“Enhancing Organizational Productivity Through Motivation Strategies”

“Enhancing Organizational Productivity Through Motivation Strategies”

*¹Victor A. C. Biodun, ²Gabriel A. Sotade, ³Makinde A. Adekunle, ⁴Jegede A. Olorunbi, ⁵Rilwan A. Ajibade, ⁵Olusegun Abel Oyinwola, ⁶Ahmed A. Ibrahim, ⁶Abdul Adamu, ⁶Blessing T. Abecan, ⁷Gwom Victoria, ⁸Ingya Juliet Ngusee, ⁹Rotimi Elijah Abioye, ¹Baba Aliyu Umar, ¹⁰Emmanuel Joseph, ¹⁰Johnson D. Olaniyi, ¹⁰Mamah Azubuike Kelvin and ¹¹Oju Sunday Agboola.

¹Administrative Department, Federal College of Veterinary and Medical Laboratory Technology, Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria.

²Molecular Biology Department, Federal College of Veterinary and Medical Laboratory Technology, Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria.

³Procurement Department, National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria.

⁴Office No 315, Nicon Insurance Building along State Secretariat road, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

⁵Senior Staff Development Centre, Bauchi, Bauchi State, Nigeria.

⁶Faculty of Administration, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria.

⁷Administrative Department, National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria.

⁸EFAB, House 41, 3^rd Avenue EFAB Estate LokoGoma, Abuja, Nigeria.

⁹ICT & Library Division, Planning Department, National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria.

¹⁰General Studies Department, Federal College of Veterinary and Medical Laboratory Technology, Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria.

¹¹Emergency Management Agency, Plot 114, Yakubu Gowon Crescent, Asokoro, FCT Abuja, Nigeria.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2024.11110043

Received: 23 August 2024; Accepted: 03 September 2024; Published: 12 December 2024

ABSTRACT

Motivation is one of the indispensable factors used in organization for the achievement of goals and objectives. The theory of motivation attempts to determine the needs and types of motivation factors that employees in an organization need in order to perform better. The rationale of this study is focused on how to enhance organizational productivity through motivation strategies. It was discovered that motivation strongly affects the productivity and performance of workers. Frustration of employees by the employers at work also affects the achievements of the organizational goals and objectives. It is recommended that organizations should properly motivate their workers in order to avoid low productivity and should also be recognized and appreciated for hard work and job well done. All these will encourage them and also motivate other employees to put in their best at work.

Keywords: Motivation, organization, productivity, employees, performance, achievement.

INTRODUCTION

Motivation is an explanatory concept. It is used in understanding the behaviours of people observe and so is inferred. Instead of measuring motivation directly, one can manipulate certain condition and observe how behaviour charges. Motivating employees is important to organization behaviour because motivated employees strives to find the best way to perform their jobs and are interested in producing high quality products. To achieve organizational productivity, the manager must understand what interest people to work hard, what does a person want or need from work. This will help the manager to design a reward system that will satisfy those needs.

The issue of motivation is imperative to management because human beings work in organization in order to meet up their hopes and aspiration. On one hard is the corporate interest and on the other is the individual interest. Motivation is a set of activities that induces or encourages the workers to put in their best efforts towards the attainment of the goals of the organization. A worker with ability has the capability to perform, but performance is a function of both ability and motive. Without motivation, the most capable workers perform poorly.

[1] stated that “motivation” is a human psychological characteristic that contributes to a person’s degree of commitment. It includes the factors that cause channel and sustain human behaviour in a particular committed direction. The commitment that is elicited from individuals by virtue of motivation variable is to assist organizations achieve goals.

This paper work therefore focuses on motivation as a tool for enhancing organizational productivity which has become so indispensable in an organization that can no longer be under rated; it will be different to operate successfully in an organizational setting which comprises of different set of people with different behaviour without making motivation a key factor to make them contribute their best to the organizational productivity.

