ABSTRACT

Motivation is something that moves the person to action and continues him the cause of action already initiated. Motivation has the role to develop and intensify the desire of every member of the organization to work effectively and efficiently in his position. The motivation for the study was prompted by the low level of concentration on employee motivation as compared to the employees of other organizations which have caused an acute shortage of qualified teachers at the basic and 2^nd cycle (Senior High School) level due to high migration to other sector (GNAT Report, 2013). Motivation in Ghana Education Service is down, the workers and the government, who are responsible for implementing the national policies and programmes relating to pre-tertiary education in the country, have clashed many times in the recent years over salary and conditions of service (GNAT Report, 2013). It is against this background that the research investigated into: “The Effect of Motivation on Employees Performance: Empirical Evidence from the Brong Ahafo Education Directorate”. The general objective of the study is to determine the Effect of Motivation on Employees; to identify factors that motivate employees; to determine the employees‟ performance and to assess the effect of motivation on the employees‟ performance in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate. Mixed methodology, that is questionnaires and interviews were used to gather data and analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), and content analysis for qualitative aspect. The study has revealed that promotion and opportunity for advancement are the major motivation factors and the study has also revealed that motivation level is low in the area of wages and salaries. Ghana Education appears to be paying lowest wages and salaries in the industry. It is therefore recommended that Ghana Education Service (management) should consider as a matter of urgency, the need to make upward adjustment in wages and salaries which will go a long way to reduce the high incidence of labour turnover.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

  Background of the Study

The Ghana Education Service (GES) is responsible for spearheading the nation Education vision by laying a good foundation that would facilitate the development of human resource in Ghana. Since the sector has a direct investment in human capital which is the instrument for improving the productive capacity of societies as much as their political, economic and technological development is concern, there is the need for a good foundation. When children are educated poverty is reduced, the fertility rate is lowered, health is improved, and the national status is raised coupled with higher productivity leading to higher income (Shultz, 1974; Cohn, 1979; Noor, 1981). Furthermore education enhances the status of women; promote adaptability to technological changes and forges national unity (Juster, 1975).

The future development of the nation (Ghana) therefore hinges more than ever, on the capacity of the nation and individuals to acquire relevant knowledge in literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills and attitudes. This is so since education is the keystone to national development and quality basic education is the foundation. It is significant to note that the availability of well-motivated teachers is central to improving student‟s achievement. Even with the best strategy in place and an appropriate organizational architecture, an organization will be effective only if its members are motivated to perform at a high level. Leading is such an important managerial activity that it entails ensuring that each member of the organization is motivated to perform highly and help the organization to achieve its goals. When managers are effective, the outcome is a highly motivated workforce. A key challenge to managers of organizations both small and large is to encourage employees to perform at a high level (Jones et al, 2000).

According to Pate (1998) the study of motivation is concerned, basically, with why people behave in a certain way. The basic underlying question is „why do people do what they do? Kovach (1980) states that despite numerous studies done on motivation, managers still are not close to understanding employees‟ motivation than their colleague more than fifty years ago. Motivation is something that moves the person to action and continues him the cause of action already initiated. Motivation has the role to develop and intensify the desire of every member of the organization to work effectively and efficiently in his position. Even though money occupies a major place in the mix of motivators, money alone cannot motivate employee well to work unless it is coupled with other non-monetary motivators (Frey and Osterloch, 2002).

Performance is an evaluation of the results of a person‟s behaviour. It involves determining how well or poorly a person has accomplished a task or done a job. Motivation is only one factor among many that contributes to an employee‟s job performance. All thing being equal, one would expect a highly motivated teacher or an officer would deliver high-quality teaching or service than those poorly motivated teacher or officer. All things however, are not always equal because so many factors affect performance – factors such as personality, the difficulty of the task, availability of resources and working conditions. To attain high levels of performance as an employee and manager, you must be sure that you and your employees have the ability, motivation and the resources to meet objectives. When performance is not at the standard level or above, you must determine which performance factor needs to be improved and improve it (Lussier, 2005).

Studies on motivation depicts that there are several ways to motivate employees. These are known as theories, which can be divided into two categories. They are the content theories and the process theories. The content theory focus on what motivates employees and it was propounded by eminent writers such as Maslow (1946), McClelland (1988) and Herzberg (1968). Vroom (1969), Adams (1965), Locke and Latham (1990) are the proponents of the process theories and they focus on how motivation occurs. Reis and Pena (2001) question whether motivating people to work in the 21st century with theories conceived during the past 100 years are likely to be infeasible. They conclude that the core message is that managers should reconsider the out-dated motivational patterns utilised to maintain role performance in organisations and adopt a fresh motivation formula for the 21st century based on friendship, work and respect. However, Chartered Management Institute (2001) checklist maintains that these theories are still valid today. Even though the two theories are complementary, they are in a way opposite and their differences leads others to conduct further studies on motivation. This led to a number of ways through which employees could be motivated to increase performance. Several writers such as Roche and Mackinnon (1970) and others such as Mayfield et al (1998) suggest that leadership styles and freedom given to employees are significant in motivating employees. Luthans and Stajkovic (2000) and Armstrong and Murlis (2004) held the view that recognition can be used to motivate worker to perform well whilst Oldham and Hackman (2010), Lawler (1969) argued that job design has an important role to play in employees behaviour.

