Review Of Motivation As A Management Tool For Increasing The Productivity Of Employees

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.
In every organization, large or small, private or public enterprise, human
resources (employees) are always the pillar to the success of the organization.
These human elements have their individual drives, desires, needs, wishes and
similar forces which they intend to satisfy when they are coming into an
organization. Satisfaction or non-satisfaction of these needs by the organization has
an impact on the behaviour or performance of the employee and eventually on
productivity.
The usefulness of motivation cannot be over emphasized. Every organization
depends on motivation amongst other factors for the attainment of their objectives.
Organizational objectives cannot be fully achieved unless the employees are
trained and motivated to acquire the necessary skills, knowledge, and ability to
perform their jobs effectively and efficiently. With the drive towards technological
advancement in Nigeria, motivating and training of employees are inevitable, the
monetary incentives like bonuses, wages, salary increment etc. are to motivate the
employees thereby making them to put more effort in their work which help to
improve the level of productivity in both private and public industries.
Motivation is defined differently by different authors. According to Koontz
and O’Donnell (1980, p.334), motivation is defined as a means of inducing people
to act in a desired manner. Also Pinder (1984:24) defines motivation as the force
within a person that affects his or her direction, intensity and persistence of
voluntary behaviour.
The major problem of motivation is how to induce a group of people, each
with a distinctive set of needs and a unique personality to work together towards
the achievement of organizational objectives. The ability to understand why people
behave the way they do and the ability to motivate them to behave in a specified
desired manner are two inter related qualities which are very important for
managerial effectiveness.
Luthans (1998:8) posits that motivation is the process that arouses,
energizes, directs and sustains behaviours and performances. That is, it is the
process of stimulating people to action, being committed towards achieving a
desired objective, one way of doing this is to employ proper motivational
technique which makes workers more satisfied with and committed to their job.
The most concern of employer is to make the employees to contribute to the
attainment of organizational objectives, but they should know that if the employees
are not happy with the management of the organization; there will be a very low
rate of production in the organization. That is why Hekina and Jones (1967)
visualize that employees should be seen and valued as assets for the allocation of
organizational resources. This project will be based on the review of motivation as
a management tool for increasing the productivity of employees using Emenite
Nigeria Plc., Emene as a case study.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE STUDY
Organizations do not lay emphasis on the importance of understanding and
applying various proper motivational techniques in designing and creating an
environment for performance leading to productivity.
This research work problem is to find out how motivation can bring about
increase in productivity in an organization on the basis of information which i have
found out, I will make recommendations for the problems.
Many organizations are apparently unaware of the benefits derived from
motivating their employees, this makes their performance to be very poor and the
problems here are:
 Organizations see motivating their workforce as something not too important
because they do not value the employees in their organization;
 Organizations lack an enabling environment for work performance, poor
incentives, tribalism and sentiments, bureaucracy and quota systems helps in
contributing to poor performance in an organization.
 Organizations see motivating their employees as a waste of time and money and
even if some are trained, some of them are adamant to change.

1.3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.
The general objective of this study is to review motivation as a management
tool for increasing the productivity of employees in Emenite Limited. Meanwhile,
other objectives of this study will include:
 To examine the motivational techniques applied by the management of
Emenite Limited to enhance the productivity of its employees.
 To know the impact of motivation on workers’ productivity in Emenite
 To find out how the present situation can be improved.
 To determine the extent of the impact of the motivational strategies used on
workers’ productivity in Emenite.
 To suggest ways and make adequate recommendation on increased workers’
productivity in private and public sectors.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
This part is aimed at helping the researcher to adequately address the
research problem and also to investigate beyond what is already known for the
purpose of this research, seven research will be maintained as follow;
 To what extent is motivation beneficial to organizational productivities?
 What are the impacts of the motivational techniques on employee’s
performance?
 To what extent does effective training and development of employees influence
the level of productivity?
 What are the factors affecting productivity in Emenite.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
This study is significantly important to the following sectors:
1) Management experts and policy makers: it would enable management experts and
policy makers in the formulation and implementation of policies internally; it will
benefit the management and staff as well as the shareholders. Through this
study, managers will be informed of various motivational factors that are helpful
in obtaining improved work performance by the employees:
2) Future researchers: it will help the future researchers to know about those
motivational strategies in Emenite Nigeria Plc. and changes that could be
made for better; and also to enable the researcher have thorough idea of how
motivation can improve productivity in Emenite Nigeria Plc. Enugu.
3) The staff: the staff stand to benefit by availing them the opportunity for self-
motivation and work performance.
4) The government: the significance are beneficial to government in its policy
formulation and review of existing laws, regulations and bye laws for achieving
maximum efficiency and productivity. The organization is interested in improved
work performance of her employees as a way of enhancing profitability. Thus it
would attain growth through improving the workers motivational factors of
efficiency.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
This research study will cover motivation as a management tool for increasing the
productivity of employees in Emenite Limited Located at Emene, Enugu state
in the Eastern region of Nigeria within the period of the year 2012.

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY.
Some limitation that were identified and encountered in the process of the
study includes:
 Financial constraints: in running around to gather materials for this study,
considering the economic meltdown, money and other resources were involved
which delayed the completion of this work.
 Attitude of Respondents: the researcher found it difficult initially to source
required information from the members of staff of Emenite Nigeria plc. This also
delayed the completion of this work.
 Time and effort: the researcher was constrained by time and effort in running
round for the completion of this project.
 Electricity: the researcher had a hard time in typing, proof reading, editing, and
printing of this work due to the incessant seizure and interruption of power supply
by power holdings limited

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
WAEC: West African Examination Council
GCE: General Certificate of Education
NECO: National Examination Council
B.Sc.: Bachelor of Sciences
HND: Higher National Diploma
MBA: Master of Business Administration
MSc: Master of Science
PhD: Doctor of Philosophy
OND: Ordinary National Diploma
NCE: Nigeria Certificate in Education