CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The survival of any organization, whether in a period of plenty, scarcity or turbulence, depends on many factors, among which employee motivation is paramount (Awoniyi, Akilo, Kazeem & Awoniyi, 2022).

An organization may be understood both as an entity and as a process of coordinating individual effort to accomplish a common objective. It is a group of people bound together so as to act in unity towards a predetermined goal. For an organization to be formed and to achieve its goals, two broad components, human and material, must interact. Of these two, the human component is without doubt the most important, the most difficult to handle and the most distinctive. Employees are the life-wire of the organization: they mobilize the lifeless material components that would otherwise remain inert or hidden (Chiriță, Ungureanu & Sbîrcea, 2024).

Human beings are complex, rational and unpredictable, and so deserve special attention, whereas materials are inanimate. Each person is unique and holds personal aspirations and goals that are often at odds with those of the organization in which he or she works. The many complexities involved, whether socio-biological or emotional, shape attitudes and behaviours that are frequently erratic and hard to predict, and this makes people difficult to manage. Yet the employee is regarded as an organization's greatest asset, because without people virtually nothing can take place. Human importance runs from the setting up of the factory floor to the top management level, where strategic planning, organizing, directing and coordinating actually take place. The manager must therefore create in the employee the right state of mind, emotional stability and positive work attitude that favour the accomplishment of organizational goals. Managers must strive to motivate staff adequately so as to draw out a positive work attitude and ensure that work is performed in line with the standards the organization has set. To do this, they must recognize the need for, and the importance of, effective motivation. Only in this way can productivity, together with financial benefits, be improved and returns on investment made worthwhile. This research examines the nature of the Nigerian employee, with particular interest in the staff of the soft drink industry in Enugu. It seeks to establish how, and with what means, these employees can be effectively motivated to work at their best in the industry.

Contemporary behavioural scientists are investigating a wide range of organizational problems, from the effect of perceived equity on motivation to ways of enriching low-level assembly and line work (Chiriță et al., 2024). The effort to understand the causes of work attitudes, such as rising labour turnover, has led many researchers to study their impact on productivity. Reports from Nigerian manufacturing illustrate the point: frequent staff turnover has been traced to poor remuneration and to the loss of skilled workers who move elsewhere in search of better pay (Awoniyi et al., 2022). Motivation has been defined in many ways, and the main strands of these definitions are set out below.

One view treats motivation as a drive to perform. It covers the effort, willingness and persistence that reflect a person's desire to perform, and its presence or absence in an organization leads employees to be generally satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs. In this sense motivation is a label for the processes that determine the choice to start an effort, the choice of how much effort to spend, and the choice to keep spending it over a period in order to reach a given performance objective. Reviews of the literature describe motivational theories in similar terms, as accounts of how effort is initiated and maintained (Chiriță et al., 2024).

In a broader sense, fringe benefits in an organization should serve a clear purpose, whether they are required by law, written into the contract of employment, or provided at the discretion of management (Olatunji, Olufemi & Omotayo, 2021). One of the major problems confronting management is how to motivate workers to carry out tasks so as to meet or exceed predetermined standards. Motivation can also be seen as an energizing force that induces, compels and sustains behaviour.

It is not easy to motivate an individual, and the success of any motivational effort depends on the needs of the particular employee for whom it is designed. Reviews of motivation theory make the same point, noting that employees can be properly stimulated only when their own needs and expectations are understood (Chiriță et al., 2024).

Motivation is also an internal psychological process whose presence or absence is inferred from observed performance. Motivated behaviour is characterized by persistence and by direction towards a goal, and it results from felt needs (Chiriță et al., 2024).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Many organizations, particularly in the soft drink industry, are burdened by problems attributed to motivation, financial benefits and productivity. These problems include high employee turnover, employees taking up engagements in other, similar organizations, a lack of trust between employers and employees, and problems of work ethics and performance. They become more visible when set beside the general public perception of the soft drink industry. As a result, some organizations link productivity to prestige and status within the organization, while others attribute it to the needs, expectations and values of employees. The evidence from Nigerian beverage and food manufacturers suggests that poorly managed reward systems contribute to low productivity and low performance (Awoniyi et al., 2022), and that food and beverage firms often fail to follow their own reward plans and programmes, leaving staff dissatisfied (Amaeshi, 2019).

The concern over how to motivate workers so as to raise productivity has, however, not been resolved in any organization. Although several measures have been taken over the last two decades, unfortunately not much has been achieved. Moreover, empirical work on how financial and non-financial compensation shape employee motivation in Nigerian food and beverage manufacturing is still limited (Ebuzoeme, 2026), and little of it addresses soft drink firms in Enugu.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this study are as follows:

a. To investigate the impact of financial motivation on employee productivity, based on staff perception, in 7up Bottling Company and the Nigerian Bottling Company.

b. To find out how increases in salary, fringe benefits and other financial benefits could make employees happier with their jobs and hence make them perform better.

c. To study strategies that will assist employers in motivating employees.

d. To study how non-financial benefits, such as praise, letters of commendation and time off duty for work well done, motivate employees.

e. To examine how job enrichment motivates workers.

