ASSESING THE ROLE OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION ON ORGANISATION

PERFORMANCE.

ACASE OF ALAF COMPANY

MARYJANETH KULWA
 CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

This chapter describes the background information of the research problem, statement of the
problem, objectives of the study, and research questions. Finally, it explains the significance of
the study and the scope of the study

1.1 Background of the study

In worldwide every organization desires to be successful as much as current environment is very

competitive (Mudor and Tookon (2011). Organizations irrespective of size and market strive to
retain the best employees, acknowledging their important role and influence on organizational
effectiveness. In order to overcome challenges, organizations should create a strong and positive
relationship with its employees, direct them towards task fulfillment and ensure they have job
satisfaction (Fisher, 2012).

Over the years before the word “motivation: entered the managers’ vocabulary, people realized
the importance of influencing workers to accomplish tasks for an organization. The oldest
technique used to motivate workers is known today as the “carrot and stick” method. The name
evolved from the stubbornness of donkeys who could only be moved by taunting them with a
carrot. Early managers regularly offered economic "carrots" to entice people to work harder. This
technique was passed on from generation to generation and was deeply rooted part of society for
hundreds of years. This theory created a misconception that money always motivated a person to
work harder. It was not until 1923 when Elton Mayo made clear the inadequacy of the pure
carrot-and-stick motivation that psychological theory began to trickle into management (ibid)

Many factors like capital, human resource and environmental factors influence performance of
organizations. Among these factors, human resource is seen as having the most influence on the
performance of organization. It is logical therefore to argue that an organization needs to
motivate its employees in order to achieve its stated goals and objectives. An understanding of
the factors that motivate employees and their appropriate application would have significant
effect on the organization’s performance (Adams, 2002)
In Africa, a lot of research has been written on motivation; this subject is not clearly understood
and more often than not poorly practiced. To well comprehend how motivation can impact on
employee´s performance, one must identify with human nature. In as much as motivation
impacts on employee performance, there is need to blend the appropriate motivational tools with
effective management and leadership to achieve this goal (Sullivan, 2009).

Even though the fact that motivation is very important to determine employee’s ability, so are
other factors such as the resources given to an employee to perform his or her job. For this
reason, successful work performance can arise from a variety of motives (Patrick, 2008).

The achievements of individuals and organizational goals are independent process linked by
employee work or task motivation. Individuals motivate themselves to satisfy their personal
needs or goals; therefore, they invest and direct their efforts for the achievement of
organizational objectives to meet with their personal needs or goals. It means that, organizational
objectives and/or goals are directly proportional to the personal needs or goals of individuals.
Roberts (2005) reported that the manager’s job is to ensure the work done through employees is
possible; employees are supposed to be self-motivated towards work rather than being directed
all the time. The manager’s involvement is not so much important in motivating employees. The
employees should motivate themselves to perform better in work.

In Tanzania it was noted that employees have been facing various challenges especially on the
working environments, salaries and job security. As a result of these, job performance in
working place has been going down (Simons, 2006). Employee’s motivation is very significant
since the employees expect good working conditions, fair pay, fair treatment and being involved
in decision making. These factors are not fairly given to employees in local governments in
Tanzania (Patrick, 2008).These expectations vary from organization to organization

Banks like Tanzania postal bank have exercised employee motivation thus before adoption of a
performance based management system, whereby bonuses, salary increment, promotions
introduced to be solely factors of performance, it was observed an average to low productivity
Two years after motivation of employees things have changed as evidenced by increased
number of deposits, assets, income, customer satisfaction and profits shoot from as low as 400
million to 3.8 billion and 5.4 Billion in two consecutive financial years 2011-2012 (Statement of
comprehensive income for the year ended 31 December 2011and 2012).

1.2 Statement of the problem

The employee’s motivation is a key factor towards job performance and services delivery in any
organization or institution. Motivation has been a hallmark of productivity and job performance
in every organization. This situation has been a stumbling block towards provision of services by
employees in Tanzania. By identifying this, several measures have been taken by the government
to improve motivation to her employees such as training opportunities, seminars, salary
increment as well as incentives like housing and transport allowances.

Motivated employees build willingness to use their creativities, abilities and know how in favor
of the organization (Markova and Ford, 2011) and it is related to productivity, organizational
commitment and retention of the employees and hence their work performance increases
(William, 2011 and Perera et al., 2014 and viceversa is the negative side of it when there is , lack
of adequate motivation, that’s why the objective of this study is assess the role of employee
motivation towards organizational performance

1.3 Objectives of the study

1.3.1 General objective

The general objective of the study is to assess the role of employee motivation towards
organization performance

1.3.2 Specific objectives

The following are the specific objectives of the study;

i. To show the effect of employee motivation on organizational performance

ii. To determine the relationship between employee motivation and performance
iii. To identify the reward system and strategies for increasing employee motivation
influencing organizational performance
1.4 Research question
The following are the research questions as follows;

i. What are the effects of employee motivation on organizational performance?

ii. How can we determine the relationship between employee motivation and performance?
iii. What are the reward system and strategies for increasing employee motivation
influencing organizational performance?

1.5 Significance of the study.

The study will be of immense significance to the employees, management students and
academicians especially students of HRM in that it will highlight, on how the concept of
motivation and organizational performance are valued and understood. The following are the
significances of the study:

i. The study will be significant to policy and decision makers within the organization in
terms of designing well and structured motivation policies that act as guidelines and
benchmarks that will bring out the desire and passion of the employees to perform
towards organizational performance
ii. The findings of this study will assist in the development of effective managerial strategies
and policies that can help in improving the administration and realization of
organizational goals and performance
iii. The findings will enable the management and other industries in general to identify the
motivational factors and their problems and use them in the improvement of
management concerning employees needs, issues of welfare and motivation of employees
and enhance their performance for a better and deliverance of good services
iv. Furthermore, the study will bring to light the different forms of motivation which will
inform the design of appropriate measures aimed at bringing out the best in employees
with regard to job performance. Again, the factors leading to high performance as well as
causes of low performance will inform management and policy makers in their decision
making. Administrators will be helped through this study to be able to use motivation not
just for the sake of it, but to know how, when and what type of motivation to use so as to
achieve maximum performance of staff.
v. The study would be of enormous benefit to the Venture Risk Management, managers and
its Board of directors. Bodies and other stakeholders in that it will emphasize how the
notion of incentive and job performance are appreciated and understood and the need for
all to pay concentration to a variety of enthusiastic issues for employees.
vi. The finding of this study is significance to the trade unions in Tanzania. This is in such a
way that the study would help in restructuring the objectives of the unions and help them
to realize exactly what conditions are relevant and how they can work towards ensuring
employees are motivated at their work places.