Primarily, the purpose of motivation is to encourage the workers to put in their best at work to increase productivity. Over the years, indicators have shown that payment systems do not always achieve or sustain the objectives which are behind their intention. Therefore, it is difficult to decide whether employees are motivated by financial or non-financial incentives, since everyone does not react to the same payment package in the same way.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The force of motivation is a dynamic force setting a person into motion or action, the word motivation is derived from motive which is an active form of a desire, crawling or need which must be satisfied. All motives are directed towards goals and the need and desires which affect or change one’s behaviour which becomes goal oriented.

According to [2], motivation represents an unsatisfied need which creates a state of tension of disequilibrium ensuring the individual to move in a goal directed pattern towards resting a state of equilibrium by satisfying the need. While the first management task is to set the organizational goal, the major task is to move the organization most effectively to reach that goal.

This can be done by motivation, the purpose of which is to create conceptual as well as a physical work environment in which the people are willing to work with zeal, initiative interest and enthusiasm with a sense of responsibility, loyalty and discipline in a team spirit and in a cohesive manner.

[3] sees motivation as the main spring of behaviour, it explains why individuals choose to expand a degree of effort towards achieving particular goals, and motivation is combination of many factors which affect behaviour modification.

According to [4] motivation is the energizing forces that induces or compels and maintain behaviour. It is an internal psychological process whose presence or absence is inferred from observed performance.

[5] defines motivation as “a reported urge or tension to make in a given direction or to achieve a certain goal; presence of tension, energy and desire in motivation is important. The motivation process is circular because it begins with tension of drive and thus the individual is conscious of unfulfilled needs. In addition, there follows a restlessness and a search for a means of fulfilling the needs if the need is fulfilled to an extent or the goals are redefined and the need satisfaction is attained.

Positive “motivation” influences people by adding to their existing self of satisfaction influence behaviour through a threatened lost a reduction of or complete withdrawal of satisfiers such as loss of play, loss of job, loss of positive and rejection to management and serve as a tool that aids in enhancing the overall productivity of the organization.

[6], defined motivation as the willingness to exert high level of efforts towards organizational goals, conditional joy some individuals need.

[7] defined motivation as a general term applying to the entire class of desires, derives, needs, wishes and similar forces. To say that they do those things which they hope will satisfy those drives and desires and induce the subordinates to act in a desire manner.

[8] motivation refers to forces that energize, direct and except involuntary reflexes like eye blinks which have little to do with management is motivated. A highly motivated person will work hard towards achieving performance goals with adequate ability and understanding of the job, such a person will be highly productive.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION

[2] stated that motivation involves proper recognition of employee’s efforts and appreciation of employee’s contribution towards the organizational goal’s achievement, such motivation improves the standards of performance, lead to good term spirit and a sense of corporation and a feeling of belonging and happiness.

1. Positive motivation. These include:

–  Praise and credit for work done.

–  A sincere interest in the welfare of subordinate.

–  Delegation of authority and responsibility to subordinates.

2. Negative or fear motivation

Negative motivation is based on force, fear and threat. The fear of punishment or unfavourable consequence affects the behavioural changes. This includes the fear of failing in the exam, fear of being fired or demoted etc. while the fear of punishment and actual punishment has resulted in controlling them is behaviour and contributed toward positive performance in many situation and is useful and necessary in many others as in disciplining a child or in a panic or riot situation, it is not recommended or considered as a variable alternative in the current business and industrial environment, punishment also creates a hostile state of mind affecting negatively, the sense of loyalty and cooperation perhaps resulting in poor performance and lower productivity.

3. Intrinsic motivation

[9] stated that it is the reward a person derives directly from performing the job itself. This motivation of concerned with the state of self-actualization in which the satisfaction of accomplishing something worthwhile motivates the employees further. Those are primarily non-financial rewards. For example, there are many refined doctors who work free in the hospital because it gives them a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Mother Theresa’s work in the slums of calculate, India, not only motivates the people who work with her bar also many others who simply hear about it and then went to join the team. Please corps workers work in uncomfortable environment many times at a minimal pay. Some of the intense motivations are praise, recognition responsibility, esteem, paver, state participation etc.

