Abstract

Attainment of high level performance through productivity and efficiency has always been an organisational goal of high priority in microfinance institutions in the world. In order to do this, a highly satisfied work force is an absolutely necessity for achieving a high level of performance advancement of microfinance institutions.

The productivity of employees in the microfinance sector has dropped steadily (MIX, 2022). Job satisfaction is the positive and negative feelings of an employee towards his job or it is the amount of happiness connected with the job (Singh & Jain, 2013). Employment is one of the important elements of people’s life. Their living style and their social lives depend on their jobs.

Meyer and Allen (2001) compiled a list of definitions and analysed the similarities and differences. According to Salancik (2019), commitment is a state of being in which an individual becomes bound by his actions to beliefs that sustain his activities and his own involvement. The term “interpersonal relationship”, emanates from the field of psychology. Fritz Heider conceptualised this terminology in as early as 1958.

Employee productivity means how well employees are productive on the job and assignments assigned them measured against the generally accepted measure of productivity standards set by their companies (Ahmed, 2019). Maslow, (1954) proposed a theory that outlined five hierarchical needs which can be applied to an organisation and its employees’ performance.

Maslow, (1954) proposed a theory that outlined five hierarchical needs which can be applied to an organisation and its employees’ performance. In microfinance institutions, it is relevant to the relationship between employee and employer. If the employee feels that the motivators and the rewards are low compared to the standard, Chipunza & Samuel (2012) conducted the Evaluation of job satisfaction and employee productivity Case study of selected organizations in Zimbabwe. The union’s activities were very limited at the beginning with just 39 members in the main office in Mmockmbie MMOCCUL’s mission is to continuously develop and improve the status of its members by providing proximate and reliable financial services via mobilization of savings and granting of loans exclusively to members.

Before a person can become a member of Mmockmbie credit union, the person must own shares of the institution. Respondents’ demographic information was sought on some issues that were deemed influential to either their understanding of the study variables or had an indirect effect on the job satisfaction of employees.

In terms age group, it was found that non of the respondent were less 20 years constituting (00%) of the respondents; followed by 7 age  range between the ages 21-30years (35%), while 8 of the respondents were age between 31 and 40 constituting 40%  and the rest of  the respondent 5 (25%)  were 40 years and above These respondents were obtained from the employees of Mmockmbie Cooperative Credit Union Ltd Buea using the convenient sampling technique.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Attainment of high level performance through productivity and efficiency has always been an organisational goal of high priority in microfinance institutions in the world. In order to do this, a highly satisfied work force is an absolutely necessity for achieving a high level of performance advancement of microfinance institutions.

Satisfied employees lead to extend more effort to job productivity, then works harder and better. Thus, every microfinance institution tries to create a satisfied work force to operate the well-being of the microfinance institution. However, the total organisational performance depends on efficient and effective performance of individual employees of the microfinance institution.

Therefore, every microfinance institution places a considerable reliance on their individual employee performance to gain high productivity in the organisation (Pushpakumari, 2018). Employee satisfaction is an important factor that determines how an employee’s productivity will be. When an employee feels a satisfaction about the job, he/she is motivated to put greater effort to the job performance. Then it tends to increase the overall performance of the microfinance institution. In other words, a satisfied individual employee and his effort and commitment are crucial for the performance or productivity of the employee.

Performance is the planned job associated tasks of the workforce and how effectively those tasks have been carried out (Olsen et al., 2017). Productivity in the form of task performance comprises the explicit behaviour of the employee, which includes the fundamental responsibilities assigned as part of the job description (Olsen et al., 2017).

Likewise, employees’ output at work is likely to be dictated by their actions and by factors in the work environment that promote or interfere with their reported productivity (Olsen et al., 2017). Job satisfaction is a feeling of fulfilment or a perception of accomplishment that the employee is born out of his or her job (Judge et al., 2017).

It is the product of the evaluation that allows employees to fulfil their job values or to meet their basic needs. In addition, job satisfaction is a series of positive feelings that a person holds about his or her employment (Judge et al., 2017). It helps to decide to what degree employees like or dislike their work. Furthermore, it was also known that work satisfaction is influenced by job performance, contextual performance and adaptive performance. Moreover, Worker satisfaction and efficiency are critical in microfinance institutions because they can influence the overall success of the microfinance institution, after all, employees represent the activity of the institution (Boamah et al., 2018).

Since employees are considered to be of assistance to the microfinance institutions’ performance, recruiters, supervisors and managers should focus more often on employee satisfaction and performance (Thakre & Shroff, 2016). If a microfinance institution has selected the right person to the right position, there should be no issue with work satisfaction and performance. Employees need a working environment that allows them to work easily without complications that could hinder them from preforming to the extent of their full potential.

In addition, the organisation must meet the needs of its workers by ensuring decent working arrangements (Yu et al., 2017). Job satisfaction or lack thereof, depends on a positive, efficient partnership between employees and microfinance institutions. Furthermore, the success of every microfinance institution depends on the employees who enjoy their work and feel rewarded for their efforts (Jahanabani et al., 2018). Studying the correlation between job satisfaction and employee productivity is among the most important research practices in the field of microfinance.

