CHAPTER TWO

Literature Review

2.1 The motivation concept

The word motivation is coined from the Latin word motus, a form of the verb movere, which
means to move, influence, affect, and excite. By motivation we then mean the degree to
which a person is moved or aroused to act Rainey, (1998). Dictionaries simply describe
motivation as “the goad to action” Mitchell, (1982), whereas scholars expand the term to the
set of psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of
individual’s behaviour toward attaining a goal Robbins/Judge, (2008). The latter definition
underlines three pillars of motivation. The first arousal has to do with the drive or energy that
ignites behavior Baron, (2003). The second direction – has to do with the type of behaviour
that is exerted and whether it is in line with demand or organization goal Robbins/Judge,
(2008). The third pillar persistence – deals with the lastingness of behavior. Though, this
factor is of less importance, because persistence can be simply defined as the reaffirmation of
the initial arousal and direction processes Mitchell, (1997).

Type of motivation

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic means that the individual's motivational stimuli are coming from outside, in other
words, our desires to perform a task are controlled by an outside source. Note that even
though the stimuli are coming from outside, the result of performing the task will still be
rewarding for the individual performing the task, Mario, (2002). Extrinsic motivation is
external in nature. Intrinsic motivation means that the individual's motivational stimuli are
coming from within. The individual has the desire to perform a specific task, because its
results are in accordance with his belief system or fulfils a desire and therefore importance is
attached to it.

Achievement Motivation and Attitude motivation

It is the drive to pursue and attain goals. An individual with achievement motivation wishes
to achieve objectives and advance up on the ladder of success. Here, accomplishment is
important for its own shake and not for the rewards that accompany it. Attitude motivation is
how people

think and feel. It is their self confidence, their belief in them, their attitude to life. It is how
they feel about the future and how they react to the past. Foxcroft and Roodt, (2002),

Affiliation Motivation and Competence motivation

Foxcroft and Roodt, (2002) proposed that it is a drive to relate to people on a social basis.
Persons with affiliation motivation perform work better when they are complimented for their
favourable attitudes and co-operation. While competence motivation it is the drive to be good
at something, allowing the individual to perform high quality work. Competence motivated
people seek job mastery, take pride in developing and using their problem-solving skills and
strive to be creative when confronted with obstacles. They learn from their experience for
power motivation. It is the drive to influence people and change situations. Power motivated
people wish to create an impact on their organization and are willing to take risks to do so.

Motivation Practices
Many different scholars have agreed and disagreed on the ways employees should be
motivated. Some of them assert that in order to motivate an individual, a financial benefit has
to be foregone by the motivator whereas others believe that money is not a true motivator
hence both financial and nonfinancial incentives are considered in the discussion below
Calder, (2006). According to Cole (1998), financial incentives are rewards/payments that
employees get in consideration of their contribution towards the organization. He adds that
these are payments for labour as a factor of production.

Wages and Salaries

Lindner (1995) notes that, though monetary methods of motivation have little value, many
firms still use money as a major incentive. She adds that wages are normally paid per hour
worked and workers receive money at the end of the week and overtime paid for any
additional hours worked for whereas salaries are based on a year’s work and are paid at the
end of each month.

. Bonuses
Marler, (2000) indicated that when your employees function as a team, you ought to think
like a coach; reward the whole group for a job well done. He says this will boost morale both
personally and collectively. He adds that employee incentive programs such as small bonuses
serve to better the morale of an individual employee and that of a group as a whole by
making them more satisfied.

This is in agreement with Likert’s (2004) study which concluded that since everybody wants
to feel appreciated and special for the work done, they can therefore be motivated by
appreciating them and making them feel special. He adds that the more satisfied the employee
is, the better he/she will perform.

