A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC OFFICERS PERCEPTION OF MOTIVATION IN THE BELIZE PUBLIC SERVICE

CAVEHILL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES
BUSINESS RESEARCH- PSM
FINAL PROJECT

2013/2014

JUNE, 2013

Acknowledgements First of all, thanks be to my Lord Jesus for the strength and determination in whom I leaned on to finish this task. My heartfelt appreciation goes out to family for bearing patience and understanding for the times I was not around. Thanks to my lecturer, Dr. Natamisha Goring, for her time and sincere guidance in the completion of this paper.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary……………………………………. 4
Introduction………………………………………………. 5 -6
Literature Review……………..………………………. 7 - 9
Methodology ………………………………………….... 10 - 15 Study Design Participants Research Instrument Data Collection Proposed Data Analysis Anticipated Limitations and Challenges
Bibliography…………………….………….. 16-17
Appendices …………………………………. 18-23

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This case study examines new initiatives aimed at motivating junior officers within the Public Service to be more effective, efficient and productive. These initiatives describe motivation within the context of drive reduction theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. The study will also measure employee satisfaction as it relates to current incentives available in the Sector. The study will show that in order for public officers to be motivated and to do their best work specific factors and incentives should be changed, implemented or eliminated.

Introduction

Throughout history in the Belize Public Service, Motivation has been lacking in the Public Service. Emphasis has been placed on the Motivation, Development and Optimal Utilization of human resources to maximize productivity in the workplace. Motivation in the Public Service affects a wide range of services and sectors overall in the country of Belize, therefore it is critical that the Public Service is competent and motivated to provide the best services. In Belize today there is a prevailing notion that the Public service is too laid back, lackadaisical, unproductive and is not committed to providing great service to the people of Belize.
According to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy Theory of Needs,(Abraham Maslow Motivation and Personality, 1954(second edition 1970), personnel development, an acceptable workplace environment which encourages personnel to achieve their full potential and growth is the responsibility of the employers.
Within the workplace employees are dependent on being motivated by their supervisor or head of department. When the employee does not feel the motivation in the place they tend to have a “don’t give a damn” attitude and become very lackadaisical. An employee fails to perform his/her duty up to a certain level, do not comply with the rules and regulation, and have unacceptable behavior which tends to be disruptive and causes an impact on co- workers.
The researcher believes that motivation is a very important topic that should be explored within the Public Service because it will boost the momentum of public officers which will make them very efficient and effective. It will make the officers grow to another level within the public service which will give a good name to the department or ministry and the government of Belize.
This paper will argue whether effectiveness and efficiency are being met by motivation. It will also explore if efficiency can still be achieved regardless of internal or external obstacles. Lastly, it will identify reasons employees should be kept motivated.

Literature Review
The general perception of the population is that the public service is inefficient and ineffective and the reason may be due to lack of motivation in the workplace.
Beecher once said “God made man to go by motives and he will not go without them any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas. Find out what motivates man, touch that button to turn the key that makes man achieve’ (Helminger, 1997). Motivation can be described as “a person’s desire to work hard and work well, to the arousal, direction, and persistence of effort in work settings” (Rainey 1997, pg. 201). The primary goal of a motivation is to encourage the highest level of performance of the individual employee based on job knowledge, experience, academic training and skills. In Belize there is a common notion among people in the society that the public service is incompetent as it pertains to providing effective services to the country but is this really so and are the public officers really to be blamed for this perceived incompetence? How can the public service be improved? Some of the problems that face the public service includes: Lack of clarity as it relates to roles and responsibilities in the work place, obsolete methods and practices still being in existence, overstaffing, inadequate incentives, government corruption and bureaucracy. The public sector’s aim is to provide effective services, but what really hinders the delivery of this effective service? The human resource of a firm or department is the most valuable asset to any company (Kalburgi, 2010). The focus of management in the public service should evolve around proper motivation of its subordinates, and the techniques needed to trigger the right practices to efficiently and effectively enhance the public service in Belize.
Although people are the most important asset in the company they can also be the most detrimental to the existence. This revelation understates the importance of motivation in the appraisal process again. Motivation is defined as the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity directions and persistence of effort in attaining a goal. In the public service of Belize the right motivational practices are not being administered for the workforce to be motivated enough to be efficient and effective. According to Brewer and Selden1998, Crewson 1997, employees who are highly motivated are highly committed and very positive and always will place their workplace first to see their mission and vision successful. This attributes to the delinquency in certain areas of the public service. Management must be highlighted for the role they play in fixing this issue of a lackadaisical workforce.

