Abstract

The main objective of this study is to assess the effect of motivational tools on employee satisfaction in organizations. The case of Mountain Hotel. Four research objectives were formulated to guide and direct the study. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of motivational tools on employee satisfaction in an organization, case study Mountain Hotel Buea. The descriptive research design was adopted for this study.

A sample size of 30 respondents were selected and used for the study. A well validated structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of simple percentage and inferential statistics of Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Thus a positive and no significant effect on employee satisfaction.

Also the challenges faced by organization in motivating employees include lack of knowledge on employee needs. The study recommended that the organization should motivate its employees taking into consideration the specific needs of the employees and changing aligning the goals of the organization with those of the employees and also the need to regularly organize training programs for the employees.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Mudor and Tookon (2011) contend that every organization desires to be successful as much as current business environment is very competitive. Organizations irrespective of size and market strive to retain the best employees, acknowledging their important role and influence on organizational effectiveness. In order to overcome challenges, organizations should create strong and positive relationships with its employees, direct them towards task fulfillment and ensure they have job satisfaction. (Fisher, 2012).

In order to achieve their goals and objectives, organizations develop strategies to compete in highly competitive markets and to increase their performance. Nevertheless, just a few organizations consider their human capital to be their main asset, capable of leading them to success or if not managed properly can lead to failure of the organization and high staff turnover (Fisher, 2012).

According to Ran (2009), employers are faced with the task of motivating employees and creating high job satisfaction among their staff. Developing programs and policies that embrace job satisfaction and serve to motivate employees takes time and money. When the employer understands the benefits of motivation in the work place, then the investment in employee-related policies can be easily justified. If the employees are not satisfied with their jobs and not motivated to fulfill their task and achieve their goals, the organization cannot attain success.

People have different needs that are continuously competing with each other and vary with and individual. Each person has a different mixture and strength of needs, as some are driven by achievement while others focus on security. If the managers/supervisor are able to understand, predict and control employee behavior, they should also know what employees want from their jobs. For that reason, it is essential for a manager/supervisor to understand what really motivates employees without making an assumption (Gurland and Lam, 2008).

Motivation as stated by Ran (2009), is generally defined as the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. It was also described by Elliot and Zhan (2008) as the strength and cause of behavior, these three concepts can be referred to as how hard be the individual’s efforts and for how long are they maintained.

In certain instances, motivation can serve as the explanation and prediction of a particular behavior of a particular individual’s work performance. Motivation refers to “the reason underlying behavior” (Guay, 2010). Intrinsic motivation is motivation that is animated by personal enjoyment, interest, or pleasure. Intrinsic motivation energizes and sustains activities through the spontaneous satisfaction inherent in effective volitional action. It is manifest in behaviors such as play, exploration, and challenge seeking that people often do for external rewards. Researchers often contrast intrinsic motivation with extrinsic motivation, which motivation governed by reinforcement contingencies (Irons and Buskist, 2008).

Customarily, educators consider intrinsic motivation to be more desirable and to result in better learning outcomes than intrinsic motivation (Irons and Buskist 2008). In comparison to financial resources, human resources have the capability to create competitive advantage for their organizations. Normally, employee performance depend on a large number of factors, such as motivation, appraisals, job satisfaction, training and development, and so on, but this paper focuses on employee motivation and job satisfaction, as it has been shown to influence to a significant degree the organizational performance.

As Kalimullah (2010) suggested, a motivated employee has his/her goals aligned to those of the organization and directs efforts in that course. In addition, these organizations are more successful, as their employees continuously look for ways to improve their work. Getting the employees to reach their full potential at work under stressful conditions is a tough challenge, but this can be achieved by motivating them (Santrock, 2009).

The Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman (1959) research examined the relationship motivation and productivity among 200 engineers and accountants. The result of the research was Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene theory, which suggest that certain factors (motivator factors) lead to job satisfaction, whereas others (hygiene factors) prevent dissatisfaction but cannot engender satisfaction. Motivator factors are factors that are intrinsic to the job, such as content of the work itself and the availability of opportunities for responsibility, advancement and recognition for achievement (Santrock, 2009).

Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job and relate to the environment in which the job is performed. Such factors include the organization’s policy and administration, working conditions, salary, supervision and interpersonal relations. Herberg argued that the extrinsic aspects of work (hygiene factors) could not provide a source of motivation for employees but could if ‘bad’, provide a source of dissatisfaction and thus demoralize employees. Hygiene factors should be seen as the prerequisite to allow the motivating factors to influence employee’s motivation (Sheldon and Filak, 2008).