4. External motivation

Extrinsic motivation is induced by external factors which are primarily financial in nature [9]. These incentives and rewards have been a subject of debate, whether they really motivate the employees or simply move them to work and perform. These motivations include higher pay, fringe benefits, like retirement plans, stock options, profit sharing schemes, wealth and medical insurance maternity leave, play vacation etc.

The Theories of Motivation

There have been a number of studies made and theories advanced to help us understand the complexities involved in motivating people to accomplish organizational goal willingly and effectively, these include:

Erg Theory of Motivation

[10] postulated three sets of needs, existence, relatedness and growth.

Existence needs are all materials and physiological desires. Relatedness needs, involve relationship with other people and are satisfied through the process of mutually sharing thoughts and feelings. Growth needs motivate people to productivity and creatively changes themselves or their environment.

Satisfaction of the growth needs comes from utilizing personal capacities and developing new capacities. Alderfer’s Erg theory is more advanced than Maslow’s theory as general applicability, while Alderfer aims his theory expressly at understanding peoples’ needs at work.

Mc Clelland’s Achievement Motivational Theory

According to his motivational theory, the theory identified a number of basis needs that guide people. The most important needs for managers are the need for achievement, affiliation and power.

The need for achievement is characterised by a strong orientation towards accomplishment and an obsession with success and goal attainment. Most managers and entrepreneurs have high levels of this need and like to see it in their employees.

The need for affiliation reflects a strong desire to be liked by other people. Individuals who have high levels of this are more oriented towards getting along with others and may be less concerned with performing at high levels.

The need for power is a desire to influence or control other people. This need can be a negative force termed personalized power-if it is expressed through the aggressive manipulation and exploitation of others, people high on the personalized power need, want power purely for the pursuit of their own goals. But the need for power also can be a positive motive called socialized power because it can be channelled toward the constructive improvement of organizations and societies.

Hackman And Oldham Theory Of Job Design

Following Hertzberg’s work, [11] proposed a more complete model of job design. They said well-designed jobs lead to high motivation, high quality performance, high satisfaction and low absenteeism and turnover. These outcomes occur when people experience three critical psychological states:

– They believe they are doing something meaningful because their work is important to other people.

– They feel personally responsible for how the work turns out and

– They learn how well they performed their jobs.

These psychological states occur when people are working on enriched jobs, that is, jobs that offer five core job dimensions.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation

Based on the model theory of [12], upon the assumption that the man is a rational being and will try to maximize pay off. He will choose an alternative that would give him the most benefit, the approach assumes that motivation to work is a strongly determined by an individual perception that a certain type of behaviour will lead to a certain type of outcome and his personal performance for that type of outcome.

There are three (3) important elements of this model, these are:

– Expectancy: This is a person’s perception of the livelihood that a particular outcome will result from a particular behaviour or actions.

– Instrumentality: The factor relates to person’s belief and expectation that his performance will lead to a particular desired reward. It is the degree of associating of first level outcome of a particular effort to the second level outcome which is the ultimate reward.

– Valence: This is the value a person assigns to his desired reward. According to this model of motivation, the person’s level of effort (motivation) depends upon:

1. Expectancy: A worker must be confident that his effort will result in better productivity and that he has the ability to person the task well.
2. Instrumentality: The worker must be confident that such high, performance will be instrumental in getting defined rewards.
3. Valence: The worker must value these rewards as a designed and satisfactory. Hence, motivation is related to all these three factors.

Motivation force (M) = Expectancy (E) X Instrumentality (I) X Valence (V) or M = (EXIXV)

As the relationship suggests, the motivational force will be highest when expectancy, instrumentality and valence are all high.

