Human resource management motivational strategies for enhancing business educators’ job performance in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria

Received Sep 10, 2019 Revised Nov 08, 2019 Accepted Jan 31, 2020 The study assessed human resource management strategies for enhancing employees’ motivation in Edo State. The study was guided by four research questions with a population of 182 business educators in universities in Edo and Delta States. The study employed descriptive survey. Three experts validated the questionnaire with a reliability of. 0.71 obtained using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation. Descriptive statistics of Mean was used to answer the research questions. From the analysis, it was revealed that employers empowered their employees to very low extent; employers rewarded their employees to high extent; employers redesigned employees’ jobs to low extent, and employers created flexible jobs for their employees to low extent respectively. Consequently, it was recommended that workers should be sufficiently empowered to enhance higher performance and more productive. This will also go a long way to reduce attrition rate, the use of verbal praise, allowing workers’ personal development should be given priority attention by management to enhance higher productivity, and management should redesign tasks/jobs from time to time so as to enhance motivation, job satisfaction, commitment to reduce absenteeism and turnover, among others.


INTRODUCTION
The economic environment is changing rapidly as a result of so many factors such as globalization, customers' demands, product-market competition, and competing ever changing technologies. To be able to compete successfully in this changing environment, institutions should be able to help to improve employees' performance of their employees by using different various management strategies. These strategies appear to be new in the field of human resource management. Caliskan [1] defined SHRM as the role human resource management play in organization's performance in focusing on the alignment of human resources as means of gaining competitive advantage. Any university that is able to achieve superiority in the area of training and retaining staff and providing good working environment and other welfare services with higher degree of differentiation and most importantly, is able to retain staff for greater performance. This is where human resource management stands. Armstrong [2] defined human resource management as the operation of recruitment and selection procedures, management development and training activities linked to the needs of the organisation. In other words it is taking steps to assess and satisfy the needs of employees and to enhance and develop their capacities that are inherent in them in relation to their contributions, potential and employability by providing learning and continuous development opportunities. To achieve all these, Armstrong [2] opined that human resource management do the following strategic goals in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage: to train employees in order to increase their capability and align skills to organizational needs; to ensure that organization meet its goals and satisfy its customers and takes steps to acquire and develop its intellectual capital; to define the required behaviour for organizational success and ensure that these behaviours are encouraged, valued and rewarded; and to encourage employees to genuinely support the work they do for the organizational success; and to ensure that employees are commitment to the organization's mission and value.
For organization's strategic goals to be meaningful, human resource management in various universities must be alive to their various responsibilities as people are the most complex to manage because other resources of competitive advantage are less powerful than they used to be. Moreover, the technological development of a nation is highly dependent upon the adequacy of its work force in number and quality. It is also presumed that no nation can develop above its human resources. When the needs of workers are not met, there seems to be dissatisfaction. This is why Clark [3] stated that when some of these needs are not met, they may result in low job attitude and consequently poor performance, which may be a product of frustration on the part of the workers. Clark [3] continued, where there is a prolonged frustration, there are always negative actions such as lateness to work, poor quality of work, quarrels with colleagues, dispute with management, and may eventually lead to the individual leaving the organization. In support of this position, author Eduwen [4] observed that an aggrieved worker is an unhappy worker and unhappy worker cannot do effective work. He becomes depressed; his morale is low and as a result, his effectiveness drops. Nollen [5] also observed that happy employees are productive and efficient. Therefore, management of universities must ensure that teachers are happy. Tertiary institutions as used in this study are those post-secondary institutions that offer business related programmes which include colleges of education, polytehnics and other allied institution, while business educators are those teachers who are professionally qualified to teach business education courses in any tertiary institution.
The teacher forms the pivot on which the learning process of a state or nation revolves. Since education is an instrument of development and progress of a country, the teacher therefore occupies an important place as the facilitator and custodian of the learning process. The future of any country lies in the hands of its teachers. Over the years the challenges confronting teachers are many ranging from poor conditions of service to lack of security. It appears that teaching seems to be a stepping-stone to other alternative with better pay and incentives. The reason adduced by many is that is the lack of opportunity for career development within the organization. Teachers, old and young, experienced and inexperienced, male and female, married and single need to be motivated to find fulfilment and challenges in their work so as to enhance their productivity. When working conditions are made more attractive and salaries paid regularly, teachers may find fulfilment and challenges in their work. This is why human resource management has a big role to play in human capital development. Akinmayowa [6] stated that human resources are the most potent assets that any organization possesses. Without them, equipment, materials and even capital of the company will be meaningless as nothing gets well done without the input of the manpower resource of the organization. For any organization to operate optimally, the organization must provide training for its workforce.
Owenvbiugie [7] defined training and development as the practices of providing training, workshops, coaching, mentoring, social networking, job rotation, conferences and other learning opportunities to inspire, challenge, and motivate them to perform functions of their various positions to the best of their abilities and within standards set by the organisation. Shauna [8] describes motivation as the desire of employees to perform, regardless of the level of happiness. Teachers who are motivated to perform their duties may be more productive, and feel more interested in their assigned duties. McGuinn [9] identified three simple ways to motivate employees to greater performance, which include a strong communication strategy among employees and their supervisors; taking interest where employees' careers are headed; and to help employees to be heard by putting in place an internal communication mechanism.
Performance according to Loke [10] is the way employees perform their work. Hose [11] further stated that an employee's job performance is determined during performance reviews, with an employer taking into account factors such as leadership skills, time management, organizational skills and productivity to analyse each employee on an individual basis. He concluded that job performance review is often done yearly and can determine raise eligibility, whether an employee is right for promotion or even if an employee should be fired. Job performance is a work related activities expected of an employee and how well those activities are well executed. This will in turn result in satisfactory interpersonal relations, financial reward, fringe benefits, training and promotion, decision making and free channel of communication. Employees, teachers, lecturers, workers, and business educators are used interchangeably in this study.
