Title: THE EFFECTS OF MOTIVATION ON PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS
Abstract: The dynamic nature of modern economies which is characterized by both profit oriented and non-profit oriented business entities, calls for highly motivated employees to achieve organizational objectives and goals coupled with today's mobile as is the case or European Union member economies and floating working population. It has become increasingly important for organizations to motivate and retain their staff for optimum performance, for the human being has been identified as the most essential factor to any organization's survival and success. It is observed that motivation of employees in public service organizations such as public funded schools and colleges poses a serious challenge to those at the helm of affairs. They have to manage the human factors to achieve the stated objectives and targets in a rather difficult way owing to a multiplicity of factors. James Stoner (1992) emphasized this by indicating that motivation has always been an important subject for managers. The reason being that, the manager work with people and through people who can contribute to the success or failure of the organization. Managers therefore need some understanding of why people behave as they do, so that they can influence people to perform in ways the organization finds desirable.
There is no doubt that motivation is the key to the successful running of an organization It is an undeniable fact that highly motivated people tend to be high performers and vice-
versa.
The important role of human motivation in the work place cannot be overemphasized when viewed in the light of proven positive relationships between motivation and performance.
High productivity can be achieved through few other things; proper utilization of human resources that are highly motivated and willing to perform at their individual capacity. However, from an organizational perspective, a motivated person is one that works hard at his/her work and directs his /her behaviour towards appropriate outcomes. One may agree with Schein's view of motivation as cited by G.A Cole (l996) that, he sees motivation very much in terms of a “psychological contract” based on the expectations that the employees and the organization have of each other and the extent to which these are mutually fulfilled”. A manager that recognizes this and aligns conditions of service with employees needs and that of the organizational goals will have highly motivated personnel. The personnel will attain the objectives of the organization as they satisfy their needs. Unfortunately, those at the helm of affairs (managers, headmasters, principals) do not determine condition of service in general with the employees. Though through organized labour groupings and movements, employees and those at the helm of affairs in public funded organizations make inputs into condition of service agreements, ultimately, the ability to pay whip that government exercises often frustrates the ambitions and expectations of employees.
In the Ghana Public Service organizations such as Ghana Education Service, the employees are feeling that they are not being motivated well enough as inadequate salary always constitutes the primary factor for low motivation and performance.
Employee pay structure and compensation account for most of the motivational problems in the public service organizations such as Ghana Education Service as evidenced by the spate of labour agitation for improved working conditions.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-11-20
Language: en
Type: dissertation
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