REWARD MANAGEMENT AS A TOOL FOR EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

REWARD MANAGEMENT AS A TOOL FOR EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study focuses on Reward Management as a Tool for Employee Motivation in Hospitality Industry in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to: determine the extent to which recognition affects employee’s work attitude, examine the relationship between salary and employee drive, ascertain the relationship between promotion and employee morale, determine the extent to which empowerment affects employee productivity in the hospitality industry in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. The study had a total population of 620 employees drawn from nine (9) hotels studied. A sample size of 243 was drawn using Trek (2004) Formula at 5% error of tolerance and 95% level of confidence. Instruments used for data collection were questionnaire and oral interview guide. A total of 243 copies of the questionnaire were distributed while 230 copies were returned. A cross sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. Hypotheses were tested using linear regression model and Pearson product moment correlation with the help of special package for social sciences (SPSS). The findings indicate that recognition had significant positive effect on employee workplace attitude in the hospitality industry in Ebonyi State (r=0.943; F = 1.896; t = 43.544; p < 0.05). There was a positive relationship between salary and employee drive (r=0.955; F = 2.453; t = 49.530; p < 0.05). There was a significant positive relationship between promotion and employee morale (r = 0.89; p = 0.000 < 0.05). There was also a positive significant impact of empowerment on employee productivity (r = 0.797; F= 33.108; t = 15.734; p < 0.05) in the hospitality industry in Ebonyi State. The study concluded that reward management is an effective tool to motivate employees and at the same time increases organizational performance. The study recommended that the employees should be given higher responsibility for the operation of the task assigned to them in order to achieve organizational effectiveness.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.2              Background of the Study

The hospitality industry has become so competitive that it is now imperative for the hotels to work out new ways to increase their customer patronage. This can be achieved by improving the quality of service through innovative incentives, re-orientation and training of hotel staff in order to improve the performance of staff of the hotels. In some organizations including some hotels in the hospitality industry, the management of people at work is part of the management process. To understand the critical importance of people in the organization is to recognize that the human element and organization are synonymous. A well managed organization sees an average worker as the source of its productivity and profitability. Viewed from this perspective, if the workers are not happy about the reward they expect from their effort, they may not perform at expected levels of productivity. The only way that the workers will fulfill the organization’s dream is to share in the dream of the organization. Reward systems are therefore the mechanism that makes this happen in the hotels (Brown, 2001).

In the current global economy with its prevailing competitive environment, firms mostly realize that their employees are their overall most useful resource. Firms’ organization structures are heavily dependent on employees, who influence the organization through their engagement, attitudes and motivation (Bruzelius and Skärvad, 2004). The future of corporations are in the hand of people acting on behalf of the company as employees, and the importance of human resources have been brought to centre stage, more than ever before (Bhattecharya and Mukherjee, 2009). Whiteley (2002) describes that all people are concerned with motivation to some extent and one thing that all employees have in common is the fact that higher motivation increase performance. However, to get employees to outperform during all conditions is one of the most difficult challenges managers are facing (Nohria, Groysberg and Lee, 2008).

REWARD MANAGEMENT AS A TOOL FOR EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA