Motivational Factors: Implications for Job Performance among Workers of a Public Tertiary Institution in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: University workers are saddled with the responsibility of training intellectuals, a function pivotal for building leaders of tomorrow, and shaping society. This study sought to investigate what truly motivates workers in a tertiary institution. Methods: A cross-sectional, analytic design was adopted to investigate motivational factors among 200 workers in a tertiary institution selected with a stratified sampling technique. A self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was applied to collect data and analysed with SPSS version 22. Results: More than half (51.2%) of lecturers and three-fifth (64.1%) of those with a PhD were among the highly motivated workers. Overall motivation (r=0.629) was more strongly correlated with job performance than intrinsic motivational factors(r=0.594); (p=0.01). Extrinsic reward had a weak negative relationship with job performance, whereas job satisfaction was weakly but, positively correlated with work output; (p=0.01). Duration of job positively predicted overall motivation, intrinsic motivational factors and job performance but, job satisfactio