ABSTRACT

This study explored the effect of motivation on the performance of academic staff of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu State, Nigeria. The study sought to examine the extent recognition boost academic staff efficiency, assess the effect of work-life balance on academic staff productivity, evaluate the extent to which increase in salary enhance academic staff job satisfaction, explore the relationship between reward and academic staff commitment and       identify the factors hindering academic staff motivation of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu State, Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted for this study. The researcher made use of primary and secondary data to gather information from the respondents. The target population of one thousand, two hundred and fifty-three (1,253) consists of staff of the studied institution in Enugu State, Nigeria. The sample size of 303 was derived from Taro Yamane formula, which was distributed to the studied institution and A stratified sampling method was adopted for this study. A total of 303 copies of questionnaire were distributed to the selected faculties in the studied institution in Enugu State, 62 copies of questionnaire were lost or wrongly filled with percentage ratio of 20.5% while 241 copies of questionnaire were correctly filled and returned with percentage ratio of 79.5% and this formed the basis of the study. In testing the hypotheses of this study ANOVA, Z-Test, Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient and OLS regression analysis of SPSS Version 23 was adopted. The study found out that employees’ recognition boosts academic staff efficiency, work-life balance has a significant effect on academic staff productivity, increase in salary enhance academic staff job satisfaction, there is a positive relationship between reward and academic staff commitment and workload stress, administrative policies, workplace environment and staff personality are the factors hindering academic staff motivation of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu State, Nigeria. The study concludes that motivation has a significant effect on the performance of academic staff of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu State, Nigeria and therefore recommends that management of the studied institution should implement effective rewards system, work-life balance concerns must become a crucial feature of human resource policy and strategy, Management should consider motivating their employee through introduction of new salary, institution should identify and incorporate both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in their human resource practices and management should ensure that employees are always well equipped towards their work, provide training for employees to be able to identify and reduce workload stress.