1.4 Relevant Research Questions

The study seeks to answer the following research questions:

a. Do increases in salary and fringe benefits motivate employees?

b. How do regular promotion, status enhancement, job security and financial incentives motivate workers?

c. How do employees rate their various needs and the financial benefits derived from meeting them?

1.5 Hypotheses

The hypotheses for this study, stated in null form, are as follows:

H01: Increases in salary and/or fringe benefits will not make workers feel happy at work or enhance their confidence in the organization.

H02: The enhancement of status and prestige that accompanies promotion is not more important than its financial gains.

H03: Regular promotion, or bright chances of promotion, cannot boost morale or lead to better performance in the service of an organization.

H04: Job security is not enough to win staff commitment in organizations.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This research focuses on the Nigerian Bottling Company and 7up Bottling Company located in Enugu, both of which fairly represent the Nigerian soft drink industry. It further attempts to offer solutions to basic problems by testing some propositions against the Nigerian situation. The study is subject to the following limitations:

• The level of frankness in the respondents' answers to questions is open to doubt.
• Official bureaucracy tends to frustrate the free flow of communication between subordinates and their superiors.
• The study is limited to 7up and the Nigerian Bottling Company, both of which are major actors in the Nigerian soft drink market, and within them to the Enugu offices only.

1.7 Significance of the Study

a. The study will serve as a guide to the management of Nigerian soft drink companies in particular, and Nigerian managers in general, in determining the best way of obtaining the best output from employees who are presently demoralized by the prevailing socio-economic hardship. Evidence from Nigerian beverage companies shows that a reward system has a significant positive effect on employee productivity and that rewards should be fair, realistic, and offered in both intrinsic and extrinsic forms (Awoniyi et al., 2022).

b. The study draws on Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation, which separates hygiene factors from motivators. According to this theory, the motivators are achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and the work itself. Once an employer provides staff with these factors, good results and the accomplishment of organizational goals can be expected, financial benefits will follow, and the individual becomes happy in the job (Chiriță et al., 2024).

c. Evidence from different empirical studies shows that there is no single motivator for everyone. Needs differ, and the importance that different people attach to them also differs. Studies of Nigerian brewing companies, for example, found that recognition and praise, pay and bonuses, the work environment, and training and development were all positively related to employee performance (Amaeshi, 2019). In order to motivate a person to put in his or her best effort at work, the following factors have been identified:

1. wages and salaries;
2. job security;
3. promotion;
4. job enrichment;
5. increased responsibility.

d. Man always has needs to satisfy. These needs can be arranged in a hierarchy from the basic needs to the higher-order needs, as in Maslow's model. Once a particular need is satisfied, it ceases to be a motivator and another need emerges (Chiriță et al., 2024). Reward for hard work is therefore essential.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Motivation: Motivation is the energizing force, consciously applied through skilful appeal to employees' basic needs, that compels a positive work attitude in order to achieve organizational goals.

Employees: Employees refers generally to the members of staff of an organization, both management and non-management, and is used interchangeably with workers.

Work Attitude: Work attitude refers to an employee's state of mind as expressed in concrete action, behaviour, or the manner in which duties are performed.

Promotion: Promotion is the elevation of an employee to a better job, better in terms of greater responsibility, enhanced authority, more prestige or status, greater skill, and increased remuneration and fringe benefits.

Employees' Needs: Employees' needs are the basic wants of employees, the desire to satisfy which activates their energy, and the fulfilment of which engenders positive work attitudes. In this study these needs are grouped into three categories, namely existence, relatedness and growth needs, in line with the ERG model that condenses Maslow's hierarchy (Chiriță et al., 2024).

Productivity: Productivity is concerned with goal attainment. It is the successful conversion of inputs into outputs at the lowest possible cost. Productivity therefore implies both efficiency and effectiveness.

REFERENCES

Amaeshi, U. F. (2019). Reward management for improved performance of Nigerian brewing companies. PM World Journal, 8(11).

Awoniyi, C. I., Akilo, A. M., Kazeem, T. C., & Awoniyi, S. O. M. (2022). Reward system and employee productivity of selected beverage companies in Southwest, Nigeria. UNILAG Journal of Business, 8(1).

Chiriță, R. A. M., Ungureanu, C.-E., & Sbîrcea, I.-A. (2024). Perspective on the motivational theories in organizations. Bulletin of the Polytechnic Institute of Iași, Machine Constructions Section, 69(3), 49–56. https://doi.org/10.2478/bipcm-2023-0023

Ebuzoeme, F. C. (2026). Nonfinancial compensation and employee motivation in a food and beverage manufacturing company. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science, 11(2), 13–21.

Olatunji, K. A., Olufemi, L. M., & Omotayo, R. S. (2021). Effects of fringe benefits on employees' productivity in selected food and beverages production companies in Ogun State, Nigeria. Annals of Spiru Haret University, Economic Series, 21(2), 55–72. https://doi.org/10.26458/2122