AN APPRAISAL OF THE RELEVANCE OF FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO WORKERS MOTIVATION

CHAPTER ONE
 
INTRODUCTION
 
1.1   Background to the Study
 
In the word of Armstrong (2014), the process of motivation is initiated by the conscious and unconscious recognition of an unsatisfied need. A goal is then established which, it is thought will satisfy the need and of course action is determined that lead towards the attainment of a goal. Management should provide incentive schemes and pay workers on the basis of the result they achieve on the job instead of the more physical routine performance series activities and to retain them on their job making them feel satisfied, a motivationally-oriented wage system must adequately distinguish “Naira” wise between the different levels of efficiency for the people performing essentially job and different job categories and specialization. In every organization, the management emphasis on high productivity, quality of services, quality workmanship, industrial peace, cooperative labour etc. On the other hand, employees need fair wages, job satisfaction, good working conditions, participation in decision making, self-recognition and opportunity for advancement. Organizations and managers have suffered tremendously in trying to utilize their human resources, they usually encounter frequent industrial conflicts and several unresolved agitations by workers and different categories of employees basically steaming from one form of dissatisfaction or the other. The main point of misunderstanding between management and employees/workers in most cases is found in the arrears of inadequate and inequitable monetary rewards.
 
Financial incentive as we all know is a process of guiding the conduct and influencing people so that they strive individual or group towards the achievement of group goals. Every employee comes to an organization with one motive, to earn a living and financial incentive play a vital role in the lives of these employees. Taking away financial incentive might jeopardize this individual or the group interest. Management on the other hand, established the organization for the purpose of return of investment and profit making, high productivity, quality of services, industrial peace, cooperative labour and to remain a going concern. Skinner B. F. (1953), states that by providing properly scheduled rewards is possible to influence behaviours. The objective and purpose of this study is to examine whether or not financial incentives has contributed to workers performance and industrial harmony in National Board for technical Education. This research is by no means exhaustive but will help the establishment to take a second look that financial incentives has a significant role to play in maintaining industrial peace, increase productivity and boost the morale of the employees in an establishment. It has generally been observed and noted that in a sample group of workers performing the same type of job, some do it better than others. This observation will raise and arouse the notion or questions or psychological tendencies, interest and differences in performance.  One school of thought holds the view that “differences in performance reflect varying characteristics, abilities and skills on the part of ‘workers. F.B. Skinner, (1985), an Industrial psychologist argues that differences in performance of workers doing the same kind of job, might be as a result of extra monetary rewards attached to the job, conductive working environment or friends they meet in the workplace. As a result of these possibilities, recognition and thorough understanding of workers needs/wants before adopting any form of motivational techniques such as financial rewards (money) human relations, conducive, working environment, leadership and good supervision among others, becomes apparently important since these factors has different influence and impact on different categories of workers and individuals. The complexity of human nature, expectation, urges and drives/motives make the art of motivation of workers and employees a critical and complex point for consideration. A definite answer could not be reached since people differ in characteristics, background, traits, and needs. Thus, it becomes imperative for the manager to incorporate positive motivational incentive programmes to motivate workers behaviour towards achievement of predetermine goals and objective of the organization.
 
Motivation is a very important issues in managing people. A happy employee is said to be a motivated employee. So, it is important for managers, especially human resource managers to figure out what motivate an employee to excel at his/her work. Workers in any organization need something to keep them working. Most times the salary of the employee is not enough to keep him/her working for an organization due to economic factors and other variables. Sometime also just working for salary is not enough for employees to stay in the organization. An employee needs to be adequately motivated; the absence motivation scheme results to deteriorate in quality of work/performance either on individual or at corporate level. Even in conductive work environment it is generally observed that while some people work willing, others work very willing. The question then is what is responsible for people’s motives and attitude to work. By definition, managers work with and through people to get things done. But people are complex and their motivations are not always easy to understand. It involves the unique feelings, through past experience of individuals as they share a variety of relationships within and outside the organization. Many theories exist about motivation and most of them differ in what they suggest managers should do to obtain the most effective performance from their employees. Most successful managers, however have learned by experience that people are generally very responsive to praise and encouragement-expressed not only in words but also in actions such as financial rewards-and they need to feel successful in their work in order to give their best effort to the organization.
Managers who find the key to their employees’ inner motivations can tap an immense source of productive energy. While motivation is essentially a personal experience, managers, in particular, should be keen to find reliable links between motivation and effective performance. They should also be concerned with creating the conditions under which organizational and personal goals may be harmonized. The key feature of motivation is that it determines the extent to which an individual desires to place his/her knowledge and skill at the disposal of others, and more than that to push off the effects of obstacles and difficulties in so doing. This project work examines the motivating power and relevance of financial incentive in boasting the performance of workers.