MOTIVATION IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NTA & AIT, ENUGU

ABSTRACT

The research is on “Motivation in Public & Private sector organizations: A comparative study”. The main objective of the study is to compare motivation in public and private sector organizations. The researcher analyzed the data collected based on the responses from the questionnaire distributed. The chi-square test was used to test the hypotheses. The major findings of the study were as follows: Both public and private sector employees in Nigeria are not adequately motivated. There are some differences between the factors that motivate public sector employees and those that motivate the Private sector employees. Efficient and capable civil servants are not exiting the public sector organizations to the private sector organizations. The conclusion drawn from the study is that Lack of highly motivated workforce has been a major problem facing the public and private sector employees in Nigeria. Private sector employees are envious of their public sector counterparts on issues including job security, responsibility and individual growth, especially as it relates to opportunity for study leave. Salary/incentives ranks highest on the motivating factors for private sector employees at 40%, followed by achievement at 35% while responsibility and individual growth ranked only 15%. However Job security, which ranked second highest for the public sector employees at 28.6%, was not even considered at all by the private sector employees. For the public sector employees, recognition and service ranks top at 31% followed by job security at 28.6%. Salary and incentives also ranks high in the factors that motivate the public sector employees. The only difference is that it is ranked 3rd by the public sector employees as against 1st priority by the private sector employees. Interestingly, majority of both the private and public sector employees interviewed seem not to be interested in cross sector employment. It is only when considering pay and financial packages do public sector employees feel themselves to be worse off than if working in the private sector. Even then, some private sector employees still think the public sector has it better when it comes to remuneration. Statistical analysis provides strong evidence of a blurring between the two sectors on several key issues. Overall, public sector employment is seen as more attractive, especially at this new era of implementation of federal government monetization policy across the civil service. There is also the issue of uniform salary scales. Based on the findings from this study, the following recommendations were proffered: Both public and private sector organizations in Nigeria should adopt suitable and effective motivational strategies to increase productivity and also to avoid brain drain. Employers of labor should evolve effective and efficient human resources development strategies that would carefully study the motivational needs of their employees and apply same to be able to compete favorably in the international labor market, improve the national economy as well as the living standards of the people.