Motivating the Nigerian Worker‐A Study of Two Public Sector Organisations

The main objective of this study is to investigate whether or not those techniques or instruments of motivation adopted by Nigerian managers in public sector organisations correspond or coincide with those techniques or instruments which the employee sees as instruments or techniques that motivated him. Research was carried out in two public sector organisations – the Ministry of Finance and the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation. The empirical findings show that there is a great divergence between the instruments adopted by managers and those that actually motivate the employee. This led to the conclusion that as long as this divergence continues, it is unlikely that Nigerian managers can easily come to grips with their managerial problems. It is, therefore, recommended that they should introduce appropriate motivational instruments at work to account for the preferences of the African industrial worker.