EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE - Theseus

Akah Ndang WilliamEMPLOYEE MOTIVATION ANDPERFORMANCEUltimate Companion LimitedDouala-CameroonBachelor’s ThesisBusiness ManagementDecember 2010

DESCRIPTIONDate of the bachelor's thesis7 December 2010Author(s)Degree programme and optionAkah Ndang WilliamBusiness ManagementName of the bachelor's thesisEmployee Motivation and PerformanceAbstractThe subject matter of this research; employee motivation and performance seeks to look at howbest employees can be motivated in order to achieve high performance within a company ororganization. Managers and entrepreneurs must ensure that companies or organizations have acompetent personnel that is capable to handle this task. This takes us to the problem question ofthis research “why is not a sufficient motivation for high performance?” This therefore establishes the fact that money is for high performance but there is need to look at other aspects ofmotivation which is not necessarily money.Four theories were taken into consideration to give an explanation to the question raised in theproblem formulation. These theories include: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg two factortheory, John Adair fifty-fifty theory and Vroom’s expectancy theory. Furthermore, the performance management process as a tool to measure employee performance and company performance. This research equally looked at the various reward systems which could be used by a company. In addition to the above, culture and organizational culture and it influence on employeebehaviour within a company was also examined.An empirical study was done at Ultimate Companion Limited which represents the case study ofthis research work. Interviews and questionnaires were conducted to sample employee andmanagement view on motivation and how it can increase performance at the company. Finally, acomparison of findings with theories, a discussion which raises critical issues on motivation/performance and conclusion constitute the last part of the research.Subject headings, (keywords)Motivation, Performance, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, Incentive, Tangible and Intangible, RewardPagesLanguageURNEnglish72p. app. 5pRemarks, notes on appendicesTutorMarja-Liisa KakkonenEmployer of the bachelor's thesisUltimate Companion Limited Douala-Cameroon

iCONTENTS1 INTRODUCTION . 12 NATURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT . 42.1. Role of human resource management . 42.2 Theories on Work Motivation . 62.2.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs . 72.2.2 Herzberg’s two factor theory. 92.2.3 Fifty-Fifty Theory. 102.2.4 Vroom’s Expectancy Theory . 102.3 Performance management . 122.3.1 Performance Parameters . 122.4 Reward System for Employees . 162.4.1 Purpose of Reward . 172.4.2 Financial Reward . 182.4.3 Nonfinancial Reward . 203 CULTURE IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT . 213.1 The Concept of Culture . 223.2 Understanding Cultural Dimensions . 243.2.1 Geert Hofstede Dimensions . 243.2.2 Trompenaars Dimensions . 273.2.3 Hall’s Cultural Dimensions. 283.3 Managing Cultural Differences . 294 RESEARCH PROCESS . 314.1 Target Organization (Ultimate companion limited) . 314.2 Choice of Method . 334.3 Research Methods and Procedure . 345 FINDINGS OF THE STUDIES . 385.1 Findings from Interviews . 385.1.1 Background Information . 385.1.2 Work Motivation . 395.1.3 Rewards. 42

ii5.2 Findings from Survey . 455.2.1 Background Information of the employees . 455.2.2 Employee’s Work Motivation . 495.2.3 Employee’s Rewards . 536 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS . 576.1 Comparison of the main Findings with Previous Studies . 576.2 Reliability and Validity of the Study . 606.3 Analyses . 606.3 Development and further studies . 646.5 Conclusions . 647 CONCLUDING REMARKS . 65BIBLIOGRAPHY. 67APPENDICESLIST OF FIGURESFigure 1 Abraham Maslow's . 8Figure 2 Frequency distribution against employee’s gender . 45Figure 3 Frequency distribution against age of employees . 46Figure 4 Frequency distribution against work experience of employees . 47Figure 5 Frequency distribution against positions of employees . 48Figure 6 Frequency distribution against contract terms of employees . 48Figure 7 Frequency distribution against employee's work environment . 50LIST OF TALESTable 1 summary of interviews . 44Table 2 Employee's satisfaction . 53Table 3 survey summary on employee rewards and work motivations . 56

