CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The "Public
Service" is used in the words of
Nwosu (1977), to include those public servants who are direct employees of the
Federal and State governments. As a body
that enjoys continuity of existence, the public service is an organized
institution for carrying out the day-to-day activities of government. It gives
legitimacy to the government in power (Chukwu, 2007:02), hence public service or servants are required
by law to assist in formulating and implementing the policies of government.
However,
there has been increasing concern over the years as to the ability of public service
in attending to their constitutional duties and organizational requirements, as
envisaged (Imaga, 2003, Okafor, 2009).
Put
mildly, the efficiency and productivity of the average public service has waned
considerably. To some people (Okafor, 2009, Okpata et al, 2000), decreasing
efficiency and declining productivity of public service is part of the
degeneracy that have come to characterize our socio-political and cultural
systems.
Nwachukwu (1999), opined that declining
performance and productivity are direct consequences of lack of motivation and
job satisfaction.
Motivation, as a process, started
with a need in human being which creates a vacuum in a person. In an attempt to
fill the vacuum an internal driving force is generated which starts and
sustains a chain of action and reaction. It is at that point that the vacuum is
also filled. With this background information, Nnabuife (2009), define
motivation as the internal or external driving force that produces the
willingness to perform an act to a conclusive end. This first aspect of
motivation we choose to describe as internal motivation because the driving
force comes from within an individual. The second aspect is external
motivation, is applied by the organization. This is because employees are
motivated to identify with organization in order to satisfy their varied needs
and desires. Until they have been identified and properly satisfied, they will
never cease to impede smooth running of the organizations. One of the biggest
problems facing public service is how best to get employees committed to their
work and put in their best towards the accomplishment of organization’s
objectives. Motivation is concerned with why people do what they do. It answers
such questions as why do workers go to work and do a good job. This tries to
explain what motivates people to act the way they do with primary focus on the
work place.
It is the primary task of the management
to create and maintain an environment in which employees can work efficiently
and realize the objectives of the organization - be it private or the public
sector.
To motivate is to induce, persuade,
stimulate, and even compel an employees to act in a manner which fulfilled the
objectives of an organization.
The motivation of employees depends
on the strength of their motives. Motives are need, wants, desire, or impulses
within the individual and these determine human behaviour. Therefore, motivation is the process of
arousing behaviour, sustaining behaviour progress, and channeling behaviour
into a specific curse of action. Thus, motives (needs, desire) induce employees
to act. Motivation therefore is the inner state that energies people, channels
and sustains human behaviour.
Employee motivation is one of the
policies to increase effectual job management amongst employees in the public
service (Shadier et al. 2009). A motivated employee is responsive of the
definite goals and objectives he/she must achieve. (Kalimullah et al 2010), getting employee to
do their best work even in strenuous circumstances is one of the most stable
and greasy challenge and this can be made possible through motivating them.
Motivation could be explained as a
process of stimulating people to action to achieve desired goals or to
accomplish given tasks. Motivation could also be regarded as the function which
managers perform. It is one of the most enigmatic aspects of management. Motivation generally refers to the
factors that influence people to act. It is viewed as the process of action.
During the past few decades, the
quest for better ways of motivating people at work has caused some researchers
to concentrate more on the psychological factors that stimulate workers than
the development of incentives of financial reward because of its significance.
If you want to motivate people for
greater productivity, you must find out what their needs or wants are, their
desires and aspirations, why do people seek employment and what would they
actually expect from their work environment. The physiological needs which are
innate in human being must be satisfied or otherwise employees are not
motivated for better productivity.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In the recent times, the Nigerian
economy has witnessed a steady and rapid decrease in productivity in almost all
the areas of the economy.
The preliminary investigations
carried out by researchers have shown that public service also experience
similar problems of steady and rapid decrease in productivity due to motivational
problems.
Following from this, the researcher
has decided to find out whether these problems arose because of lack of
motivation, if so, what could be done to ensure efficiency and enhance
productivity.
Workers leave organization due to the
fact that they are not motivated enough. Some are not willing to leave because
they are enjoying some benefit in terms of promotion which leads to increase in
salaries and wages, bonus and some other incentives.