Considering many approaches to motivation and how difficult it is to find or identify one that solely motivates workers, the study seek to determine whether motivation have effect on employees‟ performance.

            Statement of the Problem

The Ghana Education Service is responsible for the co-ordination of the approved national policies and programmes relating to pre-tertiary education. The service is made up of teachers and non-teaching supporting personnel in pre-tertiary educational institutions in the public system; managers of educational units and their supporting staff; and other persons that may be employed for the service (Ghana Education Service Act, 1995 [Act 506]).

Motivation has the role to develop and intensify the desire of every member of the organization to work effectively and efficiently. Teacher motivation is inadequate for instance; meagre salary compared to other institutions workers, no accommodation for teachers and they have to struggle for accommodation after completing school, and sometimes have to commute long distances to work.

These and other factors are causing absenteeism, lackadaisical attitude and dissatisfaction among the GES workers. The rate of turnover of GES workers is increasing at the alarming rate and those staying are embarking on frequent strikes for better conditions of service (Asunafo North Municipal Education Annual Performance Report, 2013).

Therefore, the purpose of the study is to determine the Effect of Motivation on Employees Performance: Empirical Evidence from the Brong Ahafo Education Directorate.

  Objective of the Study

This section deals with the general objective and specific objectives of the study.

                        General objective

The general objective of the study is to determine the Effect of Motivation on Employees Performance: Empirical Evidence from the Brong Ahafo Education Directorate.

                        Specific objectives

The specific objectives are as follows:

1. To identify factors that motivates employees in Asunafo North Municipal Education
2. To identify factors that serve as dissatisfaction among workers in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate.
3. To determine the employees performance in Asunafo North Municipal Education
4. To assess the effect of motivation on the employees performance in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate.

  Research Questions

This section deals with the formulation of the research question that will help to achieve the objectives of the study. They are:

1. What are the factors that motivate employees in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate?
2. What are the factors that serve as dissatisfaction among employees in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate?
3. What determines the employees‟ performance in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate?
4. What is the effect of motivation on the employees‟ performance in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate?
5. In what ways could motivation be improved upon in Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate?

  Significance of the Study

The study examines the effect of motivation on employees Performance at the Brong Ahafo Education Directorate. The motivation for the study was prompted by the low level of concentration on employee motivation as compared to the employees of other organizations which have caused an acute shortage of qualified teachers at the basic and 2^nd cycle (Senior High School) level due to high migration to other sector, that is high rate of teachers‟ turnover (GNAT Report, 2013). The study will therefore serve as a contribution to the body of existing literature related to motivation system in Ghana Education Service. This will serve as a guide to researchers and to provide data upon which further studies could be concluded.

The research findings and results that will be reported in this study will provide the management of Ghana Education Service with more reliable and scientific way of motivating and evaluating the level of their  employees‟ performance.

The finding and results of this study will provide the policy makers like government agencies such as the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service Council, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning with invaluable insights and a more reliable guide to monitoring the impact of  the operations of the Ghana Education Service in the country.

The study will provide the stakeholders like Government, Church, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), Past Students‟ Association, School Management Committee (SMC) Assembly Members etc., invaluable information that will allow them to provide useful suggestions to the improvement in teaching and learning in Ghana.

Although the study is limited to Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate in the Brong Ahafo Region, other districts/municipals, regions or the entire nation, together with countries of the West African sub-region with similar conditions will find the results useful in their education planning and delivery programmes.

  Brief Methodology

The study was guided by a mixed methodology approach which consists of both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. To this end, questionnaires and interviews were used in eliciting data from two Hundred and twenty one (221) comprising 214 questionnaires and 7 interview guides representing 10% of the total population of the target group i.e. the Municipal Education Office staff and teaching and non-teaching personnel of basic and 2^nd cycle (Senior High School) level respectively. A content analysis technique was employed to analyse and interpret the qualitative data (interviews). The quantitative data was however analyse using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

  Scope of the Study

The study area, Brong Ahafo Education Directorate has 27 districts/municipals. The study however focussed on the employees of Asunafo North Municipal Education Directorate that is the teaching and non-teaching personnel of basic and 2^nd cycle (Senior High School) level respectively.

  Limitation of the Study

The research had certain limitations and therefore was confined to Asunafo North Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region in Ghana due to lack of time and adequate financial resources. Also, time frame for the completion of this research was a major limiting factor which affected the conduct of a comprehensive research on the effect of motivation on the output of employees of Ghana Education Service. Furthermore, the non-co-operative attitude of some of the respondents reduced the number of people interviewed than the researcher had originally intended. Finally, inadequate financial resources and lack of readily organised data was a limiting factor, however, in spite of these constraints; all effort was made to come out with thorough research.

  Organization of the Study

This work is organized into five chapters as shown in figure 1.1. Chapter one deals with the introduction. This takes a look at the background to the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research questions, significance of the study, brief methodology, scope of the study, and limitations of the study as well as the organization of the study. Chapter Two deals with reviewing existing literature that primarily deals with discussions and review of literature related to the concepts of the research. The third chapter describes the methodology adopted for the study. This includes the research design, area of study, population, sample and sampling techniques, research instrument, administration of the questionnaire, and data analysis procedure. Chapter Four comprises compilation, analysis and discussion of data collected from the fieldwork. Chapter Five also looks at the summary of the findings, conclusions and recommendations.

Related Project Topics :