STAFF MOTIVATION A KEY FACTOR FOR EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE IN AN ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER ONE
INTRDUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Motivation is seen as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. There are many ways of motivating employees. It may seem that rewards are effective tools to motivate employees with, but it is not as simple as it might sound. Knowledge of how rewards can motivate the individuals and how much it varies across individuals, cultures and socialites, have been discussed to great length through the century, still rewards in some way or form according to Adler (2008) are used in most corporate environments across the world. Apart from rewards there are other things that motivates. People work for organizations because they have the motivation to do so. In management theories people are assumed to join organizations due to a number of reasons, among them earning a living is the most primary concern. In addition there are other reasons. The second is security and other reasons are for identification or integration.
Organizations too are continually trying to drive the best from their employees in terms of productivity which in turn leads to the organizations realizing more returns (wealth) from their businesses. In achieving this, organizations pay serious emphasis to motivation in the work place.
Studies on how motivation improves employee satisfaction and job performance in the work place had been taking place, but most of the studies were conducted on private firms neglecting the public sector. In Nigeria, the public sector is seen as the most corrupt and assumed to be the impediment to national development. Onimode (2000) in Overview of Corruption and organized Crime in Africa has been able to categorize the phenomenon into six concrete types: "One is looting of funds and wealth kept secretly abroad, which he describes as 'Capital flight'. Two is misappropriation of public funds. Three, money launderings i.e. acquired through fraudulent means, drug trafficking, illegal arms deals etc. Four is gratification which involves monetary, pecuniary, material or physical favor as a condition or 'reward' for performing official duty. Five, abuse of office in which an official violates an oath of office and or debases official procedure for personal gains. Six is nepotism which confers underserved favors and advantages to one's kinsmen. For this reason there is serious need for change in the way civil servants conduct themselves in the work place. And this change can only be achieved through proper motivation.
This research is aimed at providing avenues through which employees will be satisfied with their jobs at the same time giving out their best for the upliftment of their organizations and the economy in general.
1.2 Problem Statement
The problem facing government Parastatals, Agencies and Ministries is lack of productivity. Most of the workers are not satisfied with their jobs due to lack of motivation, this leads to late coming, absenteeism and lack of attitude to work. This breads corruption, which is one of the major reasons why the country is in a serious problem.
The main focus of the study is motivation as a tool for employee satisfaction and improving job performance taking Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga as a case study.
1.3 Research Question
The study tries to answer the following specific questions
i. To what extend are workers motivated in Gombe state Polytechnic Bajoga?
ii. What are the motivational techniques is used in Gombe state Polytechnic Bajoga?
iii. To what extent does the above techniques(s) of motivation used to bring employee satisfaction and improved job performance in the organization?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The fact is that motivation contributes greatly to the growth of organizations and the economy in general. This study intends to find out how motivation can help in employee satisfaction and improving job performance, especially if applied to the public sector. The following are the objectives of this study:
i. To examine the level at which workers are motivated within organization ?
ii. To assess the motivational techniques used within the organization.
iii. To examine the effect of the above techniques used in the organization on employee satisfaction and improved job performance.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The significance of the study cannot be over emphasized. The study enables the ministry to the need for motivation in the day to day running of its activities and contribution, motivation has on the efficiencies of services provided by the employees of the ministry the study also provides an insight into various ways in which motivation in the ministry can increase employee commitment and productivity. The study will also reveal the need for improvement in the use of various motivational strategies so as to satisfy the demanding desires of their employees and compete with their counter parts in other ministries. This will also be beneficial to students that will carry out further research work and also to the Government for policy making implementation.
1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study
The study is intended to cover the most important Strategic Human Resource Management function that is motivation as a tool for employee satisfaction and improving job performance taking Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga as case study. The research work will therefore make its analysis and conclusions based on the data obtained from the ministry only.
Definitions of Terms
a. Motivation: Is the urge or drive to take action to achieve wants. A motivator is something that influences an individual behavior. It makes difference in what a person can do.
b. Performance: The ability to operate efficiently, being capable.
c. Satisfaction: The action of fulfilling a need, desire, demand etc
d. Incentives: Are payments made to an employee or groups of employees based on the amount of output or result achieved or payment made for the purpose of motivating employee perform towards a particular high target.
e. Productivity: The state of being efficient in output in relation to time taken and other resources used.
f. Equitable: Fair, just, equity and reasonable.
g. Personnel: Staff or Department of an organization which deals with employee especially recruitment and welfare services.
h. Reward: What a person earns as compensation for doing something.
i. Condition of Service: The rules and regulations governing the agreement between

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
The main purpose of this chapter is to identify and review existing related literature on Motivation, its definition and theories, relationship between employee satisfaction and performance, motivational technique and the best climate for motivation.
2.2 Concept of Performance
Performance has been defined as the efficient use of resources labour, capital, land and material in the production of various goods and services it can also be defined as the relationship between results and time it takes to accomplish them. It is often seen as total output divided by total input. Thus performance of employees is seen as the relationship between unit of labour and unit of output. Performance also refers to the effectiveness of the use of the factors of production to produce goods and services.
An effective integration resource, both physical and human will yield high output. Performance is the output per person under a given condition. It is usually an indicator of motivation. The higher the morale of the worker, the more productive he is. It is therefore true to say that a happy worker is a productive worker.
How to improve the performance of Nigerian employees has been the topic of many seminar, symposia and workshops. It is a recognized fact that performance is a critical factor in economic and serial development, for its to determine the standard of living of the citizens. Nigeria employees are said to have a poor attitude to work resulting to low performance.

    Date: 2026-08-06 00:00:00.000000