THE IMPACT OF MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS ON EMPLOYEE’S PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

One of the major problems confronting management today is that of motivating to perform assigned task to meet or surpasses predetermined standard. Motivation is that energizing forces that induces or compels and maintains behaviour. Human behaviour is motivated it is goals directed.

It is not easy to motivate an individual, for the success of any motivational effort depends on the extent of which the motivator meets the needs of the individual employees for whom it is intended. Motivation is an internal psychological process whose presence or absence is intended from observed performance. In Nigeria today, lack of proper managerial knowledge, economic depression and high rate of unemployment have made most workers subjected to themselves, to deplorable working conditions, which of course are the catalyst of low performance.

The management of most organization tends to believe that workers are satisfied with their job but unfortunately they are not.

The disadvantage of these to the employers that workers will not put in their best and the result will be low performance.

Managers in most of the organization are aware of the situation in the labour market, and as such went to capitalize on that to subject workers to deplorable working condition. It is when one is satisfied both physically and psychologically that such a person can perform his best. Therefore, intimidating workers or threatening to sack can only worsen the situation. But cannot solve it. Job satisfaction presupposes going to work and getting believed of work done. In Nigeria, most at times, the pay given to a worker is not commensurable to the type of work done. This is the reason why sometimes efficient and experience worker leave an organization for another organization that pay more or stay in the organization and perform below expectation.

Job dissatisfaction is quite prevalent in most organization. low performance which comes as a result of job dissatisfaction is always the basis for conflict between organization and workers. Managers always blame the workers for not putting in their best, and on side of the workers they blame management for not providing or creating an enabling environment as in motivation. Whoever may be guilty, the bottom line is satisfying the objective of the organization, which of course is to make enough profit to keep the organization moving. To meet the above object there need for both the management and employee to reach a consensus, the management meeting the desires of the workers and in turn the employees putting in their best in terms of performance. The workers need security of all types; physical, psychological and economic are important for effective and efficient performance. Security can serve as an incentive to some individual to remain with the organization and to put in maximum effort in performance. Although, there is general agreement among psychologists that man experiences a variety of needs, there is considerable disagreement as to what these needs are and their relative importance (Van Rooyen, J.  2006).

One of the basic problems in any organization is how to motivate people to work. Motivating people to work entails, meeting their needs. This is because people working in the organization to meet workers needs affect the satisfaction, which the workers derive from their job. The satisfaction that the workers derive from their job can affect their motivation to work. People are motivated by various factors at different times, according to Wilkinson et al (2007) the first factor is the combination of the individual perceptions of the expectations other people have of thejmm, and their own expectations of themselves. This happens because people come into work situations with various expectations.  When they arrive at the work place, they meet other people who also have expectations of them; positive individual and group expectations serve as positive motivational factors for the worker. This is why a balance must be struck as much as possible between organizational objectives and individual aspirations (Sulcas, P.  2007). The essence of this is to ensure a situation where the individual is motivated while the organization is achieving established objectives. The second factor deals with the issue of self-images and concepts as well as life experiences and personality. These factors have to be positively motivated in the worker to yield proactive behaviour. This can be achieved through a carefully planned reward system, which is a type of reinforcement directed at modifying people behaviour. Those who occupy management positions in organizations encourage behaviour basically through the means of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement boosts favourable consequences that go a long way to encourage the repetition of particular behaviour (Adonisi, M.  2005).

It is therefore important for the management to ensure  that they motivate their employees to achieve the set goals and objectives of the organization. The management of an organization can motivate its employees if it’s able to study the characteristics of the employee and know what actually motivate them to productivity

1.2   STATEMENT OF GENERAL PROBLEM

Some organization tends to employ more personnel in order to meet the set target of their organization’s production and to satisfy the primary demand of customer. However, despites all these effort, there could still be inefficiency that is performance could still be below expectation.

