Influence Of Employee Motivation On Job Satisfaction: A Case Of Government Departments In Isiolo County, Kenya.

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between employee Motivation and Job Satisfaction. Employee Motivation was treated as an independent variable and Job Satisfaction as a dependent variable. Employees who are not satisfied cannot perform their tasks optimally and thus they have to be motivated to perform their tasks effectively and efficiently and thus helping the organization achieve its goals. The objectives of the study were therefore to investigate whether financial incentives, manager’s leadership style, employees’ promotion based on merit and staff capacity building affected employees job satisfaction and at the end their productivity which determined whether the government departments goals were achieved. Descriptive survey research design was used in the study and the stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques were applied to select respondents from the staff members of the government departments. The study was carried out in Isiolo County in four government departments. A cross-sectional study was used to obtain information on the influence of employee motivation on job satisfaction. The respondents were senior managers, middle level managers and subordinates of Isiolo County in government departments .Four government departments namely The Kenya Forest Service, livestock Department, Education department and the health Department for that purpose were researched on . The data was collected from a sample of two hundred employees within the four government departments that were sampled using the stratified random sampling and the simple random sampling methods. Primary data was collected through standard structured questionnaires and interviews to determine the influence of financial incentives, manager’s leadership style, promotions based on merit, qualifications and competence and staff capacity building on employees’ job satisfaction. Data was analyzed quantitatively .Quantitative research made use of techniques which produced quantifiable data inform of numbers and ensured that there is random sampling of the research participants to ensure representativeness. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences. The findings shows that 95% of the employees in government departments were highly satisfied with a salary increment and 99% would resign from their departments if offered better terms elsewhere.72% of the employees preferred a democratic leadership style and 96 % would prefer to be involved by their senior managers in making key decisions in the various government departments.97% would like their managers to delegate some of their tasks to them,98% were satisfied with a staff promotions based on merit and competence policy while 91% strongly agreed that staff trainings helped to improve on their job satisfaction. This study found that financial incentives was the greatest motivation factor towards employees’ job satisfaction followed by staff promotions based on merit and competence policy, then the leadership style of senior managers and finally employees capacity building. For an organization to achieve its objectives in productivity employees’ motivation and job satisfaction are of critical importance being the greatest asset in any organization. The findings of the study are important to chief executive officers, human resource managers, and program/ project managers in both public and private sectors.