Strategies for Management of Staff Relationship for Effective Administration of Senior Secondary School in Rivers State

The study investigated strategies for management of staff relationship for effective administration of senior secondary school schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. Four research questions and four corresponding null hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 6,799 respondents which comprised six thousand, four hundred and eighty-five teachers (6,485) and three hundred and eleven (311) principals of senior secondary schools in Rivers State. The sample was is 710 respondents comprising 10% of the total population of teachers (648) and 20% of the total population of principals (62). The simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study. The instrument for data collection study was a researcher-designed questionnaire titled “Strategies for Management of Staff Relationship for Effective Administration of Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State Questionnaire (SMSREAQ)”. The completed copies of the questionnaire were analyzed for the reliability using Cronbach Alpha method which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.81, 0.83, 0.84 and 0.88 with an average reliability coefficient of 0.85 which showed the instruments were reliable. A return rate of 668 respondents (94%) made up of 615 teachers and 53 principals was used for the analysis. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation scores, while the null hypotheses were tested using the independent t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of teachers and principals on the extent open communication, team building, and training and development programmes as strategies for management of staff relationship enhance effective administration of senior secondary schools in Rivers State. It was concluded that strategies for management of staff relationship such as: open communication, team building, and training and development programme foster staff relationship for effective administration of senior secondary schools in Rivers State. The researchers recommended among others that school administrators should develop and enforce comprehensive strategies that address discrimination and promote ethical relationship among staff to ensure a harmonious working environment for staff.