Vroom theory has significance to management because it suggests that managers should communicate clearly new goals such as more money, promotion and enhanced status is earned. That is, what kind of behaviour pattern is required? It also suggests that once the recommended behaviour is communicated, it should in fact be the basis for rewards. This because nothing is more hypocritical than for a manager to say “we base promotion on performance” and they base it on likely ability of the individual or on some other factors that does not relate to actual performance.

[13] applauded Vroom’s theory while apprising, they said it recognises the importance of various individual’s needs and motivation. And as a result, it avoids the simplistic features of the Maslow and Hertzberg theories. They said it also fits the harmony of objectives advanced by them in their book. In addition, they said Vroom’s work is consistent with the entire system of managing objectives.

Finally, the expectancy theory recognizes the ideas that a manager’s job is to design an environment for performance taking into consideration the differences in various situations.

Elton Mayo’s Hainthorne Studies

Elton Mayo a psychologist conducted an extensive study of worker motivation at the Hawthorne plant of Western electric company from 1927 – 1932 in Harvard University Chicago. In conducting his experiment:

Mayo modified the density of lights in the work area, pay scales, amount of rest time and other environmental factors to determine the effect of these changes on productivity. Surprisingly, the productivity of the workers went up even when working condition worsened.

Mayo discovered that workers’ productivity increases when special attention is given to them, the attention gives them special status among their peers.

Participating Management Approach

[14] and his associates spent many years studying the management style that get the best results. Likert tried to find out whether higher autocratic management that is “Do it my way” or the other extreme participate management what ideas do you have for getting the job done best.

Likert’s work showed that managers who practice effective human relations by letting lower level personnel participate in making decision that affect them achieve better cooperation, higher motivation and greater production. Likert also found that people who do the work want to be consulted about how to do it.

Motivational Techniques (Tools)

In other to motivate people to put in their maximum efforts, it is essential that their various needs are satisfied. Some of the major motivational tools that could he applied to get the best out of employees are as follows:

– Money: According to [15], money is essential for satisfying many needs. Money paid by employees in an organization is mainly in the form of wages and salary. A wage is a pay made to manual employees who have the same employee” while salary is a fixed periodical payment usually made to non-manual employees.

Money paid to employees in an organization motivates them to work harder because it helps in satisfying their physiological needs, social needs, basic needs and the need for status. Increment in wages/salaries motivates employees to work harder for more increase. He also belief that man is regards as the economic man who is satisfied with economic benefit which can be derived from money. The economist said “man is a rational being who is usually satisfied with money.

– Promotion: [16] said, employees want to see an upward advancement in their place of work. For example, a clerk will like to become a senior clerk, a manager will like to become a general manager etc. promotion is not only accompanied with increase in pay but with a make of recognition of individuals performance. Consequently, in other to justify this recognition, the employee promoted puts in more effort in his job. Promotion activities make individual strives harder to be effective in his/her new job. The motivating effect of promotion is high.

– Job Enrichment: [9] said job enrichment involves deliberate upgrading of responsibility and challenges at work. More and more work is being redesigned to make it more “meaningful” and in some cases it includes giving employees responsibility for the planning and control of work and operations. In some countries like Sweden and Norway, it is the law to have employee representatives in the governing boards of companies. Job enrichment is also known as job enlargement, both in scope and depth.

They include increased responsibilities, challenging work, opportunity for advancement and growth and greater feelings of personal achievement.

Some of the principles of job enrichment are advanced by Hertzberg himself. They are:

– Give the employees the freedom of operation and responsibility and opportunity to sense of achievement and motivation.

– To increase responsibility, give the person a whole unit to operate.

– Introduce new and more difficult tasks at each step, giving workers an opportunity to learn and specialize.

– The employee must be given frequent feedback on his performance and on his handling of his own duties and responsibilities.

– Job Participation: Participation is “a mental and emotional involvement of a person in a group goals share responsibility in them”.