Mwanje, (2000) believes that non-financial incentives are the most important motivators of
human behaviour in terms of the needs of human beings. He refers nonfinancial incentives to
non-monetary ways of rewarding employees. They are opportunities that help employees in
the accomplishments of the set goals. They include;

Training opportunities

Hammer, (2000) asserts that an individual will be motivated to do something if they have the
mental ability and skills to accomplish it. He writes that when employees are trained, they get
the knowledge of hoe to deconstruct tasks and challenges and thereby feel less intimidated by
their jobs/tasks. Herzberg (1998) agrees to Hammers assertion. He adds that training makes
the employee earn confidence to do a job thereby improving their attitude hence motivation.

Job rotation
Fowler (2001) revealed that when an employee does one kind of job week-in weekout, they
will always get de-motivated to carry on with their work more especially when the work is
not very challenging. She suggested that employees need to be rotated around the
organization to meet new challenging tasks in order to keep their minds busy and feel like
they are doing something for the organization. However, Clifton (2002) disagrees with these
revelations. He asserts that job rotation does not actually lead to motivation of the employee;
it just helps the employees not to get bored with their work. In other words, it helps the
employers to maintain a certain level of motivation in employees.

2.1.1 The concept of job performance

There is a general understanding among researchers that performance is an important variable in work
organization (Suliman, 2001) and has become a significant indicator in measuring organizational
performance in many studies (Wall et al., 2004). Employee performance can also be measured
through the combination of expected behavior and task-related aspects (Motowidlo, 2003), even
though performance is often determined by financial figures. In reality, performance that is based on
an absolute value or relative judgment may reflect overall organizational performance (Gomez- Mejia,
Balkin and Cardy, 2007; Wall et al., 2004). However, Widower (2001) asserted that performance
measure that is based on the performance appraisal items offers higher reliability in evaluating
performance.
High performance employees pursue higher level of individual and organizational performance which
involve quality, productive, innovation rate and cycle time of performance (Bharadwaj, 2005) and
therefore they will be able to assist organisation to achieve its strategic aims and sustaining the
organisation competitive advantage (Dressler, 2011). Thus, in order to attract and sustain higher
employee satisfaction and performance, employer need to treat their workers as the most important
internal resources and gratify them (Jin, 2007) because committed and satisfied employees are
normally high performers that contribute towards organizational productivity (Samad, 2007).

2.1.2 Definition of Job Performance

In general, job performance is defined as actions or behaviours relevant to organizational goals
(Campbell, 1990), which includes both productive and counterproductive employee behaviours that
contribute to or detract from organizational goals (Hunt, 1996). Viswesvaran and Ones (2000)
introduced a more recent definition of job performance as behaviour and outcomes that employees
undertake that are contribute to organizational goals. This means job performance refers to the
effectiveness of individual behaviours that contribute to organisational objectives and should consist
of task performance and contextual performance (Motowidlo, 2003). Both constructs are influenced
by different factors, for instance job-related experience determines task performance while
individual’s personality type determines contextual performance (Motowidlo and Van Scoter, 1994).
Organ (1998) argues that term “job performance” may need to redefine to essentially broaden this
construct to include non-productivity or extra-role dimensions such as cooperation, helping co-
workers and superiors and generalized tendencies toward compliance. Organ further proposed that
job performance should be measured to the extent to which employee engage in organizational
citizenship behaviours. Sarmiento and Beale (2007) refer job performance as the result of two
elements, which consist of the abilities and skills (natural or acquired) that an employee possesses,
and his/her motivation to use them in order to perform a better job. According to Jinx and Britt
(2008), performance is oftentimes assessed in term of financial figures as well as through the
combination of expected behaviour and task related aspects.
In this study, the meaning of job performance refers to task performance or in-role job performance as
defined by Motowidlo (2003) as the organization’s total expected value on task related proficiency of
an employee, or fulfilment of tasks that are required by the formal job description. In other words,
task performance is the behaviour’s related specifically to performing job-related matters. In human
resource management studies, task performance has been measured using a range of criterion
measures, including supervisory ratings, productivity indexes, promotability ratings, sales total, and
turnover
rate.
Although these indicators might be presumed to reflect performance at various degrees, Gomez-
Mejia et al., (2007) stated that task performance should be distinguished into quality of work done,
quantity of work performed, and interpersonal effectiveness. Therefore, from the above definitions it
is clear that job performance is related to the extent to which an employee is able to accomplish the
task assigned to him or her and how the accomplished task contributes to the realization of the
organizational goal. (Mawoli and Babandako, 2011)

