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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

The success of any business or organisation as a matter of fact depends largely on the motivation of the employees. Human resources are essential to the prosperity, productivity and performance of any organisation whether public or private. Motivation is the key to creating an enabling environment where optimal performance is possible. This leads to the question of how do we ensure that the individual motivation is at its peak within the organisation or workplace? Chapman, (2004). Every employee or worker has his or her own set of motivations and personal incentives that ginger him or her to work hard or not as the case may be. Some are motivated by recognition whilst others are motivated by cash incentives. Whatever, the form of employee motivation, the key to promoting that motivation as an employer, is understanding and incentives Coy, (2000).

Employee incentive programmes go a long way towards ensuring employees feel appreciated cared for and deemed worthwhile. This can go a long way to help with employee motivation across the board. The greatest thing about motivation is that it is individualized as such programs are tailored to suit the needs and wants of employees. Motivation does not only encourage productive performance but also show employees how much the company cares. Perhaps the most vital impact of employee motivation is that of increased productivity or performance. This according to literature on the subject is the central aim of adopting employee motivational programmes thus, if you can increase employee motivation, productivity inevitably will follow suit Ryan, (2011). Employee motivation promotes workplace harmony and increased employee performance. It is the key to long term benefits for the company. Motivated employees means staff retention and company loyalty, which in the short run will give birth to growth and development of business Jishi, (2009).

Tertiary intuitions the world over, have the prime objectives of impacting knowledge through teaching, research and community services. To effectively deliver on these objectives, qualified and competent workforces are required. However, the performance of academic and non- academic staff is not only a function of ability (qualification and competence) but also of motivation, Jishi, (2009). Ngu (1998) contends that the two most important variables explaining employee performance are motivation and ability. He defines motivation as the enthusiasm and persistence with which a person does a task, while ability refers to task competence. Impliedly therefore, academic staff can only reach peak performance if they are adequately motivated assuming that the issue of competence is taken as given.

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