MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE IN ENUGU STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ESUT.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

People work for a wide variety of reasons. Some want money, some want challenge, and some want security. The things that each unique individual in organization decides that he or she wants from work plays an instrumental role in determining motivation to work. But some do not know what they want. Employee motivation represents one of the largest competitive reserves and a key element for increasing competitive advantage of any organization. Motivation is a central force and strong factor in employee performance. It is the energizing force that induces or compels and maintains behaviour. Human behaviour is motivated, it is goal directed. It is not easy to motivate an individual, for the success of any motivational effort depends on the extent to which the motivator meets the needs of the individual employees for whom it is intended. Motivation is an internal psychological process whose presence or absence is inferred from observed performance.

According to Nwachukwu (1988:181), motivated behaviour has three basic characteristics: (a) It is sustained – It is maintained for a long time until satisfied. (b) It is goal directed – It seeks to achieve an objective. (c) It results from felt need – an urge directed towards a need! A need creates a tension in the individual who moves in a certain direction in order to achieve the desired objective which reduces the tension. A satisfied need does not motivate, conversely, an unsatisfied need motivates. Therefore, to motivate an employee in order to boost his or her performance, management must create real or imagined need for the employee to aspire to. A real need could be a desire to achieve through promotion, increase in images or employment of increased organizational favours, such as company cars with a chaueur. Imagined needs of a sta could be an aspiration to have coee at 10 am which is the entitlement of successful executives, to have a secretary, have someone carry his briefcase upstairs, have someone run into the oice at the sound of the bell or visitors fill papers before they enter into his oice. Based on these, since every employee has needs, he is capable of being motivated. The task of management is to determine what is the valued needs that will make him react according to organizational desires – increased productivity. The Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) is one of the Universities in Enugu State. It was formerly called the Anambra State University of Science and Technology (ASU TECH.) until 1991 when Enugu State was created out Anambra State. Most of these sta contributes poorly or at low capacity level due to the absence of motivation towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the University and to make the University a force to reckon with in Enugu State and Nigeria as a whole. To that extent, it is in the light of the above that the researcher deemed it fit to research into motivation and performance in an organization: A case study of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT). A number of factors such as Economic, Sociological, Managerial and Personnel’s problems have been said to militate against motivation in ESUT.