Motivation Dilemma: A Case of Uganda

Abstract

Organisations are concerned with having productive, committed, and enthusiastic workers for excellent organisational performance. To achieve this, firms have to put motivation at the centre of their operations. In Uganda and possibly world over there are many cases of de-motivated and frustrated workers. De-motivated employees do not only harm the firm's performance but their lives as well both career wise and physically. This
study was set out to explore the issue of motivation dilemma in Uganda. To achieve that the following has been done:
• An appraisal of the motivation theories and assumptions;
• A survey on whether or not money is a motivator; and
• Development of a motivation framework relevant to the Ugandan
context .
The appraisal of motivation theories indicates that relying on principles of one theory to motivate workers is inappropriate. Besides this, none of the theories was developed in view of the Ugandan context yet the national context is a factor to be considered while designing motivation strategies. The manager (supervisor) must evaluate the relevance of these different theories and judge how best and to what extent they might be applied to a
particular work situation. Two major assumptions people hold on motivation were reviewed. One assumption is that it is difficult to motivate people and the other that motivated people perform better. These assumptions can be misleading when designing appropriate motivation strategies. A survey on whether or not money is a motivator was done by first
reviewing literature on the issue. This was followed by primary data collection from 17 randomly selected organisations in Uganda. A total of 396 respondents were used. The research tools included a questionnaire and interview schedule. The questionnaire used was based on existing literature and views of three raters who recommended its use. In-depth interviews with key people in the human resource department of the sampled
organizations were administered. The research design of the study was based on qualitative and quantitative methods. Descriptive statistics was be used to draw inferences about the population utilising both inductive and deductive reasoning. Critical discussions and debates on the research issue have been put forward. Cross tabulations have been done to establish a relationship between pay and employee motivation.
The survey results have mainly looked at two major levels in the organizational hierarchy. The findings have indicated that of the seven job factors that were listed, 60% of the respondents ranked pay (monetary reward) as the most important. When asked to attach weights to the different factors that influenced respondents to: join the organisation, stay
on their jobs, be satisfied with their jobs, recommend a friend to join, and improve productivity; again the salary factor was highly scored. This contrasts what some earlier researchers adduced that money is simply a hygiene factor. Another key finding is that there is a significant positive relationship between pay increments and productivity (R=.602, p< 0.05). This implies the need for a motivation model that considers monetary
reward as motivators. Finally, a motivation framework based on available literature and survey results has been developed. The model relates the organization hierarchy to
the motivation zones. The three major organization levels; top, middle, and lower are linked to the comfort, stability, and entry motivation zones respectively. Throughout all the zones managers have to use both monetary and non-monetary rewards but the proportions differ depending on ones motivation zone.

Mtafiti Mwafrika Vol. 20 2008: pp. 1-91