2.1.3 Types of Job Performance

According to Porter and Lawler (1968), there are three types of performance. One is the measure of
output rates, amount of sales over a period of time, the production of a group of employees reporting
to manager, and so on. The second type of measure of performance involves ratings of individuals by
someone other than the person whose performance is being considered. The third type of performance
measure is self appraisal and self-ratings. As a result, the adoption of self-appraisal and self-rating
techniques are useful in encouraging employees to take an active role in setting his or her own goals.
Thus, job performance measures the level of achievement of business and social objectives and
responsibilities from the perspective of the judging party (Hersey and Blanchard, 1993). This study
adopts the second type of measure by using peer rating in evaluating job performance item among
employees in MCC. Peer rating is chosen over self-rating to avoid problems associated with common
method bias and social
desirability.

2.14 The Importance of Job Performance to the Private Sector

Job performance has been identified as the significant key for organizations to gain competitive
advantage and superior productivity. Although competitive advantage is more relevant to private
sector, it can be extended to private sector by including ‘serving the public’ because it is the ultimate
objective of the public sector. Study by Vermeeren et al., (2009) has proved that work performance
could help private organization to improve service delivery. Realizing its importance, private
organizations seem to pay attention on work performance in relation to formulating products and
enhance service delivery (Leeuw, 1996). This is because individual public employee’s level of
performance acts as a mirror for overall public performance at large. Hence, private employees must
possess relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities to execute task-related responsibilities. Private
service employees also must be willing to “walk the extra miles” in striving to perform at a level
beyond expectations (Caron and Giauque, 2006; Arawati, Barker and Kandampully, 2007) With
respect to public service delivery, individual employee’s performance is closely related to customer
satisfaction (Fountain, 2001) because the service delivery take place during the contact moments
between employee and customer. Therefore, employee’s work performance is crucial to private
organisation services and high work performance among employees is a significant management
challenge for providing excellent services to the Private at all levels

2.2 Motivation/Performance Relationship

The link between performance and motivation is a positive one; increased motivation results

in more effort and improved performance. However, it can be argued that while higher
motivation will produce better performance, improvements in performance will increase

motivation due to resulting sense of achievement.

Figure 2: Motivation/Performance Relationship

y

M x

KEY:
P- Performance
M- Motivation
Motivation influences performance, for example when feedback is communicated to the

employees or mostly when recognition of achievement of an individual‟s performance is

realized then the output of the individual is likely to increase. Motivation has that

attractiveness of certain kinds of rewards, which performance (Miner, 1980).

Productivity expresses the relationship between output from systems and inputs, which go

into their creation. Performance is related to productivity when productivity is used as a

means of measuring actual operations thus used as a way of analysing and evaluating

performance.

Productivity is the relationship of output to input i.e. productivity = Output

Input
If positive attitudes are developed, then productivity will increase, therefore, improved

motivation leads to high productivity (Miner, 1980).

2.3 Theory of motivation Employee performance
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
One of the most widely mentioned theories of motivation is the hierarchy of needs theory put

forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow saw human needs in the form of a

hierarchy ascending from the lowest to the highest and he concluded that when one set of

needs is satisfied this particular need ceases to be a motivator.

The hierarchy is illustrated by the figure below:

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Self
Actualizati on

Esteem

Social

Safety

Pphysiological

Source: Mullins (1996)

Applications of Maslow Theory to the work situation at the National Social Security Fund

Physiological Need – These are the basic needs for sustaining human life – include food,

shelter, clothing and sex. Deprivation of these basic needs causes a lot of tension to

employees and lead to job dissatisfaction and eventually poor job performance. Private

organisation should ensure that her employees are well catered for in as far as the provision

of these basic physiological needs is concerned.

