Influence of Personnel Management on Students’ Academic Performance in Meru Central Sub-County, Kenya

Management is a concept concerned with making decisions and taking corrective actions to achieve an organization’s long-term targets, objectives, and goals. Firms obtain a sustained competitive advantage through exploiting internal strength by responding to environmental opportunities while neutralizing external threats and avoiding internal weaknesses. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of personnel management on students’ academic performance in Meru central sub-county, Kenya. The study was anchored under Contingency theory, and it adopted mixed method research with a target population of 432 respondents. The investigator used Slovin’s formula to get a sample size of 207 respondents drawn from 20 public secondary schools comprising of 20 principals, 40 PTA/BOM chairpersons, 20 students council representatives and 127 HoDs, who were selected using both purposive for principals, BOM and PTA chairperson, and simple random sampling for students councils and HODs. Data collection was conducted through the administration of questionnaires to student’s council representatives, HODs, BOM and PTA chairpersons and interview schedule for the principals. A pilot study was carried out in 2 public secondary schools who were not included in the main study. To validate the researcher made use of supervisor’s comments and test the reliability of the research instruments by administering the questionnaire twice over different periods and calculate the reliability coefficient prior to the study. This study abided by the ethical practices in the field of research such as confidentiality, seek authorization from the relevant authorities, informed consent among others. Data in this research were gathered through the administration of surveys and were subsequently processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20. The overall response rate from the entire pool of respondents was 73.91%. The investigation revealed that school principals frequently employed multiple leadership approaches, with the instructional and transformational styles being the most favored. Moreover, a substantial 78.4% of the participants strongly believed that the leadership of principals significantly impacted students’ academic achievements. The study also determined that close monitoring had a notable effect on student academic performance, indicated by a mean score of 4.36 (standard deviation = 0.61). Additionally, the research found that 67.3% of the respondents expressed reservations about the influence of motivation on students’ academic performance. Notably, the study revealed that target setting had a positive impact on students’ academic performance, with an overall mean of 4.61 (standard deviation = 0.49). In conclusion, the study indicates that school principals adopted adaptable leadership strategies. Furthermore, it underscores the high impact of leadership, target setting, and monitoring on students’ academic performance. Consequently, it is recommended that the Teachers Service Commission should ensure an adequate supply of teachers in public secondary schools to allow principals to focus on school administration rather than teaching. Collaboration between political leaders and school management is also advised for the benefit of both students and schools. Finally, the study suggests that principals should continue employing instructional and transformational leadership styles in their school environments.