According to Ali et al. (2018), if workers have enthusiasm, happiness and a high spirit, they steer their talents and abilities towards organisational ends. In addition, Deng and Gao (2017) found that, as employees’ output increases, the company’s efficiency and, eventually, the profitability of the company would be affected. Likewise, Rezapour and Sattari (2017) stated that job satisfaction is much more critical than pay in terms of human capital growth.

Thus, the management in microfinance institutions has a huge responsibility in ensuring the job satisfaction of their employees. In addition, Safi and Arshi (2016), claimed that a high degree of job satisfaction is closely linked to the employee’s general motivation to work, and it is therefore very important to record the factors in work and working life are of the greatest importance to the satisfaction of the employee. There are variables that will impact work satisfaction, such as how happy workers will be or are when they are doing their work.

Moreover, the employee’s type of personality is often thought to influence job satisfaction. There are several factors that can influence job satisfaction, some of which may include motivation, pay and gender. Breaugh et al. (2018) found that an employee must have the desire to work in order to be happy with his job and to be able to work efficiently. In addition, Robst and VanGilder (2016) found that salary was a key factor in the morale and work satisfaction of employees. This is because pay was a simple incentive raise and workers are happy with attractive compensation packages in the same sector.

Moreover, according to Choi and Ha (2018) the performance of employees at work is likely to be dictated by their actions and by factors in the work environment that promote or interfere with productivity. Likewise, Asghar and Oino (2017) also found that the position of supervisor also plays a role in the work satisfaction of employees. This is due to the fact that if employees decide to monitor performance and acts, this may have a positive effect on the happiness of employees at work.

1.2 Problem Statement

The productivity of employees in the microfinance sector has dropped steadily (MIX, 2022). Employees are no longer performing as they ought to which has translated to the poor performance of many microfinance institutions in Cameroon, which has also led many of the microfinance institutions to suffer failures and possible closures (Ngome, 2022).

Human resource is one of the most critical assets in a firm; therefore, organizations are investing in the enhancing competitiveness of this asset. Unlike the traditional approach that assessed the performance of the firm financially, modern techniques also assess the performance based on staffing process and employee performance (Singh et al., 2015; Chashmi & Fadaee, 2016). Employee performance in the microfinance sector has been decreasing steadily in contrast to other financial sectors of the country (Samba et al. 2020).

According to surveys conducted by other researchers, employee performance is lowest amongst microfinance institutions that have already crossed the survival stage in their development (Sama, 2015; Gambi, 2016; Jones et al. 2019). There have been some effective attempts to boost employee performance in the microfinance sector by carrying out workshops organized by institutions such as Mmockmbie cooperative credit union Ltd (MMOCCUL). However, these interventions have yet to have any significant effect in the performance of employees in this sector.

The organisational changes faced by modern microfinance institutions  as a result of globalization, the traditional roles from the formal requirements of jobs, the complexity of career tasks, and the growing number of innovations and creations have put microfinance institutions as noted by Mbugua et al. (2015) under pressures that impose the need for employees to perform better.

The sustainable competitive advantage the organizations seek cannot be achieved without the human element capable of manufacturing the products and providing services at a high level of quality, which can be achieved through employees’ practice of behaviors that go beyond the role required to be achieved; here, we mean the voluntary behaviors that can be achieved through the internal integration of the individual at work or the psychological response to the job.

It has been reported that poor employee performance affects the performance of Mmockmbie credit union ltd. According to the performance audit of some Mmockmbie credit union, poor performance of some employees put excessive pressure on the organization and put the institution under severe stressful conditions hence affecting their performance (Rainbow, 2022).

Theoretical and empirical studies have shown that there are many push and pull factors affecting employee performance among them are human resource management practices such as remuneration (Munyiva, 2015), career advancement (Gupta, S., Karpowicz, I., & Tareq, 2015), work-life balance (Kar & Misra, 2013) and work environment (Winterton, 2011).

This study looks at three other factors of job satisfaction namely commitment, motivation, and interpersonal relationship in order to verify whether they have any effect on employee productivity. Therefore, does commitment have an effect on the productivity of employees in Mmockmbie credit union? Can it be concluded that motivation drives employees’ performance in Mmockmbie credit union? Can interpersonal relationship affect the productivity of employees in Mmockmbie credit union? Poor productivity of employees has been shown to have negative effects on organisation performance (Wayne et al. 2028).

It is becoming an area of increasing concern in Mmockmbie credit union ltd when employees are non-performing leading to an erosion of resources of the institution. Thus there is a need to solve this problem. Hence, this study analyses the effect of job satisfaction on the productivity of employees in Mmockmbie cooperative credit union ltd in Buea.

1.3 Research Question

1.3.1 Main Research Question

What is the effect of job satisfaction on employee productivity in Mmockmbie cooperative credit union ltd (MMOCCUL) in Buea?

1.3.2 Specific Research Question

1. What is the effect of commitment on employee productivity in MMOCCUL Buea?
2. To what extent does motivation affect employee productivity in MMOCCUL Buea?
3. How do interpersonal relationships affect employee productivity in MMOCCUL Buea?

Check out: Management Project Topics with Materials