EFFECTS OF STAFF MOTIVATION ON JOB PERFORMANCE

posted on August 8, 2018

EFFECTS OF STAFF MOTIVATION ON JOB PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT

The social nature of the human animal makes the phenomenon of needs a sine-qua-non. Because human needs are insatiable, there has always been a continuous craving by man to satisfy his ever-growing needs. Yes! The satisfying of man’s needs, does it motivate him to higher performance and subsequently breeding higher productivity? Has there been fairness or equality in the attitude of employees? Equally, has the employees been duly consulted on their needs as employees? These among other things and questions are what this research work seeks to explore and answer. At the end of this work, we may have ascertained the level of the effects motivation has on job performance with specific consideration of Intercontinental Bank Plc. Onitsha Branch.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The study of motivation and behaviour is a search for answer to the perplexing question about human behaviour (Hersey and Blanhers, 1979). The Motivation of people in organization through a popular subject of discussion in seminars, symposia, workshops and written professional journals and books, yet is one of the least understood concepts as a management technique (Francis and Milbourn, 1980). Often people do not know why others behave the way they do. Why they are behaving differently at present and how they may likely behave in future under the same conditions (Herbey and Blench, 1979). It is the responsibility or organisational managers to motivate their subordinates and employees to raise their level of output. Motivation is a force that is directed by the behaviour of people. It is thus a major factor that determines employees’ means of satisfying their needs as to improve their job performance. Financial institutions are specially considered in this project as areas whose success and survival depends strongly on the ability of the workers to efficiently utilize the available material resources in order to achieve the organisational goal.

For such task to be performed employees need a lot of incentives as well as a conducive working environment in an organization in order to spur up the workers to work harder for a greater achievement.

The job attitude of most financial institution workers in Nigeria and Anambra State especially has generated a lot of interest among scholars. The growing interest has always resulted to the seminars and workshops on job satisfaction and motivation. The main concern has always been on how to manage workers in order to put their maximum effort. So far the attempt made has not yielded the required result.

It is a common reason why Nigerian workers are always being described as “lazy” unproductive, redundant, non-challant and irresponsible.

Though there is a unanimous agreement on how to motivate a worker, I feel the worker has a need to be met and until this need is met, the worker’s attitude towards his work would remain bad. While some scholars have attempted to identify the various aspects of workers need.

Alao (1984:16) and Anikpo (1984:38) felt that some of these needs have made workers exhibit negative attitudes towards their job. As the case with the present situation in Anambra State where the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) embarked on a strike action following the refusal of the state governor, Mr. Peter Obi to increase the wages of staff that was agreed upon. The financial institutions are the most affected by this situation especially with the present state of financial crunch in the country and Anambra state in particular resulting in social unrest and holding up activities in financial institutions.

This research work therefore is set to answer questions raised above as well as to examine the views of scholars on the impact of motivation of staff on job performance with particular reference to the Intercontinental Bank Plc., Onitsha.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Motivation influences human behaviour in any work place. In recent years, it has been evident that there has been a general drop in the overall rating of performance of financial institutions. It is noted that in Nigeria that when workers are motivated, there will be a high productivity but in western countries other factors rather than money motivate workers.

Does this hold true in Nigeria? Have employees been duly consulted on their needs as employees in the financial institution? This research work is designed to study these problems.

1.3 Research Questions

To carry out this research therefore, the following questions have been formulated by the researcher.

1. What motivate employees in the financial sector?

2. In what ways can employees in financial institutions be motivated?

3. What are the factors responsible for work attitudes in financial institution?