Methodology
Study Design
The methodology I choose will be both qualitative and quantitative approach. Both surveys and questionnaire will be used to conduct the research. The survey which will be given out in the Stann Creek District will give the participants an opportunity to answer my research question. The questionnaire used will be used for data collection to understand what exactly makes an employee motivated to work to their full ability. This will be strictly confidential and will contain some open ended question.

Participants
The population of the study was public officers from across the Public Service of Belize. The source of data was primary data collected from 100 respondents from the public service of Belize from various ministries in government, with a concentration in the Stann Creek District.
Respondents in this study hold positions ranging from office assistant, clerks and even middle managers as (some/they are only acting in that capacity). The age of the participants ranges from 18 year to 30 as some participants are senior officers but have not been promoted and fall into the junior category of pay scale 1 – 8. There will be a combination of both males and females. A percentage of 60% will be female and 40% will be male due to the inequality of gender is due to the fact that more females are employed within the public service.
The participants; 20 respondents fall between the ages of 18 -25, 17 are between the ages of 26 and 35
Of the 100 participants, 28 are clerks, 15 are office assistants and the remaining are middle managers, 15 of whom are currently in an acting position.

Research Instruments
A 17 question questionnaire was administered to 100 respondents from different ministries in the Belize Public service. The questionnaires were distributed in Urban and Rural areas of the Stann Creek District. The questionnaires were mostly administered through the assistance of co-workers from the Sub treasury in Dangriga. The Government offices have a high frequency of walk in visits by public officers so it was convenient to administer many of the questionnaires. The respondents were made aware of the confidentiality of their information once the questionnaire was agreed to be done.

Data collection
Data collection will be done through questionnaire. There will be a total of 17 questions that the participants will need to complete. Confidentiality will be known to all participants.
The research delivered the questionnaire in both the rural and urban offices in the Stann Creek District. The researcher had to make follow up calls to expedite the process of retrieving questionnaires. The questionnaires took the researcher a little while to collect due to distance but despite that the researcher went to collect them personally and thank them for their contribution. Participants were given three days to complete the questionnaire after which the researcher visited them to collect same. They were also given the office number and cell number of the researcher in the event that they needed clarifications, had questions or completed the questionnaire earlier and wanted the researcher to retrieve them.

Proposed Data Analysis
Completed questionnaire will be collected from respondents, it will be evaluated at the end using the SPSS software for interpretation. The findings will be placed in tables and pie chart to have a visual of the differences in the various categories of questions such as age range, job classification, departments and request for transfers. The researcher found out in a study to determine what motivates workers the most, the common idea that money motivated workers was dependent on how it was given. The study showed that a good working condition was at the top of most workers list, high salary was second on the list and was followed by Performance reward. This shows that a combination of these factors can be used to create the right environment for workers to succeed. The ball first lands in the court of the managers who must equip their employees with the tools and training needed to do their jobs. There will be critics who claim that the proper tools and training can be afforded to employees and the results remain the same. The appraisal process is a tool to hold unproductive employees accountable. The use of the appraisal system along with progressive and modern thinking managers should solve the issues of inefficiency. The appraisal system in Belize though is said to be outdated, not relevant and not forward thinking enough. Managers should refrain from appraising a subordinate’s personality because it is useless to appraise personality for it cannot change (Herriot, 1989). The perception of effectiveness should center on the fairness and objectivity of the appraisal process. The researcher who is a senior officer in the Public Service has had the opportunity to supervise junior staff for the first time. To the researcher it was evident that junior officers lack a lot of motivation, particularly with the relation between supervisor and subordinate as it pertained to trust and fairness and the human element of the delivery of the important process. The objectives of motivating junior officer includes achieving organizational goals, supervisors and employees being on common ground as it pertains to job requirements.
Individual performance is reviewed with standard performance criteria agreed upon. Feedback in performance is provided to employees, training and development needs addressed and finally rewarding employees to create equity. This sentiment was common among many public officers the researcher came in contact with as she engaged their perception of the effectiveness of the motivation. The researcher became very interested to see if results from previous study and findings of motivation compilations and data collected by researchers where ever used to mitigate the challenges faced by public officers.
Anticipated Limitation and challenges There were many factors which affected the scope of the study of this paper. The first such factor was time constraints. The time allotted to conduct and carry through the study was very limited. The researcher was limited because of being a fulltime employee of the worker for the Government of Belize at the Treasury department and had to juggle time between work, classes and the research proposal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. http://blog.eskill.com/employees-engaged-motivated/
2. http://www.ashridge.org.uk/website/IC.nsf/wFARATT/Motivation
3. http://www.dirjournal.com/guides/motivating-your-staff/
4. http://www.hertieschool.org/fileadmin/images/Downloads/working_papers/60.pdf
5. http://www.pearsonassessments.com/hai/images/tmrs/motivation_review_final.pdf
6. http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition.htm
7. http://rebeccacroxton.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/an-analysis-of-employee-motivation-in-the-public-sector_w97_2003.pdf
8. http://research-methodology.net/a-brief-literature-review-on-employee-motivation/
9. http://sbinformation.about.com/od/benefits/a/keep-employees-motivated.htm
10. http://www.fairwork.gov.au/BestPracticeGuides/09-Managing-underperformance.pdf
11. Hall L, Torrington D. The human resource function: the dynamics of change and development, London, Financial times/pitman, 1998

