CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The relationship between the organization and its members is influenced by what motivates them to work and the rewards and fulfillment they derive from it (Mullins, 2005). The manager needs to know how best to elicit the co-operation of staff and direct their performance to achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. The study therefore sought to examine the influence of motivation on job performance of business educators in senior secondary schools of Delta State.
Motivation and performance are very important factors in terms of organization success and achievement. Motivation plays an important role in the organization because it increases the productivity of employees and the goals can be achieved in an efficient way. The behavior of employees can be changed through motivation in any organization.
From situation to situation, the level of motivation differs within an individual (Robbins, Judge and Sanghi, 2005). Motivation also takes part in an important role for teachers because it helps to achieve the target in an efficient way. If in schools, the teachers do not have sufficient motivation, then they are les competent, which directly influence the students and the education system.
Quality education has a direct being on national prestige, greatness, and cohesion. The knowledge and skill that young people acquire, help determine their degree of patriotism and contribution to national integration and progress.
The performance of senior secondary schools in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State has taken a downward trend for decade now. The government has however put measures in place through the Ministry of Education to help improve the performances of schools but not much has been achieved on the parts of teachers as a motivating factor to boost their performance.
Low level of performance among the teaching staff may be due to poor motivation and monetary compensation, lacks of training and promotion opportunities, lack of resources or logistics, and the general dissatisfaction with their job. It is against this background that the government removed teachers from civil service salary structure and included twenty seven point five percent (27.5%) inducement incentive package for teachers in primary and secondary schools all over the Federation of Nigeria including Delta State.
School institutions remain a preparatory ground for human development. The teacher is faced with the challenges of educating, socializing, empowering and certifying students, but with the help of good teaching atmosphere (Fafunwa, 2004). By implication, the tasks of a teacher, which include sustaining education system, do not rest on his or her professional competency alone, but on entire features of the school climate (Loukas, 2007).
But a productive school climate needs a good teaching and learning strategies, sufficient instructional materials, richer classroom ecology, pleasant school culture, objective administration and good school physical structures.
Thus, the absence of these can make students in secondary schools to be poorly socialized, uneducated, wrongly informed, half trained, and become unskilled individuals (Carpenters, 2011).
Secondary school is a transitional stage of education (FGN, 2004). This is a forecasting period of youth ability (examining talents) to be specialized as science, social science, art, or commercial students depending on the students’ abilities.
The primary purpose of this, is to prepare individual student to have a strong education (university, polytechnic, college of education), with the simple focus of subject tracking for the purpose of having and producing experts or specialists in subject areas. The success of this is seen as the central duty of the teacher in school (Fafunwa, 2004).
These fascinating objectives led to the compartmentalization of secondary school subjects to the junior secondary school (JSS) and senior secondary school (SSS) subjects, with an inspiration to have diversified field of experts in the workforce of Nigerian social system.
But the failure of school climate in Delta State and Nigeria in general is more attached to public senior secondary school (Nakpodia, 2011). The school climate (environment) is a description of the total written and unwritten, academic, social and administrative rules that affects and influences the behavior of teachers and students in school and beyond. This is why teachers are seen as custodian of the education success and failure(Smith, 2010).
The failure of the school to meet the expectations of students has led to a poor academic performance, frequent absenteeism and dropping out of school.
Consequent upon the observed deterioration in the academic achievement, attitude and values of secondary school students in Delta State public secondary schools, one wonders if the high failure rates and the poor quality of students is not a reflection of the instructional quality n the school.
The motivation for this study therefore is to examine the influence of motivation on job performance of teachers of senior secondary schools in Delta State.
Statement of the Problem
Future leaders of Nigeria and any other country for that matter are those who are still in schools today. The information that they have learned as student and everything they are learning now, will to a large extend, determines what kind of adult they will be in future.
This makes it important that the information they receive should help shape them into productive individuals in their country. To shape individual to be productive future citizens, it is important to ensure that learning environments at school, teaching styles and methods, be the kind that promote and nurture understanding geared toward productive individuals.
