MOTIVATION: A CATALYST FOR ENHANCED PRODUCTIVITY

1.1 Introduction

Motivation is one of the key elements in employee performance and productivity. Even when people have clear work objectives, the right skills, and a supportive work environment, they would not get the job done without sufficient motivation to achieve those work objectives. Mary (2000) refers to the forces within a person that affect his or her direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior as motivation. Motivation is one of the most contemporary issues in both public and private sectors management. This is based on the understanding that motivation has a very significant role to play in the process of combining and utilizing organizational resources (men and materials) geared towards the accomplishment of organizational stated goals. Researchers have consequently sought to explain how and why people behave the way they do and how they can be made to behave in a manner supportive of the organizational goals. The problem of employee motivations has occupied the minds of employers and captains of industries since ages.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Motivation is the drive within the individual as well as the external drive that leads to the achievement or accomplishment of a goal, the drive to achieve a goal or to set a goal such as needs, wants and desires and internal forces achievable. A child for his own sake may not want to learn because there is no apparent immediate benefit to be derived from learning. In other words, he cannot see why he has to learn (negative attitude) for a child to develop the attitude and willingness to learn, there must be sort of motivation.

The need to satisfy human wants has led to the study of motivation an individual basis. The inner state of dis-equilibrium of man is forcing him to search and choose strategies to satisfy his needs. In the course of searching and choosing strategies, he processes some abilities which enable him to direct his performance towards his goals. If the performance satisfies the employer, a reward is given to the employees. On the century, the employee will receive punishment, therefore, motivation is the concern of both employer and employee.

In organizations, managers in recent times are worried about the decline in workers productivity. The over increasing external forces of national and international competitions economic, social, technological and political situations have compelled mangers to develop and acquired new levels of organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

Motivating employees leads the functions of managers in any organizations to make policies; many managers take the motivation of employees into consideration in order to get the best out of them. The key to high productivity, high profitability and high viability of any organizations is motivation, so it must not be tampered with.

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 them, and their own expectations of themselves. This happens because people come into work situations with various expectations. 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.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to study the concept of Motivation as a Catalyst for Enhanced Productivity.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that motivation encompasses rewards shown in cash and/ or in kind. It is not an empty promise but a demonstration of reality. The socio-economic environment influences the need to motivate employees. Employees are very much interested in their basic need such as food, shelter, clothing and safety up to the ultimate needs of self esteem and actualization. These basic needs are satisfied through monetary and or non-monetary considerations. The prevailing economic situation necessitates that employee real wages have to be enhanced so that they can exercise effective demand for goods and services. The absence of motivation can lead to deterioration in productivity.

Motivating people to work entails meeting their needs. There is a great controversy over the issue of motivating people. Some people are of the view that such extrinsic factors like money, praise, and quality of supervision and company’s policy can motivate people to work, while others are of the view that such extrinsic factors, like advancement, quality of the job done by person, recognition and growth only may not motivate workers to productivity.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Motivation as a Catalyst for Enhanced Productivity using Federal Ministry of Information Abuja as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the factors which motivate employees to perform in Federal Ministry of Information;
2. To look at various techniques of motivating people to performance in Federal Ministry of Information;
3. To ascertain the effect of motivation on worker’s productivity;
4. To identify the problems associated with the motivation of workers in Federal Ministry of information; and
5. To suggest the solutions to such problems and improve people’s knowledge in this area of organizational behaviour.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What are the factors that motivate employees to perform in Federal Ministry of information?
• What are the available techniques of motivating employees for higher productivity?
• Does motivation actually improve employee’s productive capacity in Federal Ministry of Information, Abuja?
• What are the problems militating against employees motivation?
• How can these problems of employees’ motivation be addressed in order to improve productivity in Federal Ministry of information?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: The quality of supervision will not motivate workers productivity.
• H1: The quality of supervision will motivate workers productivity.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: A worker’s perception of what obtained in his organization will not motivate him to greater productivity.
• H1: A worker’s perception of what is obtained in his organization will motivate him to greater productivity.

Hypothesis Three

• H0: A worker’s perception of organizational appraisal policy will not motivate him to greater productivity.
• H1: A worker’s perception of organizational appraisal policy will motivate him to greater productivity.

Hypothesis Four

• H0: The worker’s satisfaction with its fringe benefits will not motivate him to greater productivity.
• H1: The worker’s satisfaction with its fringe benefits will motivate him to greater productivity.

1.7 Significance of Study

The following are the relevance of the study which are stated as follows:

1. This study will contributes to making the workplace meaningful and exciting, because motivated workers will bring about improved organization performance.
2. It will educate the management of organizations (especially the organization under study, Federal Ministry of information) on how to motivate their workers to productivity.
3. The findings of this study will generate people’s interest in researching into other areas of research on motivation and performance in the workplace.
4. Finally, the study hopes to enrich people’s knowledge in this area of organizational behaviour and management of people in the organization.

1.8 Scope of Study

This scope of this research focuses on Motivation as a Catalyst for Enhanced Productivity in an organization using Federal Ministry of Information Abuja as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10. Definition of Terms

The following terms were defined as used in this study:

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

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.