IMPACT OF MOTIVATION TOWARDS ORGANIZATION PRODUCTIVITY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The National Electric Power Authority was established by the NEPA Act of 1972. The Act authorized the merger of the
activities of the Niger Dam Authority and the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria. The operative object clause is among
other things: “to develop and maintain an efficient, coordinated and economical system of electricity supply to all parts
of the federation or as the Authority may direct, and for this purpose:
· Generate or acquire supply of electricity,
· Provide bulk supply of electricity for distribution within or outside Nigeria, and
· Provide supply of electricity for consumers in Nigeria from time to time as may be authorized by the authority”.
A close scrutiny of NEPA performance over the years reveals that the above provisions of the Decree are not
efficiently observed. It was estimated, according to a World Bank Report, that inefficiency in power sector alone
created losses of over US$800 million annually in Nigeria (World Bank 1994).
Today, investment costing stands flawed without imputing the cost of self-provision of electricity whilst the affluent
make provisions for private electricity generators for domestic use.
Bedeviled with gross inefficiency and inappropriate investment strategy, NEPA record transmission loss of 15% – 20%
owing to inadequate distribution expectant. Between 15%-20% of its output is not metered and hence no revenue is
earned on it. This means between 30% – 40% of NEPA output does not yield revenue. The expected loss by
international standard is 5% – 10%. It is a common knowledge that due to poor operational practices and inadequate
management tools and skills, sharp practices are very rampant in the system. (World Bank 1995).
Managerial success to a great extent entails working with and through people to achieve organizational objective.
When management has the unrealistic and narrow outlook that labour is primarily an adjunct to the machine and is to
be bought at the cheapest market, its organization will be inefficient, human resources will be wasted and the workers
will consider the organization undesirable to work. This leads to industrial strikes and places the organization at a
great disadvantage in its drive to recruit and retain the right caliber of personnel necessary for its operations. Human
resources are the most important assets an organization has, and any attempt to sideline the human resources in
development purpose will spell doom to the organization.
A human oriented management recognizes that fact that individuals join organization with varied drives and motives
both economical and psychological. Such management therefore designs and maintains an organization in which
employees meet their wants and needs by contributing to the overall interest and aims of the organization at the
same time. While meeting his personal needs, he also needs organization’s objectives.
In the light of this, one sees motivation as those drives which enable an employee to have increased morale and
psychological stability, required for increased productivity. The study therefore, centers on NEPA, in order to
determine the extent, to which the company appreciates the overriding benefits outlines from employee motivation
because all these benefits have appendages (positive or negative) towards organizational output.
Apart from political instability, a major setback for improving the economic fortunes and development of the West
African sub-region is the state of the power industry in the sub-region. Typical West African countries like Nigeria,
Benin, Gambia, Mali and Togo have power consumption per capita of less than 150Kilo-watt hour.
Energy consumption in selected African countries vs Industrialized Nations.
Countries
Energy Consumed in KWH
Ghana
420
Nigeria
85
Cote D’ Ivoire
180
Industrialized Nations
1900-6000
Source: NEPA (1991)
This is appreciably low if compared with an average of 1900-kilowatt hour and 6000 kilowatt hour for industrial
nations.
The low pace of development of the West African Power sector is due to the form of ownership and control of
the institution that produces and distributes electricity in this region. Generally, electricity industry within the subregion in under State Control with utility boards or agencies given full monopoly for generation, transmission and
distribution of electricity.
Because of this from of control and monopoly status, the operating environment does not encourage any form
of competition and foreign capital investment. The resultant effect is decline, not only in the power sector, but
industrial development.
Specifically, a nation like Nigeria whose chief source of foreign exchange in crude oil exploration and
exportation and which remains the largest oil producer in the whole of Africa with about 1.88 million barrel per day
and whose estimated 124 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven gas reserves and huge Hydro power reserves, its potential
for becoming an industrial giant and main exporter of electricity to the West African sub-region is great. However, due
to long years of uneconomic planning, regulation and control of the power sector by government, requisite attention
has not been paid to these important levers of the economy.
