CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
In contemporary organizations the yearning for
satisfaction is the most important issue on the part of the
employees. Need and environment playa pivotal role in the
determination of man's behaviour (Ujo, 2004), and Maslow
(1943) identified seven important needs of human beings rated
in their order of priority; these include physiological, safety,
love and affection, achievement, self esteem aesthetic and self
actualization needs. Ascending of these needs summed up in
one word, motivation involves needs, want and satisfaction,
motivation refers specifically "to the drive and effort to satisfy
an identified want or goal" satisfaction on the other hand
refers to "a state of contentment experienced when a particular
want is satisfied". The issue of job satisfaction has been given
much attention over the years. This is because the importance
of such a concept cannot be over emphasized. When there
came the emergence of large formal organizations which made
management more complex followed by a shift in dependent
2
variable, little attention was given to their impact upon job
satisfaction. The door was let open to consider the place of
motivation in relation to performance and production morale,
group dynamics democratic supervision and personal relations
because factors that are very important and have been shown
in contemporary studies as being related to job satisfaction
and increased productivity.
Ujo (2004) quoting Davis (1977) asserts; what employees
do when joining an organization is to make an unwritten
psychological contract with it, this contract is In addition to
the economic contract for wages and working conditions.
Employees agree to give a certain amount of work and loyalty,
but in return they demand more than economic rewards from
the system. They seek security, treatment as human beings
and rewarding relationship with people and support in
fulfilling expectations. If the organization honours only the
economic contract, employees will tend to loose interest in
their jobs. Following this trend, there is an agreement that job
satisfaction is the extent to which a job helps one attain his
3
important job values. This agreement can be described as
unity in diversity because the numerous definitions of job
satisfaction all pointed to the same view.
Salawu (2008) defined job satisfaction" as the extent or
degree a person is satisfied with the job he or she is doing, in
terms of the salary, self actualization, prestige of the job,
autonomy, control and condition of the job". Locke (1976),
defined job satisfaction " as the appraisal one's job as
attaining or allowing the attainment of one's important job
values providing these values are congruent with or help fulfill
one's basic needs". For Davis (1977) job satisfaction is "the
favourableness or unfavourableness with which employees
view their work, public servant like any other worker has a
bundle of needs. They need food, shelter, self esteem and self
actualization to mention but few. It is the urge to satisfy some
of these needs that motivate people to accept these jobs. The
attempt to take a job therefore, may have a variety of motives
which may essentially be complex and conflicting but the
ultimate goal is satisfaction.
4
Although, a great deal of Nigeria workers consider their
jobs as a means of providing them with the necessary money
to cater for their needs, cloth them and perhaps save part of it
or invest for their family members.
Job condition and employer, employee relationships are very
important since they affect the performance of workers. Every
organization, whether in private or public sector strives to
effectively elicit the best from the professionals, unfortunately,
it seems the desired goal has remained elusive. An in-depth
study of job satisfaction has shown that there are people who
do have job satisfaction in spite of their organization's
provisions of those conditions that are satisfactory. Studies
have also shown that workers achieve different levels of job
satisfaction at different period in their careers and at different
occupational levels. Closely related to this is the fact that
despite the growing sophistication in technology a great
percentage of Nigerian work-force seen dissatisfaction with
their jobs, lack of commitment and are always willing to leave
their' jobs for more promising and satisfaction ones. Incessant
5
conflicts, disagreement, protest, tension, distrust, trade
disputes, strikes etc. also characterized the actions of the
worker in different unions in Nigeria. This implies that the
various organizations are far from solving the workers
problem. It also signifies frustrating, unchallenging,
unsatisfying and bring job conditions.
1.2 Statement Of The Problem
Despite the ban on private practice by government, public
servant still engage in very serious private businesses and
some times use their official time for their personal business.
They sell, hawk, and even scramble for contracts and supplies
when they are supposed to be in their offices. The individuals
whose goals and aspirations are thwarted by the organization
becomes frustrated, develop feelings of low self-worth, become
apathetic, disinterested and tend to withdraw self commitment
in their work. Personal business outside the organization
becomes more important.
The unsatisfied worker may be physically present at their
place of work, but his mind and thought are off the job. The
6
increased death rates in our hospitals, poor performance of
students in school certificate, examination and low
productivity in the civil service are testimonies of poor
performance of public servants. There is no doubt that if
public servants have job satisfaction, they will perform better
in their job, the research will therefore examine the impacts of
job satisfaction on employees performance.
1.3 Research Questions
This study asks the following questions:
1. Is there any relationship between job satisfaction
and employees performance?
2. Can good incentive scheme bring about employee
job satisfaction for enhanced performance?
3. Is the working environment of any relevance in
ensuring employees job satisfaction?
4. Is recognition and reward factors that can bring