12. Mathauer, I Imhoff - Human Resources for Health, 2006 - biomedcentral.com
13. Wright, Bradley E. "Public-sector work motivation: A review of the current literature and a revised conceptual model." Journal of public administration research and theory 11.4 (2001): 559-586.
14. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_74.htm last seen on July 26, 2013
15. http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm last seen on July 26, 2013
16. Helminger (1997). Motivation as a tool for productivity in Public Sector Unit. Retrieved on April 6th from www.motivational tools.com
17. Ingraham, P. (1993). Of pigs in pokes and policy decision: another pay for performance, Public Administration Review
18. Latham, G.I. & Wexley, K.N. (1994). Increasing productivity through performance appraisal. Reading: Addison. Wesley
19. Kalburgi ,M.J & Dinesh, G.P (2010) Motivation as a tool for productivity in the Public Sector

Appendices
Definition of Terms
The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout this research paper, and should be interpreted only as is described below.
Motivation Motivation can be described as “a person’s desire to work hard and work well, to the arousal, direction, and persistence of effort in work settings”
Performance An Employee’s fulfilment of assigned duties and responsibilities: his achievement of agreed goals, execution of assigned projects or accomplishments of specific tasks
Public Service Public Service of Belize
GOB The Government of Belize
Junior Officer An individual who is on pay scale from 1 – 8; new entrants in the Public Service
Management Refers to Managers and Supervisors in the Belize Government Departments whose job is to motivate and encourage efficient work by the Public Officers of Belize
Public Officers An individual who gets pay from the peoples purse. An employee of the Government of Belize

SCHEDULE OF TIME FOR THE COMPLETION OF RESEARCH PROJECT
PROJECT TIME LINE BEGINNING DATE ENDING DATE issuing of questionnaire to participants 05th August, 2013 09th August, 2013
Collecting questionnaire from departments 12th August, 2013 23rd August,2013
Utilizing SPSS 19th August, 2013 23rd August,2013
Findings 26th August, 2013 30th August,2013
Writing of main parts of paper – Intro, Lit Review 02nd September,2013 06th September,2013
Conclusion & recommendation 09th Septermber,2013 13th September,2013
Finalize document & using of turnitin 16th September,2013 20th September,2013

05th August, 2013

Dear Participants,
As a participant of the Executive Master in Business Administration (EMBA) at the University of the West Indies, I am inviting you to participate in a research study on motivating Junior Officers in the Public Service.
Doing this survey is not compulsory, and you could defer to answer any question or stop answering if you are uncomfortable with the question being asked. Your privacy will be safeguarded and is anonymous. The information collected will only be seen by the researcher, my advisor who will be judging the defense of my paper. Returning the questionnaire completed, will suggest that you have expressed your participation was voluntary. Your input in this survey is greatly appreciated.

APPENDIX II
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND APPRAISAL SYSTEM
QUESTIONNAIRE
SECTION I
Please circle your choice
1. Age : 18-23 yrs 24-30 yrs 31-40 yrs 41-45 yrs 46 yrs

2. Gender Female Male

3. You reside in Rural Urban

4. Your Educational Background

Primary Secondary Tertiary

5. Years of employment in the Public Service
1 - 6 yrs 6-10 yrs 11-15 yrs more than 16 yrs
SECTION II
Please circle your choice
6. How satisfied are you at your department/ministry?
a. Satisfied
b. Dissatisfied

7. Do you believe that you get enough recognition?
a. Always
b. Never
c. Sometimes
8. Are you satisfied with your position? If the answer is no state why?
a. Yes b. No

9. Do you enjoy going to work always and doing your best? If the answer is no state 3 reasons why?
a. yes
b. no

10. How motivated are you to help your department in meeting its objective?

11. Are you satisfied with your current salary?
a. Yes
b. No
12. List at least 3 benefits are there in your department?

13. Is there a recognition program in your department?

a. Yes
b. No

14. Is the recognition program effective? If no state why?

a. Yes
b. No

15. What kind of incentive would you like to receive?

16. Have you ever thought of requesting a transfer?
a. Yes
b. No

17. What have made you stayed at your present job?