ABSTRACT
Organizations effectiveness is enhanced due to their willingness to
promote a sense of commitment and satisfaction among its employees.
Employees commitment leads to desirable outcomes for organization in
terms of increased productivity, reduction in absenteeism and turnover.
Committed employees will work harder and be more likely to go the extra
mile to achieve organizational objectives. Motivated employees are more
productive. The motivational factors include: job security, regular
promotion and opportunities for development, interesting work,
environment and satisfaction towards salary. The population of this
study was drawn from members of staff of educational and banking
institutions within Akoka, Yaba, and Surulere Local Government Areas of
Lagos State. The population consist of 95 employees who are under the
employment of the mentioned institutions. The Questionnaire form
contained questions in three sections that displayed the biographic
data, socio-economic data and research questions relating to the
respondents. Four points like scale as, (1) very much satisfied (2) much
satisfied (3) somehow satisfied (4) not at all satisfied was utilized
to evaluate job satisfaction and employees commitment to work. The
presentation of findings commences with description statistics. The
presentation of demographic findings followed the descriptive
statistics. Presentation and discussion of data analysis then follows.
The Pearson’s coefficient of correlation method was used to show the
relationship between job satisfaction and employee’s commitment to
work. The reliability of the instrument was determined by the use of
test-retest method and correlation test was used to test for
significance of differences between the first round and second round
when it was administered. A calculated value of 0.80 shows that the
questionnaire was reliable. The hypotheses of this study were tested at
alpha 0.05 level of significance.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of Study
Employee commitment to work and job satisfaction are of major interest
in the field of organizational behaviour and the practice of human
resource management. Organizations usually see the average worker as the
root source of quality and productivity gains. Such organizations do
not look to capital investment, but to employees as the fundamental
source of improvement. An organization is effective to the degree to
which it achieves its goals.
An effective organization will make sure that there is a spirit of
cooperation and sense of commitment and satisfaction within its sphere
of influence. In order to make employees satisfied and committed to
their jobs there is the need for strong and effective motivation at the
various levels, departments and sections of these organizations.
Luthans (1998) asserts that motivation is the process that arouses,
energises, directs and sustains behaviour and performance. That is, it
is the process of stimulating people to achieve a desired task. The
concept of job satisfaction has been vital for organizations which aim
to achieve organizational excellence.
As Amstrong (1999) says, job satisfaction refers to the attitudes and
feelings people have about their work. Positive and favourable
attitudes towards the job indicate job satisfaction while negative and
unfavourable attitudes indicate job dissatisfaction. Amstrong argues
that commitment to work that helps organizations to be more successful,
is most likely to happen when employees are motivated, feel committed to
the organization and when their jobs give them high level of
satisfaction. It involves employees going an extra mile in the conduct
of their duties which is imperative to the achievement of organizational
goals.
Management must understand that people work for reward of some sort,
that the organization has a common duty to pay wages and that there
exists a wage/effort bargain (employees work for certain standards in
return for certain rewards). They need to balance the fixed and variable
movement through the salary structure to provide incentives and reward
performance.
Management needs to balance the requirement of attracting and retaining
suitable skilled staff with the need to keep labour cost under control.
The employment package to achieve these objectives normally consists of a
number of elements which may exist together or in different
combinations. These elements can be split into financial rewards such as
salary, allowances, bonuses and productivity payments, and fringe
benefits such as pension, subsidized loan and medical insurance scheme.
According to Higgs (1991), factors which are mostly important to
employees in ensuring their commitment and are mostly integrated in
organizations are as follows:
1) degree of security of employment; possible existence of non-redundancy agreement;
2) the variety and challenge offered in the job or career, the
opportunities to develop leadership skills, introduction of job
enrichment, job enlargement and job rotation schemes;
3) degree of status given within the firm or job; and
4) degree of individual job satisfaction. Various motivational schemes are is existence.
Human attitude to work is more or less determined by the satisfaction
derived by workers in and out of the work environment, which as well has
an impact on the production output. Human wants and need are unlimited
and the satisfaction of these wants is the sole aim of people engaging
in a particular task and it depends on the extent to which these jobs
can satisfy their needs which determine their level of commitment.
Higgs (1991) asserts that the way employees perceive motivation within
organizations influences their level of satisfaction and commitment to
work. Good incentives within organizations produces better output once
there is a willingness to perform better by employees.
Statement of Problem
This study is focused on the problems affecting the job satisfaction of
employees in the education and banking institutions and their commitment
to work in such environment. The employee’s grievances and complains
are diverse to their peculiar environment. However, some of the most
pressing are briefly explained in the following paragraphs.
Interpersonal relationship between the employee’s and management top the
list of grievances of employees in the education and banking
institutions. The usual complain is about master servant relationship,
which is not based on professional relationship.