Security or safety needs – these are the needs to be free of physical danger and the fear of

losing a job, property, shelter etc. i.e. the need for a stable environment free from threats. In

somaliland, recently there has been a rise in poor performance especially in urban areas.

organisations should ensure protection and performance to their employees all over the

country to ensure that this basic

need is satisfied to ensure good performance of the employees. Job security of the

employees should be enhanced by the organization honouring its employees‟ employment

contracts, benefits after retirement and avoiding un procedural termination of jobs.

Affiliation or acceptance need – since people are social being they need to belong i.e. be

accepted by others. The private organisation‟s management should foster an environment of

commonness and teamwork to ensure that employees relate well and belong to a common

team and hence improve their performance. The organization should also allow for informal

groupings in form of unions and employee welfare associations.

Esteem needs – according to Maslow, once people begin to satisfy their need to belong, they

need to be held in esteem both by themselves and by others. This kind of need produces such

satisfaction as power, prestige, status and self-confidence. Just like other people, the

employees of private organisation somaliland also have this need.

Need for self-actualization - Maslow regards this as the highest need in the hierarchy. It is

the desire to become what one is capable of becoming, to maximize/realize one‟s potential

and self-fulfilment. Maslow’s theory has been subjected to considerable research. Selfa

ctualization needs are not necessarily a creative urge and may take many forms, which vary

widely from one individual to another (Mullins, 1996). Edward Lawled and J Lloyd Settle

collected data on 187 managers in two different organizations over a period of 6 – 12 months.

They found little evidence to support Maslow‟s theory that human needs form a hierarchy.

They, however, did note that there are two levels of needs – biological and other needs and
that the other needs would emerge only when the biological needs have been reasonably

satisfied. They further found that the level of strength of the need varied with individuals. In

some individuals, social needs predominated while in others, self-actualization needs were

the strongest.

In another study of Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs theory involving a group of managers over a

period of five years. Douglas T. Hale and Khahil Nougain did not find strong evidence of

hierarchy. They found that as managers advance in organizations, their physiological and

safety needs tend to decrease in importance and their need for affiliation esteem and self-

actualization tend to increase. They insisted, however, that the upward movement and the

need for prominence resulted from upward career changes and from the satisfaction of lower

order needs Mullins, (1996).

Man‟s behavior is seen as dominated by his unsatisfied needs and he is a perpetually wanting

animal; for when one need is satisfied, he aspired for the next higher one. This, therefore,

should be seen as an ongoing activity. What Maslow‟s theory seems to be silent on, is the

time frame upon which this needs are satisfied making it difficult to establish at what point

the individuals get satisfied and start being productive for the sake of the organization. By

the time an individual reaches the self-actualization stage which seems to be the most

productive stage, these individuals. Nevertheless, Maslow‟s theory has provided a useful

framework for the discussion of the variety of needs that people may experience at work, and

the ways in which their motivation can be met by managers and this will serve as a useful

guide to this research Mullins, (1996).

2.5 Review of Empirical Data

Drawing from studies conducted by other researchers, several motivational factors are

suggested as possible contributors to the poor performance of organizations in general.

Ochola and Ngige (2002) portrays employee satisfaction and motivation as major influences

on employee on performance in general. The two go further to reveal that job enrichment
factors such as challenge, achievement, recognition and responsibility are the real motivators.

However, Mullins (1996) argues that, giving people a feedback on their job performance

preferably before the supervisor gets it, involving workers in the analysis and change of

physical aspects of work environment such as office layout or plant temperature, lighting and

cleanliness leads to positive and improved performance in organizations.

2.6 Conceptual Framework

The model below illustrates some of the motivating factors which affect organizational

performance. These factors will form the independent variables of the study and will be

manipulated to positively or negatively affect the dependent variable, which is organizational

performance. These independent variables have been broadly covered in the literature

review.

Figure 3: The Conceptual Framework

Employee Reward and Compensation (Money) Employee Participation

Training

Organizational

Job Enrichment/Satisfaction performance

Affects
Responsibility/Recognition Quality of Working Life /Fulfillment

Independent Variables Dependent Variable

Source: Researcher, (2007)

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