CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Employee motivation has always been a central problem for leaders and managers in the organisation. Unmotivated employees are likely to put in little or no effort in their jobs, avoid the workplace as much as possible, exit the organisation if given the opportunity and produce low quality output. On the other hand, employees who feel motivated to work are likely to be persistent, creative and productive, turning out high quality product that they willingly undertake.
In any serious and competitive society workers are one of the tools for economic progress. Their welfare is taken into serious consideration because without a dedicated workforce an organization crumbles. The Nigerian reward system is probably one of the poorest in the entire globe where “an average take home of the worker is barely enough to take the worker home”. Workers are used and abused, harassed, maltreated, offended and discarded without any appreciation for their contribution to their organization and to the society at large. It is therefore apparent that the issue of adequate motivation of worker has relevance in managerial function and activities that are aimed at directing the productive effort of the workforce toward achieving organisational objectives.
There has been a lot of research done on motivation by many scholars such as Campbell (1970), Bittle and Ramsey (1976), but the reason why every employee of a company does not perform at their best has been comparatively unresearched. This may be due to fact that every employee has different ways to become motivated. Therefore, employers need to know their employees very well and use different tactics to motivate each of them based on their personal wants and needs.
In Nigeria today, many entrepreneurs especially in medium and small scale businesses, invest a lot of money on machines and building with the hope of maximizing profit without taking the welfare of the their employees into consideration. In their pursuit of profit, they tend to forget that their workers should be happy at work and must have the right attitude to work. This state of mind can be guaranteed through efficient motivation. Motivation and productivity have been identified by a lot of researchers as key area for which diverse theoretical models have been formulated and various empirical findings point to the simple fact that motivation is a key variable in productivity.
No organisation can succeed without a certain level of commitment and effort from its members. For that reason, managers and management scholars such as Maslow(1943), Campbell(1970), and Herzberg(1968) have always formed theories about motivation. Thus, management of organisations are pre-occupied with the aim of implementing the motivation strategies considered to achieving optimum productivity.
Many researchers such as Maslow(1943), before now have tried to find out the relationship between motivation and productivity (if any) and how they can be managed to maximise the organisation’s profit. From such researches it has been established that a positive relationship exists between motivation and productivity in the sense that the higher the motivation of the staff the higher their commitment to the job which will consequently increase productivity.
This research work seeks to improve on already available findings on the subject, building on them and making necessary conclusions and recommendations for further enhancement of productivity in private sector organisations such as Guinness Nigeria Plc.
1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the research shall attempt to provide answers to the following questions:
1. How does motivation affect productivity?
Is money enough to motivate employees?
How often do employers improve incentive systems in the workplace?
Do different sets of motivation techniques impact on employees’ productivity?
How effective is the motivation techniques used in Guinness Nigeria Plc?
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This research work seeks to accomplish some objectives as regards motivation and how it can be used to increase the productivity of employees/workers in the organisation. Some of these objectives include:
Determine how motivation affects productivity.
Determine if money is enough to motivate.
Determine how often employers improve incentive systems in the workplace.
Determine how different sets of motivation techniques impact on employees’ productivity.
Determine the effectiveness of the motivation techniques used in Guinness Nigeria Plc.
1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Ho: Motivation does not affect productivity
Hi: Motivation affects productivity
Ho: Money is not enough to motivate employees
Hi: Money is enough to motivate employees
Ho: Employers do not often improve incentive system in the workplace
Hi: Employers often improve incentive system in the workplace
Ho: Different sets of motivation techniques do not impact on employees’ productivity
Hi: Different sets of motivation techniques impact on employees’ productivity
Ho: Motivation techniques used in Guinness Nigeria Plc. are not effective
Hi: Motivation techniques used in Guinness Nigeria Plc. are effective
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The focus of this study is on employees in the organisation who (in one way or the other) contribute to the productivity of the organisation. This study is centred on motivation as a means of increasing productivity of workers in the organisations whose shares are quoted in The Nigerian Stock Exchange in Nigeria with particular reference to Guinness Nigeria Plc., located in Benin City. Guinness Nigeria Plc. has its head office at 24, Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos. The period of study is 2004 to 2011.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Basically, the importance of this study cuts across the work environment and the society at large, because the knowledge and findings of this study can be applied to every human task. An individual’s motivation would always be reflected in the amount of effort he puts into certain task.
This research is needed to improve employees’ performance at the workplace, to retain employees and to help organisations establish a good image. It would help managers and leaders in our society to identify the things that they need to do in order to successfully motivate their employees to perform at their best. As a manager this knowledge will therefore help him to understand what new strategies he could implement in order to motivate employees to achieve optimal business results. It is evident that there is a need for this study because of the many companies that are constantly spending on various ways to increase employee motivation.
The findings from this study would help to further highlight the likely problems of frustrations and how motivation can be used to either reduce or eliminate these problems amongst staff of Guinness Nigeria Plc.
However, it will add or contribute to the already available literature and reservoir of knowledge on the subject.
It will as well assist students, teachers, human resource managers, government and others who may find this research work useful. Furthermore this study will be of immense benefit to policy makers in the human resources functions of the organisations. Also labour union officials and representative at the negotiation meeting will find it useful when putting together their “basket of needs” and it will assist management in these other areas:
1. Designing and putting in place together welfare incentives for the workforce
2. Enables the organization identifies various types of needs and expectation of people at work.
3. Outline different approach to work motivation.
4. Useful for government officials and establishments responsible for reviewing and updating policies and legislation on workers’ motivation.
In the aspect of knowledge, it will help to create an understanding of the relationship between motivation and productivity. Similarly, in the aspect of practice, it will provide solutions to problems relating to motivation of workers in the organisation.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Limitations experienced in the course of this study are basically centred on problems relating to:
Difficulty in generating reasonable, adequate and reliable information from respondents- Respondents tend to provide information which they feel the researcher would be pleased to get, which may not be the right information.
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
Busy schedule of the respondents- The workers of Guinness Nigeria Plc. who will be the respondents of the questionnaires may have busy work schedule thereby making them to provide answers to the questions hurriedly, which can affect their answers negatively.
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