Work conditions is a very serious matter because most conditions given
to the employee’s in this sector is seen as not meeting up to
international standard. The employee’s in the banking sector complain
about the mandate given to them in the marketing department, that they
should make sure they have clients with a portfolio of not less than 10
million every month, or they will be sacked. Lack of job security in the
education and banking sectors also create a negative impact on the
employee’s.
The work itself creates grievances between the employee’s and
management. The workers in the educational sectors usual complain is
that they are not given adequate training materials to teach the
learners, in order to enhance the quality of education dissemination.
The employee’s in the banking sector usually complain about the banking
hours, with closing time mostly in the night
Quality of supervision also brings about grievances in both sectors.
The level of supervision and its subsequent result/report are expected
to be used for the appraisal of each employees contribution to the goals
of their organisation. If such supervision and its outcome are not
properly handled to the expectation of the employees, it usually leads
to conflict.
The feeling of achievement creates negative impact on the employee’s
attitude if all their effort and commitment to the institutions is not
shown to them by management. In the banking sector whose employee’s
expectation is to get to the top hierarchy in each of their department
and the management feels otherwise about such employee’s aims,
grievances arise.
Purpose of Study
The purpose of establishing any form of organisation is to achieve a
specific goal and objective in the economy. The effective and efficient
use of both material and human resources which are combined in the
production process are essential for organisations to achieve their
aims. In order for the organisation to satisfy its needs (goal) through
increased productivity and maximum profit, its workers as well as those
who put in their human efforts need to be satisfied with their position
in the organisation. In that sense job satisfaction is likely to foster
commitment to work on the employees. The purpose of this study is to
investigate, analyse, and make recommendations to get employees to
identify with and care about their jobs. The greater the success at
this, the more the jobs become important to each employees self image
and work identity.
The objectives of this study therefore are:-
1) to determine the factors that could motivate employees to put extra commitment;
2) to determine the relationship between job
satisfaction and worker attitude toward organisational goal attainment;
3) to discover the influence of co-operation and
interpersonal relation among workers on their commitment to work;
4) to discover the extent to which promotion and recognition can affect worker’s commitment; and
5) to determine the degree of satisfaction of workers with their condition of service.
Research Questions
1. is the nature of your job commensurate with international standard?
2. Is the monthly salary and allowance you earn commensurate with your social economic needs?
3. Is the work load in you establishment distributed evenly among the employees?
4. Are the incentives provisions in your organization enhancing your satisfaction?
5. Are you satisfied with the work itself?
6. Is the annual vacation provision in your organization satisfactory?
7. Is the training provision in your organization encourage employee’s development?
8. is there prospect of carrier growth and development in your organization?
9. What is the level of relationship between the employee’s and management in your organization?
10. What is the level of job security in your organization?
Research Hypotheses
In order to carry out this project, some working hypotheses were
developed. These hypotheses are ideas, or beliefs put forward by the
researcher for the purpose of helping and guiding in arriving at
reasonable conclusion.
The research hypotheses for this project are;
(1) There is no significant relationship between workers feeling of job satisfaction and their commitment to work.
(2) There is no significant difference between educational employees and those in the banking sectors.
(3) There is no relationship between satisfaction of workers economic need and their commitment to work.
(4) There is no relationship between the work itself and employee’s commitment to work.
(5) There is no significant relationship between employee’s feeling of achievement and commitment to work.
Significance of the Study
This study will provide the basis for which the employees, employers,
trade unions, government and the entire management of the organisation
will understand what constitute job satisfaction and employees
commitment to their jobs on duties. The following group will benefit
from this research work:
The result of the study will help in improving the commitment of
employees to work because, if they are well satisfied with their jobs,
their productivity will be high. The employers and employees work
directly in the organization. It will help the employers to know the
level of the employees commitment to work. If the level of the employees
is low, the employers will through the help of this research work, know
how to motivate the employees so that they will be committed to the
work in order to enhance productivity. This study will help the
board of directors since they control the activities of the
organization, to ensure efficient management in the organization and
also in monitoring the activities of the workers in the organization.
This research work will also help the trade union to have the knowledge
of what constitute the problem of an organization, and as a result,
solve it with a common front. Trade union can use it for collective
bargaining. This study will help the government to plan the economy in
time of labour law. Labour law comes as a result of the trade union’s
observation where the employees are fond of expressing their grievances
by embarking on strikes. It will now create an avenue in solving the
problem of non-commitment after considering the structure that will be
put in place, and it will help other researchers to lay a good
foundation for their research work because, it is a study that is
carried out for the benefit of mankind.
Scope of the Study
The main focus of the study is on the permanent senior and junior
staff of educational and banking institutions within, Akoka, Yaba and
Surulere Local Government areas of Lagos State.