Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 4

in one context to new experiences and contexts as noted by Flores, (2020). This study was guided by the Equity Theory of Work Motivation. According to this theory which was developed by Festinger in the early 20th century, people prefer using objective criteria for comparison, but in the absence of this they compare themselves with other persons having similar ability and opinions. The theory argues that, a major input into job performance and satisfaction is the degree of equity or inequity that people perceive in their work situations. In addition to being rewarded for their performance, people also want those rewards to be fair and relative to what others receive. This need for fair treatment is the basis of equity theory. It further states that inequity is an uncomfortable condition that will result in the person taking some action. The objective of the action to be taken therefore would be to create or restore a condition of perceiving equity. In the school situation, the study established that there was such inequities and possibly that was one of the reasons why strikes were rampant as was observed by Nkinyangi (2020). Most secondary schools in urban areas for example, Nairobi city, Nakuru, Kisumu city, Mombasa and many others were staffed well with highly qualified teachers compared to schools in remote areas. This made students feel they were neglected by the government and preferred burning their schools in order to attract the attention of those in-charge in the government. Besides this, in most schools used for this study, prefects were given powers to punish other students and they seemed to be highly protected by school administrations, a situation which therefore resulted into cases of indiscipline. It is therefore based on this background knowledge on the theory that the researcher reviewed relevant literature for this study. The researcher gathered literature based on the themes developed from the study’s objectives. The main theme of the study being the determination of principals’ attitudes towards provision of guidance and counselling services in schools and how it could be used to maintain discipline, it was therefore vital to gather literature on the concepts of attitude and discipline. A total of 20 papers fulfilled the inclusion criteria which was established for this study in terms of the publications source, that is, academic journals, the nature of the studies, in this case, empirical studies and the relevance of the topic under investigation. IX. D ata C ollection and A nalysis P rocedure Data for this survey was collected by the researcher himself who undertook the exercise by administering the structured questionnaire, observation and interview schedules to all respondents in the whole county. This resulted in the generation of primary data which was needed for the study to progress well. Participants’ full consent was sought before their participation in the study. A total of eighty (80) principals provided complete information regarding the study. When visiting the schools, the researcher tried to create rapport with the principals and had an opportunity to explain to them the purpose of the study and how they were to respond to the questionnaires which were administered on the same day to the principals who filled them after the researcher’s instructions, were collected immediately and arrangements made to re-visit the schools and collect those of the principals who did not prefer answering them on that same day. Interview and observation schedules were also carried out two weeks after principals filled their questionnaires. The researcher in this study analyzed data using tables and percentages. This was done in order to make the researcher get to know how respondents were distributed across the county. The researcher calculated percentages, Pearson Correlation Coefficient to establish research instruments’ reliability whose final coefficient index was 0.93 and he also calculated participants’ responses on educational decisions and problems related to provision of guidance and counselling services. X. S tudy F indings and D iscussions The researcher analyzed principals’ attitudes towards various aspects of guidance and counselling. Which were: need for guidance and counselling services to students in schools, importance of guidance and counselling service to schools, role of principals in guidance and counselling service and training of principals in guidance and counselling. This was found necessary, since it is possible for principals to be positive in their attitude towards certain aspects of guidance and counselling and depict negative attitude or uncertainty in other areas. Each item of the attitude scale was followed by five responses which ranged from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. For positively worded statements, responses were scored as follows; SA = 5, A = 4, UD = 3, D=2, SD = 1. A score of three (3) indicated neutral response. The table given below reflects principals’ attitudes towards the need for guidance and counselling in schools: Principals’ Attitudes on Guidance and Counselling Services and Maintenance of Discipline in Secondary Schools of Nyamira County, Kenya 19 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue IV Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals