Motivation and Employee Productivity

Motivation and Employee Productivity

Chapter One of Motivation and Employee Productivity

INTRODUCTION

Rajput (2011), contends that the word motivation is derived from a Latin word “Movere” which literally means “to move”. They defined motivation as “the individuals desire to demonstrate the behaviourand reflects willingness to expend effort”. Motivation can be divided into extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation refers to external factors, which can be measured in monetary terms, such as salary and benefits, promotion and disciplinary action. Extrinsic motivators can have an immediate and powerful effect, but it will not necessarily last long. Intrinsic motivation refers to internal factors such as job satisfaction, responsibility, freedom to act, scope to use and develop skills and abilities and challenging work and opportunities for development. Intrinsic motivators which are concerned with the „quality of working life are likely to have a deeper and longer term effect. These two different aspects of motivation are connected to each other and cannot be seen in isolation.

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

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. 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’sbehaviour.

Those who occupy management positions in organizations encourage employees basically through 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.

It is in view of this that this study wants to look at motivation of employees as a tool for improving organizational productivity, by using the AkwaIbom Civil Service Commissionas a case study.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Organization exists for the purpose of rendering some services. For the organization to meet its objectives, people are employed in the organization in order to help the organization meet its objectives. Thus, in order to ensure that people employed in the organization perform optimally towards the realization of organizational goals, they need to be motivated to work.

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 can motivate workers to productivity.

It is in view of these controversies that this study wants to look at the motivation of employees in the organization by using AkwaIbom Civil Service Commissionas a case study.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.

This research work hopes to achieve the following objectives:

1. To examine the factors which motivate employees to perform in AkwaIbom Civil Service Commission
2. To look at various techniques of motivating people to performance in AkwaIbom Civil Service Commission.
3. To ascertain the effect of motivation on worker’s productivity.
4. To identify the problems associated with the motivation of workers in AkwaIbom Civil Service Commission.
5. To suggest the solutions to such problems.
6. Finally, to improve people’s knowledge in this area of organizational behaviour.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

It is in view of the above problems that the following questions arise:

1. What are the factors that motivate employees to perform in AkwaIbom Civil Service Commission?
2. What are the available techniques of motivating employees for higher productivity?
3. Do motivation actually steer employees productive capacity?
4. What are the problems militating against employees motivation, and
5. How can these problems of employees’ motivation be addressed in order to improve productivity in AkwaIbom Civil Service Commission?