1.3
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What are
the motivational techniques adopted by the public service to retain her
employees
2. How
responsive is the employees to motivational reward adopted by the public
service
3. What are
the factors hindering the success of employee’s motivation in the public
service
4. To what extent do you think
motivation determines employee output of work
5. Does bureaucratic process prevent
formulating and implementing effective staff motivation techniques
6. In what way an employee can be
properly motivated
7. How will your salary commensurate to
the services you offer to the organization?
1.4
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objective of this study is to
examine the problems of motivation in the public service and the workers’
negative attitude at work, especially in relation to motivation.
The study also intends to
find out the problem hindering the success of the employees’ motivation in the public
service and the workers reactions to motivation and motivational techniques
employed by the management to support the workers. The study also intends to
look into the punitive system and their applicability, because, it is the
belief of the researcher that most times, the problem with a given techniques
depends to a large extent on the applicability.
1.5
STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES
This study “Investigating motivational problems in the public service; a case study
of INEC” will seek to test the following hypotheses.
H0:
The factor hindering the success of employees’ motivation has no significant
impact on the employees’ performance and productivity.
H1:
The factor hindering the success of employees’ motivation has significant impact
on the employees’ performance and productivity.
H0 Bureaucratic processes do not prevent an organization
from formulating and implementing effective staff motivation techniques.
H1 Bureaucratic process prevents an
organization from formulating and implementing effective staff motivation
techniques
H0:
The motivational techniques adopted by public
service do not significantly lead to retention of the
employees.
H0: The motivational techniques adopted by public
service do significantly lead to retention of the employees.
1.6
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is expected to be of
immense importance in management decision making in public sector as well as
other top researchers and consequently to the nation in general. The study will
specifically be of benefit in the following ways:
i.
It
will make the management of INEC to appreciate fully the importance of
motivation in large organization of its kind.
ii.
It
will enable INEC to identify the problems of productivity in relation to levels
of motivation.
iii.
This
will inculcate in workers the essence of dignity of work and increased morale,
which will enable them understand the concept of service.
iv.
The
result will help in the enhancement of efficiency and consequently productivity
at INEC when properly addressed.
v.
It
will be of immense guide to future researchers who intend to explore and
understand further concepts of motivation especially in public service like INEC.
1.7
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The
research is actually to investigate motivational problems in the public service
in Nigeria. However, to cover the entire
public Service in Nigeria will be cumbersome.
Thus, the researchers selected Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abuja which
the researcher could conveniently cover as a case study.
1.8
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
To pretend that a research work of
this nature suffered no impediments would be academically deceitful.
Consequently, financial constraints, time factor and other things posed
formidable hurdles in the course of this research work.
Other problems
are as follows:
a) Data collection: Many respondents could not feel free to
express their opinion.
b) Shortage of fund: Fund which is needed for carrying out this
project also constituted a problem to the researcher.
c) Time frame: Going to the field,
libraries and write the report and submit at the required time also constituted
problem to the researcher due to work and
preparing for exams.
In spite of
all these problems or hindrances, the researcher gave the project its best.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS.
Motivation:- This refers to an aspect of management concerned with industry people to work to the best of this ability.
Performance:-
This refers to actual results obtained - sometimes
used to devote the achievement of positive result.
Incentives:- This refers to strengthening drive
designed to motivate workers or employees to greater performance e.g. money,
security, recognition, justice, praise and opportunity, etc.
Efficiency:- Output divided by input on the extent
to which the result produced was at the least cost.
Leadership:- This is the exercise of authority in a social group,
and the qualities upon which such exercise depends, vanities with the nature of
the social group. It is responsibility and authority to direct,
co-ordinate and motive subordinates to ensure that the goals and objectives of
the organization as well as those of employees are in agreement.
Communication:- Refers to the process of transmitting
information and understanding between two on more people so as to execute the
meaning(s) in the information message.
Effectiveness:- This is the extent to which the
designed result is realized and it is frequently compared with efficiency.
Organization:- Organization is a systematic way of arranging people
so that the subordinate and superseding structure of authority are to utilized
the available resources to achieve their goals.
Job satisfaction: This refers to variables which
employees consider to be yielding maximum benefit, and which enables him to
develop positive attitude towards his on her job.
Productivity:- This is the achievement target pen,
period of time, pen person on the relative output for a given level of input,
especially the production per productive employee.
INEC: The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was
established by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to
among other things organize elections into various political offices in the
country. The functions of INEC as
contained in Section 15, Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution
(As Amended) and Section 2 of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended) include the
following:
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