MOTIVATION AS A DETERMINANT FOR EMPLOYEES JOB PERFORMANCE IN AN INSTITUTUON (A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Motivation can be defined as the complexity of forces that inspires a person at work to intensify his desires and willingness to use his potential to perform in order to achieve organizational objectives. According to Mile (2014), motivation is a condition which influences the arousal, direction and maintenance of behavior. Human needs must be satisfied, and this can cause the arousal of motivational forces. Koontz et al. (2016) opined that motivation of employees is an important inner control tool and should be satisfied in order to attain advantages such as increased employee commitment, increased productivity and efficiency. Motivation emphasizes result-oriented management through the setting of smart goals and effective communication systems in an organization. According to Koontz et al. (2016), employee performance refers to the efficiency and effectiveness of employees in achieving organizational goals and objectives. They further stated that employee performance could be evaluated by considering the level of absenteeism, quality of reports, and the time of reporting for and leaving duty. Motivation is important in the organization to boost morale among employees in order to achieve their goals. Motivated employees help the organization to become more success because motivated employees are consistently looking forward to improve their work performance (Ali & Ahmed, 2017). The outcome from a motivated employee will produce high level of productivity since they are enjoying their work. Therefore, they feel satisfied in the workplace which resulted in lower absenteeism and reducing turnover rate. It is not an easy task especially for the managers to retain highly motivated employees within the organization as they are the valuable assets of the organization to achieve success in the future (Kreisman, 2012). Employees are the human capital to the organizations, and performance of them within an organization which can lead to organizational prosperity or failure (Salleh et al., 2011). For International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), employee job performance is very important where it will reflect the higher education performance. According to Salleh et al. (2011), this is due to employee performance standards were designed by the regime to quantify the performance of the organizations. This is accepted to be the “backbone” of International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) with basic part of guaranteeing that International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) approaches and projects are actualized successfully and effectively. The quality of employees is the important influence on performance, thus the person with high motivation level will succeed. In higher education sector, job performance becomes the most important focus of administrators and academicians where the performance level will deteriorate if the level of motivation of employee drops (Salleh et al. 2011). Towers, (2013) emphasized in his book titled, Working Today: Understanding What Drives Employee Engagement, quoted by Adelanwa (2013), that employee motivation was the biggest driver of organizational performance. He further stated that an organization that was able to motivate its employees and maintain it would be able to leverage their zeal and drive in order to ensure staff performance. Besides, most administrative in higher education sector including International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) will face with a crucial question of what factors influence employee performance. In line with this, there is insufficient empirical information that may control their endeavors in improving overall job performance among employees. In perspective of assessing employee job performance at the work place, enthusiasm of analyst to lead a study on the relationship between employee motivation and job performance among the non-academic staff of departments in International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Till to date, there is still very little research on job performance in International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and even less empirical research concerning motivation influencing job performance. Hence, there is a need for this study to examine the employee’s motivation as the indicators of job performance among non-academic staff of departments in International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Consequently, the objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between motivations to decide how these highlights are identified with employee job performance (Salleh et al., 2011). This study is therefore aimed at evaluating the impact of motivation on the employees and the level of their performance.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The research have examined that there are many elements that can impact motivation and employee job performance of organization, motivation is one of these elements. So our research studies will be used on motivation and employee job performance. Work being formal or informal, paid or unpaid, plays a central role in the lives of people all across the world. While many jobs provide both income and personal satisfaction, they may also pose hazards and risks to health and safety. Nigerian institutions and organizations are facing problems related to human Resources management. Quite often there are work place strikes, dissatisfied labours, employee turnover and poor employee performance all these affect institutions work performance. On the other side, employees, corruption and embezzlement, lack of commitment of job duties/tasks, and under performance-generally are on the increase. Some institutions both private and public nearly have collapsed while others are poorly performing or underperforming Motivation theories have provided a basis on which high performance of employees can be realized. The basis of these theories is that the managers and workers should come together as partners as one group, knowing how and why to motivate employees is an important managerial skill. Basically, there is insignificant literature to benchmark the correlation between motivation and employee job performance, especially in the private institutions sittings. This premised the knowledge gap (relationship between motivation and work performance) to which this study was done to contribute to assess the two variables motivation and performance. This study therefore aims to study the influence of employee motivation on job performance.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The general objective of this work is to examine motivation as a determinant for employee’s job performance in an institution. The specific objectives of the study are;

1. To assess the level of motivation to perform among employees in International institute for tropical Agriculture
2. To examine the effect of conducive work environment on employee job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture.
3. To find out the relationship between motivation and employee job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture.
4. To examine the effect of promotion on job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture.
5. To examine motivational factors that can influence employee job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture
6. To recommend possible policies and innovations for better performance of the employees.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the level of motivation to perform among employees in International institute for tropical Agriculture?
2. What is the effect of conducive work environment on employee job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture?
3. What is the relationship between motivation and employee job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture?
4. What is the effect of promotion on job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture?
5. What are the motivational factors that can influence employee job performance in International institute for tropical Agriculture?
6. What are the recommended possible policies and innovations for better performance of the employees?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Hypothesis 1

H1: There is no significant effect of motivation on employee job performance.

H0: There is a significant effect of motivation on employee job performance.

Hypothesis 2

HO: There is no significant relationship between motivation and employee job performance

H1: There is a significant relationship between motivation and employee job performance

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The emergency of motivation has a lot benefit on the strength of an organization employee through the grants of motivation.

It is significance also in the area of exploitation and available to achieve a maximum output in Nigerian institutions.

The research will be of great importance to various organizations and groups of employers of labor in assisting them in knowing different forms of motivation for better performance.

The study shall be of importance benefit to the managers and administrators in pursuit of organizational goals and objective. The study will serves as aid to corporate management and the general public.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The title of this work clearly indicates the area of study. The issues that will be examined here is motivation as a determinant for employee’s job performance in an institution, a case study of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture.

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The limitation of time and other resources on the part of the researcher make it impossible to embark on a comparative study of similar organization at the same time. But it is true that the study will serve as a representative sample of similar researcher institution whose industries finding will generally accepted.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Motivation: Is an individual’s degree of willingness to exert and maintain an effort towards organizational goals or is “the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need.”

Incentives: Are reward and/or punishment that healthcare providers face from the organization in which they work and specific intervention they provide.

Intrinsic Motivation: Is an inducement derived from within the person or from the activity itself and, positively affects behavior, performance, and well-being.

Extrinsic Motivation: Is said to exist when behavior is performed for its own sake rather than to obtain material or social re-enforcers.

Performance: Is the combination of healthcare providers being available (retained and present) competent, productive and responsive.