Impact of Workplace Motivation and Commitment on Employee Efficiency, Productivity and Growth

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background Of The Study

Employees are the heart of any organization. Hence, the smooth running of organizational activities constantly and gigantically requires employees’ cooperation and cannot be replaced with anything else. Notably, to ensure full employees’ cooperation in an organization, much more is needed than just a strong relationship with the top management and a healthy professional relationship with their coworkers.

According to Vroom(2009), to get the best out of employees, organizations must meticulously take into consideration possible motivational elements that positively entice employees to not just accomplish their official duties but compels them to go extra miles in the organization.

Furthermore, motivation is recognized as one of the most crucial challenges in most organizations, be they public or private (Ali, 2016). An employee who is appropriately motivated will strive to provide favorable results. In other words, motivation is the force that energizes, sustains, and drives a worker toward goal achievement.

Employee motivation, according to Khanam(2014), is a process in which organizations encourage their staff to achieve organizational goals via the use of incentives, rewards, and increments, among others. Similarly, Karlos (2014) proposed that a highly motivated employee with a good grasp of the job will strive hard to improve his or her efficiency, productivity, and growth in order to meet the organizational goal.

In the view of Assam(2000), employee motivation plays a vital role in the management field, both theoretically and practically. In a cooperate organization, one of the important functions of the human resource manager is to ensure in-job commitment in the workplace, and this is achievable through motivation (Banjoko, 2010). “A key issue in industrial relations is the discovery and assessment of elements relating to individual disparities in work engagement, productivity, and growth” (Eze, 2009). And the primary roles of motivating factors or instruments are discovery and assessment. According to Jibowo(2007), motivation is essential to effective productivity, and therefore it has become extremely necessary for organizations to investigate and understand what drives their employees’ greater commitment and productivity.

Undoubtedly, staff dedication plays a critical role in increasing organizational effectiveness. Increased organizational employee commitment to a specific project or business is viewed as a primary cause of organizational success(Arthur, 2014). A study by revealed that an employee’s ability only partially determines his output or productivity; the major determinant is his motivation level. This simply implies that to get employees to give their very best, boost their commitment, and even stretch to improve efficiency, productivity, and growth, financial and non-financial incentives must be properly utilized and implemented in working organizations. Thus, this study is set to critically examine the impact of motivation and commitment on employees’ efficiency, productivity, and growth.

 Statement Of The Problem

In today’s modern and competitive world, corporate organizations face ever-increasing hurdles in terms of employee engagement, productivity, and loyalty. According to a Nwachukwu(2004) survey, just 19% of workers in the manufacturing firms are highly engaged in their organizations. On the other hand, there are differing perspectives on employees’ engagement and mentality toward motivation, as well as its influence on employee performance.  As a result, employers of labour have encountered and lamented that employees perform efficiently in the early stages of employment, but with time, their efficiency and productivity decrease. On the other hand, Agwu(2013) stipulated that employees’ decrease in efficiency and productivity is attributable to the fact that employers do not provide adequate motivation to enable them to put in their best.

According to Sharma(2012), motivation is simply providing employees with the ideal combination of direction, guidance, resources, and rewards to motivate them to perform to the best of their ability. Because the success of organizations is depends on employees’ engagement and productivity, managers must successfully manage employees as well as use motivating techniques to keep them going. As a result, if motives in the company are inadequate or improperly handled, productivity falls (Yusaf, 2017). The implementation of various incentives to encourage employees should be suitable and acceptable in order to enable employees to put in their best efforts, for the organization to survive and thrive in the current extremely competitive and demanding Nigerian market. Upon this bedrock, this study is focused on the impact of motivation and commitment on employees’ efficiency, productivity, and growth.

Objective Of The Study

Generally, the study will examine the impact of motivation and commitment on employees’ efficiency, productivity and growth. To achieve this, the study will further;

1.        Identify the financial and non-financial factors which motivates employees in an organization.

2.        Ascertain if motivation and commitment has an effect on employee’s efficiency.

3.        Ascertain if motivation and commitment has an effect on employee’s production.

4.        Ascertain if motivation and commitment has an effect on employee’s growth.

 Research Hypotheses

The following hypothetical statements will be tested in the course of this study;

H01: There is no correlation between motivation and commitment, and employee’s efficiency.