In a situation where there were ‘good’ hygiene factors, the employees would be in a state of ‘no dissatisfaction’. The motivator factors, which Herzberg (1959) described as “complex factors leading to a sense of personal growth and self-actualization”, would then reflect employee motivation hence increase job satisfaction and productivity. As a consequence, in order to motivate workers for higher productivity, “while it is important to ensure that hygiene factors are correct”, the manager must manipulate the motivators by attending to job-content issues for example job enrichment (Sisk, 2009).

From the criticism of Herzberg and from the work of Goldthope, it has been noted that no one theory, be it human relation or scientific management, is likely to apply universally. Different socio-economic groups appear to attach different meanings to, or have different orientations towards work. Different groups of individuals may have different attitudes and opinions about the same topic or idea. They are likely to reach differently towards management policies (Latham and Locke, 2007).

At the same time, well meaning ‘human-relations’ policies on the part of management may appeal to certain groups of workers, they may create feelings of unwelcomed paternalism and claustrophobia in others (Latham and Locke, 2007). A model of work motivation should therefore be able to differentiate between different types of workers and treat their wants, expectations, and attitudes towards work as ‘culturally determined variables, not psychological constants’ (Irons and Buskist, 2008).

Even though a lot of research has been written on motivation, this subject is not clearly understood and more often not properly practiced. To well comprehend how motivation can impact employee satisfaction, one must identify with human nature. In as much as motivation impacts performance too, there is the need to blend the appropriate motivational tools with effective management and leadership to achieve this goal (Sullivan, 2009).

Even though the fact that motivation is very important to determine employee’s ability, so are other factors such as the resources given to an employee to perform his or her job. For this reason, successful work performance can arise from a variety of motives. For instance, two people doing similar jobs may both be successful for different reasons. One sales person may be motivated by the commissions earned on sales, while the other may be more concerned about achieving sales targets. This creates a fine distinction in the subject matter because motivation to enhance performance varies from person to person and from organization to organization (Daft, 2009).

1.2.  Statement of Problem

In today’s competitive business environment, companies are facing many challenges and among those challenges, acquiring the right workforce and retaining it is of outmost importance. Nowadays, the human asset is considered to be most important asset of any organization. In order to ensure to get effective and efficient results from human resources, employees need to me motivated and satisfied with their jobs first

Thus in the global market, organizations have a great task in their hands of ensuring its employees are motivated and satisfied. This can be achieved by using various motivational tools which in turn have different impacts on employee satisfaction.

Motivating and satisfying employees is one of the most important managerial functions. According to Nel el al. (2011), success in this endeavor is essential in the quest to utilize the full potential people so as to ensure quality products and services. Thus in African markets, there have been various controversies on which motivational tools to use to motivate employees because different motivational tools have different impacts on different employee’s satisfaction in different organizations within the African economy. It is why this study aims to analyze the impacts of  such motivational tools on employee satisfaction also in African economies.

Thus, motivational tools and job satisfaction is an important topic to study and to understand as it ultimately is one of the determinants of the success of any company or institution and also allows insight into which corrective measures could be implemented to increase job satisfaction in organizations. This view is supported by Grunenberger (1979) who stipulates that motivation and job satisfaction are relevant to improving the welfare of employees in important aspects of their live. Narrowing down to the economy of Cameroon, many organizations have a problem of effectively motivating and satisfying their employees, this is due to the fact that they have little knowledge on the impacts that motivational tools have on employee satisfaction. Thus, this study aims to examine and analyze the various effects of motivational tools on employee satisfaction in organizations found within the economy.

There is also a debate over the issue of which motivational tool can be used and how these tools impact employee satisfaction. Some people are of the view that using extrinsic motivational tools like salary, tips and bonuses, company policy and administration can motivate employees to productivity where as others are of the view that using Intrinsic motivational tools like career advancement, recognition and growth, task responsibility, can motivate employees and lead to job satisfaction (Ramp and Rasand, 2013).

It is in this view of these controversies that this study wants to look at how motivational tools can affect employee’s satisfaction in Mountain Hotel Buea.

1.3 Research Questions

This piece of research has as main research the following;

What is the Effect of Motivational Tools on the Satisfaction of Employees in Mountain Hotel Buea?

The specific research questions are;

1. What is the effect of Recognition for Job well done on employee satisfaction in mountain Hotel Buea?
2. What are the effects of financial recognition on employee satisfaction in Mountain Hotel Buea?
3. How do career advancement opportunities affect employee satisfaction in Mountain Hotel Buea?
4. What is the effect of Involvement in decision-making on employee satisfaction in Mountain Hotel Buea?

Read: Human Resource Project Topics with Materials