Harcourt [12] identified employees' empowerment, effective reward system, redesigning jobs and creating flexibility as motivational strategies human resource management should put in place to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, and optimality of its work force. To develop motivated lecturers, management of various tertiary institutions should treat employees as individuals, empower them, provide an effective reward , redesign jobs, and create a flexible workplace. Empowering employees occurs when lecturers are given autonomy, authority, trust, and encouragement to accomplish a task. Empowerment is designed to free the lecturer to take responsibility for his action. In the same vein Dresser and Associates [13] stated that empowered employees are engaged employees that have the tools they need to learn and grow, the tools to be productive leaders and contribute to the success of the business, and the tools they need to connect and collaborate with colleagues and others throughout the company.
In the provision of an effective reward system, management may use rewards to strengthen employees' behavior. A reward is a work outcome of positive value to the individual. Organizations are rich in rewards for people whose performances are second to none. People receive rewards either extrinsically or intrinsically. Extrinsic rewards are valued outcomes given to someone by another person, typically a supervisor or higher level manager, while intrinsic rewards are self-administered. A person feels good because he/she has a feeling of competency, personal development, and self-control over his/her work In redesigning jobs, heads of department should look at both job scope and job depth. Redesigning job may include job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment. Job enlargement is the horizontal job loading. It does not increase the quality or the challenge of those tasks, but may reduce some of the monotony. As employee's boredom decreases, his or her work quality generally increases. Job rotation on the other hand is the assignment of employees to different tasks to different people on a non-permanent basis. This is to add a variety and to expose people to the dependence that one job has on other jobs. Job rotation can encourage higher levels of contributions and renew interest and enthusiasm. The organization benefits from a cross-trained workforce. Job enrichment is also called vertical job loading. It is the application of an increased variety of tasks, but also provides an employee with more responsibility and authority. If the skills required to do the job are skills that match the jobholder's abilities, job enrichment may improve morale and performance.
Creating flexibility is another way human resource management is accommodating their employees' needs. These may include a reduction in workweek. This is a form of flexible time that allows a full-time job to be completed in less than the standard 40-hour, five-day workweek. This schedule appears to benefit the individual through more leisure time and lower costs. This may help organization to benefit through lower absenteeism and improved performance. Creating flexibility may also include job sharing which occurs when one full-time job is split between two or more persons. Job sharing often involves each person working onehalf day, but it can also be done on weekly or monthly sharing arrangements. When jobs are split and shared, organizations may benefit by employing talented people who would otherwise be unable to work full-time. The qualified employee who is also a parent may not want to be in the office for a full day but may be willing to work a half-day. Although adjustment problems sometimes occur, the arrangement can be good for all concerned; while telecommuting, sometimes called flexi-place, is a work arrangement that allows at least a portion of scheduled work hours to be completed outside of the office, with work-at-home as one of the options. Telecommuting frees the jobholder from needing to work fixed hours, wearing special work attire, enduring the normal constraints of commuting, and having direct contact with supervisors. Home workers often demonstrate increased productivity, report fewer distractions, enjoy the freedom to be their own boss, and appreciate the benefit of having more time for themselves.
In order to improve the welfare of teachers in universities both at the federal and state levels, the government at various times seems to have approved new pay packages for teachers. In spite of various roles played by government and other stakeholders to improving the welfare of teachers in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, the exodus of business educators from tertiary institutions to other sectors of he economy still persists. This state of affair was observed by Clark [3] when she said that business educators are leaving lecturing jobs for multinational companies, banks, politics, production companies, and so on. Objective of the study: the study assessed human resource management motivational strategies for enhancing business educators' job performance. The specific objectives were to determine: (i) The extent tertiary institutions are empowering business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States. (ii) The extent tertiary institutions are providing an effective reward system for business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States. (iii) The extent tertiary institutions are redesigning jobs of business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States, and (iv) The extent tertiary institutions are creating flexibility for business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States.
Research questions, the study was guided by the following research questions: (i) To what extent are tertiary institutions empowering business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States? (ii) To what extent are tertiary institutions providing an effective reward system to business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States? (iii) To what extent are tertiary institutions redesigning jobs for business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States? (iv) To what extent are tertiary institutions creating flexibility for business educators to enhance their job performance in Edo and Delta States?
Hypothesis, the following one null hypothesis was tested: There is no significant difference in the levels of job performance between male and female business educators in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study employed the descriptive survey research design. The population of this consisted of 182 business educators from universities. The population was made up of male and female business educators. No sampling was done for the study as the entire population was used.
The instrument that was used to gather data for this study was a structured questionnaire titled Human Resources Management Strategies Questionnaire (HRMSQ). The instrument was made up of sections A and B. Section A consisted of demographic data, such as name of school, and gender of respondents. Section B consisted of 30 items on assessment of human resource management motivational strategies for enhancing employees' job performance. The instrument examined variables such as empowering employees, effective reward system, redesigning jobs, and creating flexibility. The instrument used for the study was a 4point rating scale made up of four response options.
The instrument designed for the study was validated by three experts. The reliability of the data collected was determined by using Cronbach alpha method. The instrument was administered on 20 lecturers from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. The coefficient for empowering employees was 0.71, effective reward system 0.65, redesigning jobs 0.68, and creating flexibility 0.79. The value of the reliability obtained for the entire variables was 0.71.
Copies of the questionnaire were administered on 182 business educators spread across Edo and Delta States. The researcher personally administered some of the questionnaire items to the respondents, while three research assistants were employed and briefed for two weeks who administered others. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer all the research questions. Questionnaire items related to the research questions had four response categories. Real limit of values was used for decision in selecting the items that were appropriate in accepting high and low extents. Very High Extent (VHE)-4; High Extent (HE) -3; Low Extent (LE)-2; Very Low Extent (VLE)-1. To determine the extent of motivation strategies employed by tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta States, a decision rule was taken. The level of adoption of motivational strategies by tertiary institutions of each questionnaire cluster related to the research questions was determined based on grand mean.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
This following presented the analysis of the data collected in respect of the study. Tables were used in the presentation and in accordance with the four research questions raised and one hypothesis formulated.