Teachers often complain about unfair labour practices such as poor working environment, poor remuneration and poor working conditions. Many teachers have been moving from the teaching field to pursue other jobs in and outside the country due to poor motivation (Nyarko, 2010). As a result of poor motivation, the teaching profession is losing its image in the country (Barne, 1991).
The Nigeria public secondary school is posing unending social challenge to teacher’s professional standard, which affects their abilities for human modifications, cultural reproduction, social recreation, innovation and social placement to suit industrial development (Nwagwu, 2008).
Public schools are owned by government and are predominantly occupied by citizens of lower socio-economic status in Nigerian society and are facing challenges of educational sub-standard, lack of adequate resources, leading to poor teaching, students poor academic performance and dropping out.
A productive school climate needs good teaching and learning strategies, sufficient instructional material, richer class ecology, pleasant school culture, objective administrative and good school physical structure, even if the teacher is motivated, the absence of these can make students in secondary schools, have trained and become unskilled individuals (Carpenters, 2011). But the failure of school climate in Nigeria is more attached to public secondary school (Nakpodia, 2011).
Nigeria public secondary school climate is facing challenges of low operational quality and absence of required facilities to cater for teachers and students which feature rampant examination malpractices, lack of parental commitment to school activities, high rate of bullying, dominant acts of indiscipline abuse, gangsters, illegal substance abuse, lack of proper supervision of students activities and a general hopelessness, leading to students failure, truancy and drop out which society blindly attributed faults to the classroom teacher (Abinboye, 2011).
All things go to show that the school climate is not conducive for both teaching and learning. The schools are observed to be short of instructional materials, poor school structure, inadequate teaching staff and overcrowded classroom (Oluwadare and Julius, 2011).
This acts, may be flushing the danger light as regards the future of the next generation of elders and the fate of education industry in Nigeria. The anticipated future problem becomes more evident when one considers the proportion of the Nigerian people living below the poverty line vis-à-vis the financial involvement of sending one child to the public schools where students/teachers are not motivated.
Sequel to the above, parents and students are losing hope in education policy, as the challenges of maintaining children school activities become expensive and poor parents who want to send their children to government public school find it unproductive in terms of quality (Fafunwa, 2004, Nakpodia, 2011, FRN, 2004).
The question is:
Are the teachers really satisfied enough when they compare themselves and their living conditions to their colleagues in different sectors of the economy within the country.
What procedures are in place to address the issues relating to motivation of teachers in senior secondary schools in Delta State?
Does management adhere to the guidelines put in place to address motivation related problems of the teachers?
To what extent are teachers involved in discussing motivational related problems at the work place?
What changes or improvement would teachers want to see in the way management handles motivational issues?
Do they feel content and fairly rewarded when they engage in social comparison with workers in other sectors of the economy?
It was in the light of the above that the study sought to examine the influence of motivation on job performance of teachers in senior secondary schools in Delta State.
Research Questions
The study examines the influence of motivation on job performance of business educators in senior secondary school in Delta State. In order to guide, direct and focus this study, the following research questions are being raised:
Can increase in salary and allowances influence motivation on job performance of business educators in public secondary schools in Delta State?
Does promotion influence motivation on job performance of business educators in public senior secondary schools in Delta State?
To what extent does working condition and environment influence motivation on job performance of business education in public senior secondary schools in Delta State?
Whether differences exist in teachers’ job performance between public and private senior secondary schools in Delta State?
Whether teacher’s motivation differs in public and private senior secondary schools in Delta State?
Research Hypotheses
The study examines the influence of motivation on job performance of business educators in senior secondary schools in Delta State. Arising from the research problem and the objectives, the study intends to answer the following research hypotheses:
There is no significant relationship between increase in salary and allowance and motivation on job performance of business educators in public senior secondary schools in Delta State.
There is no significant relationship between promotion and motivation on job performance of business educators in public senior secondary schools in Delta State.
There is no significant relationship between working conditions and environment and motivation on job performance of business educators in public senior secondary schools in Delta State.
There is no significant relationship between teachers job performance and differences based on public and private senior secondary schools in Delta State.
There is no significant relationship between teachers motivation and differences based on public and private senior secondary schools in Delta State.