– Carrot and Stick Approach: it involves the use or rewards and punishment in order to bring about derive behaviour from employees in an organization. The reward and punishment (carrot and stick approach) are strong motivators; carrot brings about inducement like money in the form of pay or business, while the stick “is usually in the form of fear of loss of job, loss of income, reduction in business etc.

Types of Incentives

[2] said incentives are related to the nature of work itself (job content) and are intrinsic to the job itself. These incentives have a positive influence on morale, satisfaction, efficiency and higher productivity. Some of these incentives are:

• Recognition and Status: Paper recognition of an employee’s contribution by the management is highly morale boosting, it gives the workers a feeling of worth and self-esteem. It is a human nature to be happy when appreciated.
• Achievements: A goal must be challenging requiring initiative and creativity. The opportunities must exist for the meaningful achievement, otherwise workers become sensitized to the environment and begin to find fault with it.
• Money and other Financial Rewards: The role of money as an incentive has been controversial. Nevertheless, for some individuals, money is the strongest incentive that influences people who are pressed financially may be more highly motivated by money than by any other factor.
• Growth and Advancement: [17] said that growth and advancement are all interrelated and are positively related to incentives, job promotion, higher responsibility, participation in central decision making and executive benefits are all sign of growth and advancement and add to dedication and commitment of employees.
• Responsibility and Power: The higher the level of responsibility the more responsible an employee feel and more motivated the employee becomes.
• Security: The need for security that is the desire to be free from fear of such things as job loss, demotion and loss of income apparently is inherent in all of us.

Factors That Complicate The Application of Motivation

Some of the factors that complicate motivation include:

• Differences in People’s Wants: All people are not motivated to the same degree by the same motivators because of difference in cultural background, intelligence, ambition, education, ethical standards, feelings concerning rewards etc. Therefore, effective managers are those that are aware of special needs and desire of his or her staff members.
• Change in People Wants:- People’s want change overtime, for example a young graduate just starting in the University may be intensively motivated to succeed, win promotions, make more money and acquire power over the yearly, as his/her career settle down, he/she may gradually become more interested in security and holding on to position already acquired.
• Social Conditions are Dynamic: People are now better educated than in the past. Employees have more right, people are more affluent, much work has become more boring and there is a tendency to reject authority. All these complicate managing. The implication is that motivating factors that worked well some decade ago may be ineffective today.

Motivation is also made more complicated because of numerous factors that affect it which is usually beyond the control of management in the work situation. All individuals have personal problems that affect their job performance some of which cannot usually be solved by the manager.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it can be remarked that the essence of motivational effort is to increase productivity of employees for the achievement of its set goals and objectives which have become so paramount in any organization that without proper motivation of employees, the organization suffers low productivity, high labour turnover, and boredom at work and increase frustration.

The study revealed that motivation strongly affects the productivity of workers, staff training/development, good salary package and recognition are vital motivational tools used in motivating workers for greater productivity and performance. The study also ascertained that the organization should identify what motivate their workers to do their job better and means of satisfying those in order to achieve their goals and objectives.

Management in accomplishing its goals and objectives must not only create a favourable environment in which the employees must work, but must motivate employees to greater productivity and performance.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In view of the findings made on the study, the following recommendations are made:

• It is recommended that management of organization should motivate their employees properly to avoid low productivity, high labour turnover and frustration at work for the achievement of its goals and objectives.
• Staff that are due for promotion should be promoted on time in the organization for them to have a sense of achievement and personnel growth.
• It is also advised that management should make the salary of workers attractive by increasing their salary from time to time to make them appreciate their job and the organization.
• Management should organize training and development programme, workshop and seminars for staff at various levels to enable them add more knowledge and skills to their field to meet up with the challenges of their job.
• This study advised that management should identify what motivates staff to do their job well and also satisfy those needs in order to enhance productivity.
• Emphasis should be placed on recognition and appreciation of hardworking employees for job well done in order to encourage them and also to motivate other employees to put in their best at work.

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