Career Progression and Workers’ Motivation in the Nigerian Public Service

The concept of career progression connotes formal and informal activities for developing roles and professionalism. It refers to the methods, tools, techniques and assessment systems that support human development at individual level within any organizational set up. Career progression and motivation goes hand-in-hand. It is all about understanding one’s motives and value, it shows the effectiveness of the various approaches to career development chain such as career planning, career path and career development. In Nigeria, many people feel they work just for salary without job satisfaction and this is due to poor career management policies. The challenges of lack of skill and expertise often lead to poor performance and service delivery with serious limitation on organizational expansion and poor employee self-development drive for career progression. This paper examines career progression and workers’ motivation in the Nigerian public sector organizations. The objective of the study is to determine how career progression and motivation enhance workers’ performance in the Nigerian public service and also to evaluate the impact of career progression and motivation on workers’ performance and how it has helped workers to achieve their professional growth and development. The methodology for the study was through secondary sources of data collection like existing literature such as text books, journals, conference papers, seminars, workshop materials and internet resources while the literature and theories were reviewed through descriptive and explanatory analytical techniques. Findings from the study revealed that career progression processes promote professionalism and career development as part of the general human resource management system which are congruent with employee self-development and actualization. This paper recommends that the Nigerian Civil Service Commission must make career progression policies that are workers-friendly and that management must ensure that employees know about career progression opportunities available in their organizations