H02: There is no relationship between motivation and commitment, and employee’s production.

H03: There is no correlation between motivation and commitment, and employee’s growth.

Significance Of The Study

Motivation is truly not prioritized in most organizations in Nigeria. Employers feel they are doing favour to employees by paying salaries, and this often demoralize workers and influence their in-job satisfaction negatively. Hence, the out of this study will go a long way to reignite practices of different motivational strategies in manufacturing companies.

Additionally, subsequent researchers will use it as a literature review. This means that other students who may decide to conduct studies in this area will have the opportunity to use this study as available literature that can be subjected to critical review. Invariably, the result of the study contributes immensely to the body of academic knowledge with regard to the impact of workplace motivation and commitment on employees efficiency, productivity and growth.

Scope Of The Study

Generally, the study is designed to examine the impact of workplace motivation and commitment on employees efficiency, productivity and growth. However, the study will further identify the financial and non-financial factors which motivates employees in an organization, ascertain if motivation and commitment has an effect on employee’s efficiency, ascertain if motivation and commitment has an effect on employee’s production, and ascertain if motivation and commitment has an effect on employee’s growth.

Hence, the study will be limited to selected manufacturing companies in Awka, Anambra State.

 Limitations Of The Study

In the course of carrying out this study, the researcher experienced some constraints, which included time constraints, financial constraints, language barriers, and the attitude of the respondents.

In addition, there was the element of researcher bias. Here, the researcher possessed some biases that may have been reflected in the way the data was collected, the type of people interviewed or sampled, and how the data gathered was interpreted thereafter. The potential for all this to influence the findings and conclusions could not be downplayed.

More so, the findings of this study are limited to the sample population in the study area and, hence, may not be suitable for use in comparison to other regions of Nigeria.

Definition Of Terms

Motivation: it a social process in which some members try to influence others, to work harder, and work more efficiency. It is a person’s state of mind which energizes channels and sustains behavior to achieve the person‟s needs. Motivation is also the willingness to do something and its conditioned actions and ability to satisfy some needs for the individual.

Incentives: A thing that motivates or encourages one to do something or a payment or concession to stimulate greater output or investment.

Employee Performance: This is contribution employee‟s make to organization goals meaning how effective an employee carries out job responsibilities.

Productivity: Efficiency to do that which is expected and as expected. The relative efficiency of economic activity.

Performance: Achievement and attainment of state goals. The act of carrying out a duty or accomplishing something such as a task or action.

REFERENCE

Agwu, M. (2013). Impact of Fair Reward System on Employees Job Performance in Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited Port-Harcourt.

Ali,(2016). The impact of motivation on the employee performance and job satisfaction in IT park (software house) sector of Peshawar, Pakistan.

Arthur, J. B. 2014. Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover.

Assam, A.P. (2002). Motivation and Job Satisfaction.

Banjoko, S.A (2010). Human resources management. Lagos: Saban Publishers.

Eze, N. (2009). ―Sources of Motivation among Nigerian Manager

Jibowo, A.A. (2007). ―Effect of motivators and hygiene factors on job performance among extension workers in the former Western State of Nigeria.

Karlos , (2014).  The  impact  of  the  motivation  on  the employee’s  performance  in  beverage  industry

Khanam, F. (2014). Impact of employee motivation  on  employee  performance.

Mullins LJ (2005). Management and Organisational Behaviour.

Nwachukwu, C.C (2004). ―Effective leadership and productivity. Evidence from a national survey of industrial organization.

Sharma, B. (2012). Impact of Employee Motivation on Performance (Productivity) In Private Organization.

Vroom, V. H. (2009). Work and motivation. New York: Wiley. Understanding Employee Motivation

Yusaf(2017) The Impact of Employee Motivation on Organisational Performance