STAFF MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF NATIONAL INLAND WATERWAYS AUTHORITY (NIWA) LOKOJA

This study evaluates staff motivation on performance in public organizations in National Inland Waterways Authority. The intention of the researcher is to elicit responses from the staff of National Inland Waterways Authority on the effect of this motivation on organizational productive. 90 respondents were randomly selected as the population of the study. The study used descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) to answer research questions posed for the study. The result obtained from the analysis showed that there is strong relationship between Staff motivation and performance in National Inland Waterways Authority. The study reveals that motivational incentives given to workers in the agency have significant influence on the organizational performance. This is in line with Alderfer’s ERG theory of motivation which emphasizes that fairness in the remuneration package tends to produce higher performance from workers which result to greater output in the organization. The researcher recommends that other Public organization should adopt this kind of motivational incentive system in their organization to improve their performance. On the bases of these findings, employers are continually challenged to develop pay policies and procedures that will enable them to attract, motivate, retain and satisfy their employees. And also Management of NIWA should invest in human development (employees training), and technological modernization. This is because, one of the most efficient and effective methods of improving workers’ productivity is simply to train and retrain them in the skills they need to perform their job functions. The researcher therefore suggest that more research should be conducted on the relationship and influence of rewards on workers performance using many private and public organizations which will be a handy tool that could be used to provide solutions to individual conflict that has resulted from poor reward system.