CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The topic is chosen in recognition of the fact that in many organizations today, administrators and managers alike are faced with innumerable management challenges especially problems connected with motivating people. In discussing this aspect of management problem, renowned authors have agreed that motivation rightly comes under activation.
Practitioners are also fully aware that besides activating, one of the four major functions of management is the maintenance of congenial work environment of performance of individuals working together in the groups toward the accomplishment of a common objective.
To be able to create and maintain this conducive organizational atmosphere necessary for inducing productivity geared towards achieving predetermined objective in the organizational, administrators must have a thorough knowledge and understanding of human motivation.
Motivation in organizations has received increased attention in recent years among practicing managers and organizational researchers. Managers in all type of organizations are continually faced with the fact that vast differences exist in the performance of a group of employees, Some of them perform at high levels and need little or no supervision an appear to enjoy what they are doing while on the other hand, others perform only at a marginal level and require constant supervision and are often absent from office.
Motivation is an important concept to behavioural scientist. Many scientist like Elton Mayor, Urwick, Gullie, Abraham Maslow, Aldefer and Frederick Taylor embarked on researches on the concept and have found out that through motivational factors or inputs, things like money-wages, bonuses and other incentives, the lot of organizations and employees can be improved and that without proper integration and direction from management, the organizational goal might not be achieved.
There are at least three major reasons that account for emergence of motivation as a principal of interest First, the ever increasing external forces of national and international competition, economic, social, and technological and- governmental conditions have forced management to develop and acquire new techniques and mechanisms to increase or maintain levels of organizational efficiency and effectiveness. This requires the effective utilization of all the resources of the organization.
Second and closely related to the first is the growing perspective of considering human resources in terms of an infinite labour pool in which frequent changes can occur because of the endless supply of qualified individuals. More emphasis is being placed by managers on developing, stimulating and maintaining an effective workforce at all skill levels through the use of such strategies as job design, management by objectives and skill training.
Finally, the views of people in the work place have undergone a significant change. Motivation theorists have developed slightly different viewpoints of motivation that place emphasis on different concepts in general. The differing views about motivation leads to a number of different conclusions:
(i)    The analysis of motivation should concentrate on factors that arouse or incite a person's activities.
(ii)   Motivation is process oriented and concerns choice direction and goal
(iii) Motivation IS also concerned with how behaviour is started, sustained or stopped and what kind of subjective reaction is present in the person while this is going on.
The major theme of motivational theory began moving from philosophical to move psychological. The theories that evolved motivation attempted to explain the behaviour of individuals through an investigation of variables that focused both on the individual and the situation in which the individual interacted.
The early managerial motivational theories have been identified as prescription models because they purported to tell the managers how to motivate employees. To understand motivation, one first must comprehend the process of human behaviour. This is done through the study of attitudes, needs and cognitive process. From the managerial perspective, we can say that motivation relates to any conscious attempts on that part of a person or group to influence the direction and the rate of behaviour towards the accomplishment of organizational goals.
Motivation should be considered as a principal topic of interest to managers, it must be treated differently from any other named management function.
Increasing number of internal and external forces of national and international compilation, economic, social, technological and governmental conditions have forced management to develop and acquire new techniques and mechanisms to maintain levels of organizational efficiency and effectiveness. This requires the effective utilization of all the resources of the organization including human and non-human resources.