This situation, which have a negative effect on sales, call for great concern and action in order to check and make proper correction to the problem.

When an employee is confronted with a problem in work situation, his usual reaction will be to adopt a problem solving behaviour, which may take the form variability in though, or action. If the variability in action and thought does not appear to be the solution to problem, the employees can abandon the problem and settle for less.

As a result, motivating the personnel to find out what could be responsible becomes inevitable.

1.3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE OF THE ESSAY

This study is aimed at looking at possible areas workers can be motivated to increase their level of performance and high productivity.

No matter how good any organization is, it does not get any thing done properly until people who make the organization do it.

Workers in the past were satisfied with money management they though when that money could boost the workers and their level of performance and efficiency.

The basic salary of the lowest cadre of employees in the labour market has been increased frequently but they still perform very much below the normal level expected of them.

Even with the best strategy in place an appropriate organizational architecture, an organization will be effective only if its members are motivated to perform at a high level. A key challenge for managers or organization both large and small is to encourage employees to perform at a high level.

The objective of this study is aims at describing what motivation is, where it comes from and why managers need to promote high levels of it for an organization to be effective and achieve its goals.

1.4. SIGNIFICANT OF THE ESSAY

The important of this study is mainly for the expansion of knowledge to ascertain whether the employees are encourages by some motivational factors or encourage by their habit to work hard in other to achieve organizational goals or objectives.

From the various studies as well as discussion mentioned earlier, it is apparent that there is enough reason to warrant a study that will examine factors relating the effects of motivation on employees.

Since current investigations have revealed little scientific search in this area, the studies will some what pioneer a search for the true position.

An unmotivated employee is a threat to any organization concerned. When an employees fails to achieve a goal or perceive that he cannot achieve a goal, he feels frustrated and could develop other peculiarity characteristic of the position in which he finds himself.

1.5. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE ESSAY

For the purpose of this study as the topic depicts, the scope of the essay will be focused on motivational factors on employees performance. The research covers in a comprehensive position the principles, techniques method involved in motivational factors.

In the earlier stage of the study there is a detailed coverage of the objective, principles, techniques and methods of motivation, relating to the analysis and gathering of motivation and motivational ascertainment. At each stage, concept are illustrated by practical example and placed into context so that the readers are aware of the importance and relationships of the various aspects of motivational factors.

This study does not cover all the motivational factors contain in some advance books or syllabuses.

1.7. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

It is necessary to mention some of the limitation of this research work. The chief limitation is the difficulty in obtaining relevant information. The polytechnic library has related books on the subject of the study.

The method at collected data created problem, since the researchers has to interviewing the workers as a result of their tight working schedule. Subsequent to this problem is the combination of academic work with the study.

Notwithstanding, in the highlighted limitation above, it is hoped that this research will be useful to the organization studies and other similar organization that may want to achieve high performance through motivation of the employees.

1.8 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H₀: motivational factors do not significantly impact on employee performance

H₁: motivational factors significantly impacts on employee performance

H₀²: motivational factors does not influence employee performance

H₂: motivational factors does has influence on employee performance

1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Productivity: Is the ratio of output or production capacity of the workers in an organization. It is the relationship between the amount of one or more inputs and the amount of outputs from a clearly identified process.

Employees: are the workers in an organization, working for the accomplishment of the organizational goals.

Motivation: Motivation is a decision-making process, through which the individual chooses the desired outcomes and sets in motion the behaviour appropriate to them”.

Adequate Motivation:  These are factors (familiarity, concern and driving force), which exist or are provided in a work situation either physically or psychologically which determine the input and productivity level of the worker.

Intimacy:  Intimacy or Familiarity could be described as the feeling of warmth and friendliness based on interpersonal relationship among people.

Consideration: Consideration or Concern refers to a situation where both their colleagues and managers treat staffs with understanding. In this case, there is both a personal and human touch in dealing with workers.

1.10 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlight the theoretical framework on which the study its based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.

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