Research Question 1: The extent tertiary institutions empowered business educators in Edo and Delta States?
The data collected in respect of this question are shown in Table 1 The data shown in Table 1 revealed that the mean values of the respondents ranged from 1.14 to 2.98. It equally revealed that

Research question 2:The extent tertiary institutions provided effective reward system business educators in Edo and Delta States?
The data collected in respect of this question are shown in Table 2. The data shown in Table 2 revealed that the mean values of the respondents ranged from 1.14 to 3.50. It equally revealed that the standard deviation of the items on the table ranged from 0.26 to 0.78, with a grand mean of 2.70. The mean values show that employees felt that their employers' reward was good in all the items except items 16 and 17 which were rated low extent. The cluster mean of 2.70 revealed that employers rewarded their employees to high extent.

Research question 3: To what extent have tertiary institutions redesigned jobs for business educators in Edo and Delta States?
The data collected in respect of this question are shown in Table 3. The data shown in Table 3 revealed that the mean values of the respondents ranged from 1.11 to 3.44. It equally revealed that the standard deviation of the items on the table ranged from 0.36 to 1.54, with a grand mean of 2.06. The mean values of items 19, 20, 21 shows that respondents agreed that their employers redesign their jobs to very high extent, while item 22 shows that employers redesign employees' tasks to low extent and items 23 and 24 reveal that employers redesign employees' job to high extent. The cluster mean of 2.06 reveal that employers redesign employees' jobs to low extent.

Research question 4:
To what extent have tertiary institutions created flexible work for business educators in Edo State?
The data collected in respect of this question are shown in Table 4. The data shown in Table 4 reveal that the mean values of the respondents ranged from 1.19 to 3.44. It equally reveals that the standard deviation of the items on the table ranged from 0.35 to 0.67, with a grand mean of 2.18. The mean values of items 25, 26, and 27 show that respondents agreed that their employers created flexible jobs to low extent, while item 28 shows that employers created flexible jobs to high extent and item 30 reveals that employers created flexible jobs to very low extent. The cluster mean of 2.18 reveals that employers created flexible jobs to low extent.

