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MOTIVATION & TEACHERS JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Motivation is of enormous importance with regard to enhancing performance and commitment in any organization. Motivation and performance are very important factors in terms of organization success and achievements. Motivation plays an important role in the organization because it increases the productivity of employees and the goals can be achieved in an efficient way. The behaviour of employees can be change through motivation in any organization. From situation to situation, the level of motivation differs with in an individual (Robbins, Judge, and Sanghi, 2005). Motivation also takes part in an important role for teachers because it helps to achieve the target in an efficient way.   Teacher motivation is very important because it improves the skills and knowledge of teachers because it directly influences their performance (Mustafa, and Othman, 2010).The level of motivation and satisfaction of the teachers has a positive effect on their job. The source of the high motivation of the teachers includes opportunities to use special abilities, secure future and the chance to earn good money. If in schools, the teachers do not have sufficient motivation then they are less competent which directly influence the students and the education system.  
The relevance of motivation and job performance are very crucial to the long-term growth of any educational system around the world. They probably rank alongside professional knowledge and skills, centre competencies, educational resources and strategies as the veritable determinants of educational success and performance. Professional knowledge, skills and centre competencies occur when one feels effective in one’s behaviour. In other words, professional knowledge, skills and competencies can be seen when one is taking on and mastering challenging tasks directed at educational success and performance (Filak & Sheldon, 2003). The above factors are closely similar to efficacy, and, of course, it is well known that many teachers lose or fail to develop self-efficacy within educational settings (Dweck, 1999). In addition, needs satisfaction and motivation to work are very essential in the lives of teachers because they form the fundamental reason for working in life. While almost every teacher works in order to satisfy his or her needs in life, he or she constantly agitates for need satisfaction. Job satisfaction in this context is the ability of the teaching job to meet teachers’ needs and improve their job or teaching performance.   
In recent years references have been appearing in literature regarding series of motivational practices that are dubbed on high performance, high commitment or innovation and are said to help institutions to achieve significant improvement in performance. The aim of motivation is to exert high commitment among teachers to improve in performance.    For institution such as Teaching Service Commission to increase performance, it should have highly committed teachers with right attitude toward work (Bame, 1975). Globally, employers are not just interested in people turning up for work, it is their performance at work that the employer pays wages and salaries for because the effort that employees put in their work will obviously affect the level of quality output they attain, an effort is related to the motivation of employees (Bame, 1975). Teachers occupy such a central and vital position in any educational system that their attitudes and commitment have been of paramount interest not only to educational authorities and other stakeholders but also to many researchers (Mensah, 2009).   
Teachers are needed in developing countries such as Nigeria but due to poor and unattractive remuneration some professional teachers have left the classrooms to seek for greener pastures elsewhere.   However, it is assumed that teachers’ agitations and demands are beyond the resources of the Ministry of Education or the government. As a result, the government in Nigeria and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) are in a constant stand-off over the increase in salaries, benefits, and improvements in working conditions of teachers. The federal and state governments have argued that the present economic realities in the country cannot sustain the demanded increase in salaries, benefits, and improvements in working conditions. Specifically, they argue that teachers’ demands are beyond the government resources.    
Another problem is the government’s position concerning the job performance of the teachers; they accuse the teachers of negligence, laziness, purposeful lethargy, and lack of dedication and zeal to work. They further argue that teachers’ level of efficiency and effectiveness does not necessitate the constant request for salary increase, incentives and better working conditions. While teachers on their part argue that the existing salary structure, benefits and working conditions do not satisfy their basic needs in as much as other sectors of the economy have bigger salary structure, better motivation and enhanced working conditions. They feel Nigeria’s economy is not properly balanced, hence, their demands.   
Teachers are expected to render a very high job performance, and the Ministry of Education is always curious regarding the job performance of its teachers. Also, the Ministry of Education demands a very high measure of loyalty, patriotism, dedication, hard work and commitment from its teachers (Ubom& Joshua, 2004). Similarly, the roles and contexts of educations’ motivational methods and tools cannot be underemphasized because high motivation enhances productivity which is naturally in the interests of all educational systems (Ololube 2005).    
Statement of the problem   
Teachers in Nigeria have expressed a lot of dissatisfaction about the lack of human resource development, poor working conditions, poor remuneration and poor human relations that exist in schools. This has resulted in high teacher turnover coupled with poor results in Senior High Schools due to lack of commitment towards work. Some newly recruited teachers stay at post for barely one year. The operating conditions of service appear to fall short teachers expectation manifesting in resignations, vacation of post, non –resumption at post after teachers leave of absence and study leave. 
The general mood of those remaining is not encouraging as they exhibit other forms of withdrawal behaviour such as absenteeism, lateness and passive job behaviour. Unfortunately, in spite of the importance and complexity of these issues, there is very limited good quality literature has been published on them ( Bennel 2004). This research focus on the above mentioned factors. The researcher set out to throw more light on factors influencing teacher commitment to teaching so that management of education institutions can do something to motivate teachers to improve their level of performance.

Research Objectives

The major objectives of this study are to examine teacher’s motivation and job performance. Specifically, it is to:   
1.       Determine the relationship between motivation and job performance of teachers in selected Primary Schools in Alimosho Local Government. 
2.       Identify the factors of motivation that affects teacher’s job performance in selected Primary Schools in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State. 
3.       Investigate teachers’ motivational level and job performance. 
4.       Identify social and economic conditions militating against staff motivation and job performance of teachers in selected Primary Schools. 
Research Questions 
The following were the research questions used as a guide for the study: 
1.       How does teacher’s motivation affects their job performance? 
2.       What motivational factors influence job performance of teachers? 
3.       To what extent does a teacher’s motivational level influence their job performance? 
4.       To what extent does social and economic conditions militating against teacher’s motivation and job performance?
Research Hypotheses 
The following hypotheses guided the study: 
H1: There is no significant relationship between teacher’s motivation and their job performance. 
H2: There is no significant relationship between teacher’s motivational factors and their job performance. 
H3: There are differences in teacher’s motivational levels and job performance across individual demographics. 
H4: There is no significant difference in social and economic conditions militating against teachers’ motivation and job performance. 
Scope of the Study 
The study covered public primary schools in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos where teachers’ motivation and its relationship with job performance. 
Significance of the Study 
The significance of this research is that it will help to identify the importance of motivation that has strong impact on the productivity and performance of teachers in our primary schools.This study will help to improve the teacher’s performance by motivational factors in order to enhance the educational system. Identifying motivational factors, social and work related factors influencing teacher’s job performance will inform major stake holders of institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Teaching Service Commission and Nigerian Government in formulating policies geared toward addressing job performance and high staff turnover in our Education Service. This will help in reducing the teacher’s dissatisfaction and boost their morale to make them more committed to their job. It is also hoped that this study would encourage more interest in research and pave the way for an in- depth study of the problems on motivation and job performance on a wider dimension than has been pursued in this research.   
Operational Definitions of Terms 
The following terms have been defined operationally as follows: 
Motivation: An element which includes teachers to put in his/her best in performing his/hers duties. 
Teacher motivation: In this study, it refers to all those inner striving conditions, including the wishes, desires and urges to stimulate the interest in a learning activity. 
Job performance: Any set of activities or behaviours that increased teacher efficacy, high quality teaching, improved student’s achievement and added to school improvement. 
Welfare: In this study, it refers to the general health, happiness and safety of teachers. 
Morale: It refers to a person’s mental state that is exhibited by assurance, control and motivation to perform a task.

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