CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
There are internal and
external factors that stimulate desire and energy in any people to continually
be interested and committed to a job, role, subject, or make the effort to
attain a goal. It usually results from the interaction of both conscious and
unconscious factors such as the (I) intensity of need or desire, (ii) incentive
or reward value of the goal, and (iii) expectations of the individual and of
his or her peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a certain
way. This is what we refer to as motivation.
Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain behavior (Wikipedia, 2015). It is
the scientific word used to represent the reasons for our actions, desires and
needs. It can also be defined as our direction to our behavior or what causes
us to want to repeat a behavior or vice visa. A motive is what prompts a person
to act in a certain way or at least develop an motivation for specific behavior
while the act or process of giving someone a reason or reasons for doing
something, or making the person eager to work or influence the person to do
something is what is known as motivation ( Webster, 2015)). From the above
brief definitions, one can deduct that the two words motivate and motivation
are inter-related. One is the act i.e. motivate while the other i.e. motivation
is the process. Sometimes we ask ourselves the questions: what makes people do
what they do? Why do some people succeed
while other fails? The answer might just be motivation. We know from an early
age that motivation prompts us to want to learn and exhibit different types of
behavior and stimulates us to accomplish new feats of success thus making us
see the importance of motivation. As we grow and mature through the different
stages of life, we hopefully learn what motivates us and what does not.
In an organization, the
story is not different. Motivation prompts employees to put in their best,
which brings out more output and helps the organization, irrespective of their
different aims to achieve their goals. It also leads to the attainment of a
good, active interpersonal relationship and collective dreams and ambitions.
That is why William G. Scott, a managerial expert and industrialist puts
motivation simply as “a means of stimulating people to action to accomplish
desired goods and goals”.
Civil service as a
government institution plays an important role in ensuring that government
policies result in tangible services for the population. The term “civil
service” in this paper refers to the services within government ministries and
departments charged with the responsibility of implementing public policies
(Ezeani 2005). This comprises all employees working in the public service
industry, those in parastatals, police and armed forces. In this case, all public
service are public servants.
Without the body of
professional public service and other members of the civil service, No country
can efficiently function and Nigeria is no exception. The civic service is
entrusted with not only the formulation of policies but also to effectively
implement them. In this regard, the civil service is an institution saddled
with the responsibility of designing, formulating and implementing public
policy, discharge of government functions and development of programmes in an
efficient way.
Staff performance is most basic, a
performance evaluation is simply providing constructive feedback on whether an
employee is underperforming at, meeting, or exceeding the goals and objectives
of their job. Employees need this feedback so they can feel confident knowing
what is expected of them and how and where they can improve. But job goals
evolve over time. Good collaborative performance reviews arise from sitting
down with your employees to update personalized goals and objectives, and then
agreeing on the best ways, or metrics, to measure the performance. Some
activities are relatively easy to measure, such as reaching a specific sales
volume. Others might be more subjective, such as the ability to solve customer
complaints in a way that preserves long-term loyalty.
The realisation of the importance
of the human resource to the success of the organization has confronted managers
with the challenging task of getting the workers to put in their best efforts
towards increasing the productivity. The issue of how to stimulate or motivate
employees to put forth the desired best efforts towards the realisation of the
set objectives and goals has been the main focus of attention of management in
both the private and public sectors of many countries.
Generally speaking, motivating
workers to carry out or perform assigned tasks to meet predetermined goals is
one of the major problems confronting management. Motivation is that energizing
force that induces or compels, and maintains behaviour. This implies that individual
behaviour arises from the driving force of needs which are directed towards
some desired goals or ends. In this sense, motivation best explains why people
do or refrain from doing certain things.
The subject of motivation is very
complex, in that what motivates one person may not motivate another.
Generally, motivated behaviour has
three major characteristics viz: it is sustained, goal directed and results from
a felt need. The motivation of an individual to work therefore, depends largely
on the management’s appreciation of the employee’s motivational needs.
Employees could be motivated by such things as increase in wages, desire for
promotion, lively working condition or environment, etc. Equally, they could be
motivated by fear of dismissal (the stick) or by greed for lavish bonuses (the
carrot).