Analysis of the relationship between motivation and professional performance: a case study of estate surveying and valuation firms in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the relationship between motivation and professional performance of employees within an organization, particularly, Estate Surveying and Valuation (ESV) Firms in Lagos, Nigeria. To achieve this aim, 190 ESV Firms were purposively sampled from the 362 ESV Firms within Lagos, Nigeria. Data for this study was obtained through a structured questionnaire distributed to the 190 purposive selected employees of the ESV firms (one employee per firm) on matters pertaining to their motivation. Similarly, management of the respective firms were sequentially required to rate the level of professional performance of their employees. The data collected on the rankings of factors that motivates employees’ was analyzed through Principal Components Analysis, while Goodman and Kruskal's gamma was used to analyze the relationship between motivation and professional performance. Since, Goodman and Kruskal's gamma analysis does not make any distinction between employees’ performance and motivation, Somers' delta analysis was further carried out to measure the strength and direction of association that exists between employees’ performance and motivation. The result showed that all the motivation variables are explained by the extracted factors, well fitted with the factor solution and appropriate for explaining motivation. These variables through the Principal Components Analysis were classified into intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factor as germane to the Firms. A strong positive relationship between motivation and employee professional performance at .000 significant level was established (d = .875, p < .0005). It is recommended that employers, professionals and other stakeholders should match all the motivational factors while dealing with their employees to succeed in the workplace and attain more competence in their professional performance.

Keywords: Employee, Firms, Motivation, Performance, Professional