Harmonization of Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (Praise) Implementation: Teachers' Perception Toward Gawad Sagwan

This study aimed to develop deeper understanding on the perception of ten (10) selected junior high school teachers of Aplaya National High School in the Division of Santa Rosa City, Laguna, Philippines toward Gawad SAGWAN as an Institutionalized Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE) Implementation. It posits the significance of awards, incentives, and recognition to encourage creativity, innovativeness, efficiency, integrity, and productivity in the public service by recognizing and rewarding officials and employees, individually or in groups for their suggestions, inventions, superior accomplishments, and other personal efforts which contribute to the efficiency, economy, or other improvements in government operations, or for other extraordinary acts or services in the public interest. Specifically, it aimed to address the following: (1) What are the participants' perceptions in terms of awards and recognition in Gawad SAGWAN? (2) How do the participants perceive the challenges and demands of an award and recognition recipient in Gawad SAGWAN? The study employed the Psychological Phenomenology of Creswell (2017). The verbatim transcriptions revealed four (4) themes. Among the teachers' perceptions that surfaced included knowing oneself, and knowing teachers. The participating teachers perceived the challenges and demands as award and recognition recipients in Gawad SAGWAN through exemplary performance, accountability, and dedication to work. The findings indicate that the proposed Gawad SAGWAN is well-designed and tailored fit to the needs of teachers and administrators of Aplaya National High School in the Department of Education in support of the Civil Service Commission's (CSC) guiding principle and policy that every agency shall establish its employee incentive awards system-PRAISE.