EFFECT OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION ON PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED HOTELS IN NORTH CENTRAL STATES IN NIGERIA

The issue of employee motivation has continually posed a big challenge to business organizations around the globe especially in the hospitality industry where high levels of performance affect or play a major role in determining the profitability, growth, development, stability and future success of an organization. Therefore, Hotels in a bid to achieve success in maintaining a competitive edge over their rivals as well as avoid a steady decline in the performance levels of its employees, must ensure that members of the workforce are adequately motivated. The study examined the effect of employee motivation on performance among selected hotels in North Central Nigeria. The study of motivation in the Hotel Industry was identified as the main research problem as not much research and data is available on employee motivation in hotels and if and how this affects employee performance. The study adopted a descriptive and causal research design as well as the survey method in investigating the effects of employee motivation on performance. The entire population of the study was 66 selected hotels and a well- structured self-administered questionnaire was used as the main tool for data collection and was administered to total of 124 respondents. Reliability of the research instrument was calculated and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.929. The data was analyzed using percentage distribution, descriptive statistics, correlation matrix and multiple regression analysis. The result of the study revealed that employee recognition and compensation has a significant effect on employee performance while work condition and environment, training and career development, promotion processes and procedures and bonus payments has less significant effect on performance. The study concluded that although both intrinsic and extrinsic factors are significant predictors of performance, extrinsic factors appear to be more significant or valued by respondents in the hotels that were studied and recommended that apart from focusing on monetary incentives other motivational factors such as praise, letter of recognition, best performer of the year award, travel and air ticket offers, medical insurance and social security funds should be incorporated within the motivation practices. In addition, management should ensure that rewards and benefits are fairly, justly and competitively allocated to the deserving employees.