11 INTRODUCTIONManagers within companies or organizations are primarily responsible to ensure thetasks or job is done through employees in the right way. To achieve this, these managers must ensure that they have a competent personnel department for the recruitmentof the best employees that are capable to do the job. For the company to optimize employee’s performance there is need for the employees to be sufficiently motivated.Therefore, motivation in theory and practice becomes a difficult subject touching onseveral disciplines. Although a lot of scholarly research has been written on motivation, this subject is not clearly understood and more often than not poorly practiced.On this score, to best understand how motivation can impact on employee s performance one must understand human nature. In as much as motivation impacts on employee performance, there is need to blend the appropriate motivational tools witheffective management and leadership to achieve this goal.Not withstanding the fact that motivation is very important to determine employee’sability so do other factors such as the resources given to an employee to do his or herjob. Therefore, successful work performance can arise from a variety of motives. Forinstance, two people doing similar jobs may both be successful for different reasons,one salesperson may be motivated by the commission earned on sales, while the othermay be more concerned about meeting sales targets. This creates a nuance in the subject matter because motivation to enhance performance varies from person to personand from company to company. These are the challenges managers are confrontedwith in designing appropriate motivation tools that will be able to meet with the expected performance within the company. This therefore arouses more critical academicthinking within the subject area. In this light a lot of academic literatures from scholarsand practicing managers have ensured to resolve this intriguing academic domain onhow motivation can enhance performance.

2Relevance of studiesContemporary research and observations show that well motivated employees aremore productive and creative towards achieving company or organizational goals. Onthe other hand less motivated employees are less performant and tend to divert fromattaining organizational goals. Motivation as incentive systems are fundamental todeveloping capacities and to translating developed capacities into better performancePurpose and ObjectivesThis study will help Ultimate Companion Limited to realize more appropriate ways ofmotivating its workforce to induce high performance, as well as forming policies ordecision schemes to motivate employees in order to have increased performancewithin the company. Company’s profit, growth and high performance are the maingoals for Ultimate Companion limited which could achieve through appropriate motivation. Therefore employee motivation will be a condition necessary to achieve thesegoals. This work will equally assist in facilitating further studies by other researcherswho are interested to know much on the link between motivation and performance.Furthermore, it will also assist practicing managers at Ultimate Companion Limited aswell as students to obtain a broader knowledge on motivation at work. This researchintends to break new grounds on the link between motivation and performance withinUltimate companion and how this knowledge can be useful within other companies ororganizations.The main objective of this research is to analyze how well some motivation can helpenhance employee performance and to know the factors which actually trigger highperformance at Ultimate companion Ltd. Also, to understand the different ways inwhich Ultimate Companion can motivate its workers. Furthermore, to establish thevarious aspects that could be further developed and improved in order to increase employee’s performance. In understanding that the dream of most managers today is to

3have a greater market share when they are in business, better performance within theircompany would be very necessary to achieve this goal.Research questionThe diversity of today work force presents managers with problems of substantialmagnitude. Huge differences among employees in every organization and work groupmeans that there is no one best way to deal with them. An approach that motivatessome employee to perform well misses the mark with other employees. This therefore,posses a major challenge to today’s managers. As such it triggers the problem question“why is money not a sufficient motivator for performance in a company?”StructureThis report has seven chapters. The first chapter is the introduction which familiarizesthe reader with the research topic. This chapter also pinpoints the purpose and objectives of the study. It presents how the development of the study area is and the relevance of the study. Theoretical framework consist of two chapters: chapter twoPresents’ four theories on motivation as well as the role of human resource managers,performance management and reward systems and chapter three presents culture inhuman resource management: which includes the concept of culture, understanding ofcultural dimensions and managing cultural difference. Chapter four describes the target organization, choice of method, research methods and procedure. And Chapter fiveintroduces the findings from interviews and findings from survey. Furthermore, chapter six presents a comparison between the findings and existing theories, discussion ofthe results, the reliability and validity of the study. Finally, chapter seven presents’challenges face in the writing process.