The Purpose of the Study
One of the major issues in education in the world today is the influence of motivation on teachers’ performance of work. However, in a number of countries where research on teachers’ motivation have been done such as America, United Kingdom, Asia, Malawi, Ghana, Zambia and Kenya teachers’ motivation has been neglected even though it is clear that without teachers’ motivation, not much could be achieved in their performance.
Demotivated teachers do not take long time with learners but take other job alongside teaching as a fulfillment of their frustration. This revelation led to this study focusing on the influence of motivation on job performance of educators/teachers of senior secondary schools in Delta State.
The study will be guided by the following objectives as follows: to establish how promotion influences motivation of teachers on job performance in public and private senior secondary schools in Delta State; to determine whether working conditions and environment influence motivation of teachers on job performance in senior secondary schools in Delta State; to determine whether increase in salary and allowances influence motivation of teachers on job performance; to identify if the teachers’ motivation and job performance differs in public and private sectors; to identify the factors of motivation that affects teachers job performance in both sectors; and to determine whether head teachers/principals of schools, have influence on motivation of teachers to perform in senior secondary schools in Delta State.
Significance of the Study
Education is a greatly valued social service in every country, and in Nigeria it is seen as the key to success in the effort to develop the human and material resources of the country. It is also conceptualized as the panacea for all the ills of the Nigerian society ranging from the problems of creating national consciousness and welding the many various ethnic groups into a united and patriotic citizenry of a nation-state, to the problems of eradicating ignorance, superstition, corruption and even armed robbery.
Alam (2011) attributed the high failure rate in the secondary schools to lack of interest, inadequate facilities and poor quality of teaching. This study looks at the influence of motivation on job performance of business teachers in senior secondary schools in Delta State.
The study is very significant because motivation of teachers is of utmost importance to organization in order to be able to meet individual needs and achieve organizational goal. Teachers when motivated tend to be more efficient and contribute positively to the success of the organization.
The significance of this research is that it will help to identify the importance of motivation that has strong impact on the productivity and performance of teachers in Delta State senior secondary schools.
The study will help to improve the teachers’ performance by motivational factors in order to enhance the educational system. The study is significant as the findings would be useful to teachers as they work toward providing learning experiences that are motivating the students.
The findings would be of immense value to the school counselors as they offer career counseling, vocational guidance, psychological, occupational and academic challenges meaningful.
It is believed that the findings of the study and the subsequent recommendations would bring to the fore the need to re-assess business studies as a subject in senior secondary school in Delta State. Such a re-assessment would have implication for students who may wish to change their perception toward business studies education and the teachers, their instructional strategies.
The practical implication of this study may help organizations (schools, colleges) to improve the motivation level of teachers to have a good performance in order to enhance the educational system.
The research shows great importance to motivation of teachers in the field of education. The study would be beneficial to teachers, head teachers or principals, as their performance plays an important role in an education system. If teachers are not motivated and having low performance, then they can not give their best efforts.
The research is significant because it will help the head teachers or principals to recognize that which things motivate the teachers due which they could improve their performance.
The outcome of the study would be useful to other organizations which may have motivation problem. The findings and recommendations could be rolled out for comprehensive and effective motivational packages for teachers.
Most importantly, the study would contribute to improvement in educational practices in Delta State and Nigeria in general.
Scope of the Study
Geographically, the study will be carried out in Delta State, with Sapele Local Government Area, as a case study. In content terms, the study examines the influence of motivation on job performances of business educators in both public and private senior secondary schools in Delta State.
Definition of Terms
Motivation: Whatever desires or wants a worker needs from an employer which activates his behavior to perform at his best.
Business Studies: The study of subjects connected with money and managing business.
Employee: Is a person who is paid to work for an organization or business enterprise.
Behaviour: Is the manner that an individual does things in a particular way.
Educator: A teacher in a college or secondary school.
Public Schools: Schools which are funded and administered by government appointees and who teachers and other staff are paid by government.
Private School: An approved place of learning owned by an individual or group of people and administered by them.
Teacher: Is a person with multiple role in learning process. He is responsible for what happens in the classroom environment and is expected to deal effectively with educational needs of his students.