Time Management Paractices Used by Secondary School Heads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Time management is the art of arranging, organizing, scheduling, and budgeting one’s time for the purpose of generating more effective work and productivity. The basic philosophy behind this concept is the completion of tasks within an expected timeframe, while maintaining outcome quality through mechanisms such as planning, organizing, prioritizing or multitasking. This descriptive study investigated the time management practices used by secondary school heads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The objectives of the study were to: (a) know the perceptions of Secondary school heads about time management practices and work management styles (b) find out the major problems faced by secondary school principals in managing their time effectively for performing their responsibilities efficiently in the existing time management literature (c) compare the perceptions of secondary school principals about (TMP) regarding gender, level, nature, and locality of school (d) To find out the relationship between the (TMP) used by secondary school Heads and teachers’ job satisfaction (e) investigate the relationship between the frequency of use of (TMP) and level of schools (secondary or Higher secondary), locality of schools (urban or rural), type of schools (Government or private), complexity of school, principals’ time management training, years of service experience, principals’ gender, principals’ work management styles, and their flexibility in using these work-management styles. It studied 372 secondary schools through the perceptions of 372 principals and 744 teachers regarding time management practices. The study focused on the six core categories of time management practices i.e. scheduling contacts, managing meetings, delegating tasks, managing paperwork, establishing priorities and handling interruptions. Self constructed questionnaires were used as a survey instruments for collection of data from the selected participants. Descriptive Statistics, Student test (t-test), Correlation and Regression were performed to analyze the data. The findings indicated that secondary school principals were strong in the area of managing paper work, delegation of tasks, establishing priorities and establishing priorities but weak in scheduling contacts and managing meetings, as a whole, was above average which showed that more need to be done and improved. Time management practices used by secondary school heads and its impact on teachers’ job satisfaction were dependent variables whereas demographic variables of heads were proxy to measure time management practices level of their use in schools. The study revealed that no significant differences were found regarding using of time management practices with respect to gender of principals and locality of school whereas significant differences were found regarding nature of school and level of school. Time management training, level of school, level of school and complexity of school has significant relationship with Time management practices whereas gender of principals, experience as a principal, locality of school, work management styles of principals and teachers’ job satisfaction has not significant relationship with TMP. All the time management practices used by secondary school heads were positively correlated to one another. The study revealed that nature of school, locality of school, level of school, complexity of school as significant predictors of principals’ time management practices. It also revealed lack of insufficient training in this area, multitasking approach, poor planning, handling interruptions, unnecessary paperwork and lack of teachers’ job satisfaction as top determinants to principals’ time management in schools. The study adds to academic knowledge, provides a solid foundation for future research in the area of time management assurance and offers recommendations for time management assurance in secondary schools.