Null hypothesis 1
There is no significant difference in the levels of job performance between male and female business educators in tertiary institutions in Edo and Delta. The results of Table 5 show the summary of t-test of male and female business educators' job performance. The table shows t-values of 1.119, 1.008, -0.156, and 1.147 for empowerment, reward, job's redesign and flexible work respectively as job performance variables. The corresponding p-values of the variables are 0.265, 0.315, 0.876, and 0.253 respectively. Since the values are greater than the alpha value of 0.05, the t-values are significant for the four variables; hence there is no significant difference between the mean responses of male and female business educators in their job performance as regards empowerment, reward, job's redesign and flexible work

Discussion of results
The discussions of the results obtained in this study were organized according to research questions that guided the study. The findings in Table 1 showed that lecturers agreed that management empowered them to very low extent. The finding of this study is not in line with Loke [10] who stated that encouraging employees' empowerment and self-initiative would make employees work in accordance with department's  ISSN: 2089-9823 goals to sustain quality. Employees feel important and motivated to attain organizational objectives. Block [15] opined that employees should have full autonomy on their jobs and should be involved in decision-making. In the same vein Barret and O' Connell [16] asserted that if employees have a sense of belongingness towards company they would work with vigor resulting in high organization performance, and less absenteeism.
The findings in Table 2 showed that lecturers agreed that tertiary institutions rewarded them to high extent. This finding is in agreement with Lockwood [17] who stated that one way through which employers can retain the workforce is through offering good incentives. Lockwood [17] further opined that an organization can only be successful in its retention strategy if it offers competitive, market-related pay and benefits. In the same vein Willis [18] stated that compensation is one of the crucial issues as far as attracting and keeping talent in organizations is concerned.
The finding in Table 3 showed that tertiary institutions redesigned lecturers' jobs to low extent. This revelation contrasted the finding of Parvin [19] stated that the purpose of job design is to increase the level of job satisfaction which shall ultimately cause the good performance of the employee. Job design may include job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment. In the same vein McGuinn [9] stated that how a job is designed has a major impact on employee's motivation, job satisfaction, and commitment to an organization, absenteeism, and turnover The finding in Table 4 showed that tertiary institutions created flexible jobs for their lecturers to low extent. This revelation contrasted Harris and Bonn [20] revealed that not only promotion is a source of satisfaction among employees; there are other rewards also to retain and attract employees. The identified practices are decision autonomy, flexibility in the work schedules and task impact also are driver of employee's performance efficacy. In the same vein Almer and Kaplan [21] explained the relationship of flexible job assignment with employee's turnover/ retention by giving the remarks that if the organization is offering flexible job assignment to the employees, the employees retain their career in the organization. Baltes, et al [22] Gajendran and Harrison [23] asserted that flexible job assignments are associating with high level of job satisfaction.
The result of hypothesis one revealed that there was no significant difference in the level of job performance between male and female business educators. This finding is in agreement with Lacy [24] who found no differences in the consequences of gender-specific childhood socialization for job performance. Nor do they find that a wide range of job characteristics differentially affect the work attitudes of men and women. The finding of this study is in agreement with Eduwen [4] in his study revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female counselors in their levels of job performance. This could be attributed to the fact that all lecturers in schools are paid the same salaries and allowances according to their status in the field irrespective of sex. The finding is also in consonance with the study of Spector [25] that irrespective of sex, people would equally perform their jobs as long as they receive pay commensurate with their economic obligations.

CONCLUSION
It was concluded that empowering employees, providing effective reward system, redesigning jobs for employees, and creating flexible jobs for employees are effective means of motivating and retaining workers in an organization. It was also concluded that there was no significant difference in the level of job performance between male and female business educators. It was recommended that workers should be sufficiently empowered to enhance higher performance and more productive. This will also go a long way to reduce attrition rate, the use of verbal praise, allowing workers' personal development should be given priority attention by management to enhance higher productivity, and management should redesign tasks/jobs from time to time so as to enhance motivation, job satisfaction, commitment to reduce absenteeism and turnover, among others

RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations were made: (i) Lecturers should be sufficiently empowered to enhance higher performance and more productive. This will also go a long way to reduce attrition rate. (ii) The use of verbal praise, allowing workers' personal development should be given priority attention by management to enhance higher productivity. (iii) Management should redesign tasks/jobs from time to time so as to enhance motivation, job satisfaction, commitment to reduce absenteeism and turnover. (iv) Management should create flexible jobs/tasks by allowing workers to control their work hours as well as allowing a portion of scheduled hours to be completed outside of their office so as to reduce boredom and work monotony. ISSN: 2089-9823 