MOTIVATION
Historically, motivation developed in 3 main streams:
- Traditional Model
This model rests on the assumption that people come to work only because of money. The task of management
therefore is to clearly define the job and develop system of wage and punishment in order to get best from workers. - Human Relations Model
This is based on the assumption that people come to work because of social interaction. The role of management
therefore is to design the job in order that employees achieve an optimum level of social interaction. This is expected
to create social harmony and by extension, optimum performance from workers. - Human Resources or Behavioural Model
This is based on the assumption that people come to work in order to fulfill higher level need such as responsibility,
achievement, work content etc. this school of thought believes that a manager that focuses on the areas of job
enrichment and enlargement world create an enabling environment for superb performance.
Having said all this, motivation could be explained as a process of stimulating people to action to achieve
desired goals or to accomplish given tasks. It is within a person to achieve a goal or objective, everything being equal.
Motivation could also be regarded as the function which managers perform in organizational goals. It is one of the
most enigmatic aspects of management. It refers to the way in which urges, desires, needs, aspirations which are
basically tension symptoms occurring within individuals are harnessed and channeled towards smooth, constructive
and co-operative behaviour towards the achievement of organizational goals. All human behaviour is motivated in
that it is directed towards the satisfaction of physical, emotional, social conditioned or psychic needs. In the jargons of the theoretical and experimental psychologist, a stimulus acts upon the organism to produce behaviour response.
Making use of the concept of homeostatic, this means that when a need is felt or perceived, a tension is crated in the
individual, which leads to activities intended to reduce the tension created.
Motives induce that will to act and so result in behaviour. Motivation generally refers to the factors that influence
people to act. It is viewed as the process of action.
During the past few decades, the quest for better ways of motivating people at work has caused some
researchers to concentrate more on the psychological factors that stimulate workers than the development of
incentives of financial reward because of its significance. It is known that people possess certain needs to be
satisfied. When their satisfaction is frustrated or blocked in one way or the other people react against this in various
ways according to circumstances.
If you want to motivate people for greater productivity, you must find out what their needs or wants are their
desires and aspirations, why do people seek employment and what would they actually expect from their work
environment. The physiological needs which s innate in human being must be satisfied, otherwise employees are not
motivated for better productivity. Some elements of a job give people a chance to satisfy their higher level needs,
which are called motivators, this should not be overlooked. Although, individuals and group vary to some extent in the
particular job element that they find satisfying or motivating, but generally they refer to the content of the job.
Therefore, if motivation is to be effective, workers should be provided with opportunity to be happy and do interesting
job enthusiastically.
It is not the interest of the organization for management to have the unrealistic motion that labour is primarily an
adjunct to the machine and that the employee-employer relationship is purely contractual, suggesting the right to
command and the right to obey because the workers are there to satisfy their economic needs. This type of attitude is
demotivational and very much dis-functional and will have on alienating effect on the workers and consequent
immensely reflect on their productivity. Productivity measures the fruitfulness of human labour under varying
circumstance, it is also a measure of the efficiency or resources as a whole including manpower employees in
production. To achieve effective motivation for greater productivity, there should be proper blending of the corporate
needs with the individual needs. - 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
- In the recent times, the Nigerian economy has witnessed a steady and rapid decrease in productivity in almost all the
areas of the economy, the energy sector inclusive. The industrial sector probably the worst hit by this intractable ugly
trend of event. The preliminary investigations carried out by this researcher has shown that NEPA also experience
similar problems of the study and rapid decrease in productivity was due to lack or inadequate motivation following
from this, the researcher has decided to find out whether the problem arose because of lack of motivation, if so, what
could be done to ensure efficiency and enhance productivity. In doing this, an attempt will be made to expose the
motivational technique already being employed by the management of NEPA. The reactions of the workers to these
techniques and whether they were understood as expected.
IMPACT OF MOTIVATION TOWARDS ORGANIZATION PRODUCTIVITY