. The mean differences were .01, .06, .14 and .04 points, respectively. Results from the t-test for independent sample means, however, showed no significant differences for male and female teachers in their valuation of all stresses analysed except role conflict. This means that while the sexes valued adequate work loads, clear role expectations, adequate resources and absence of sexual harassment equally, men valued non-conflicting job requests more than women did.