AN OVERVIEW OF EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL

EFFECTIVENESS: Focus on Real Estate Firms

                                                             BY

KUYE OLUSEGUN, DIP (PROPERTY LAW), HND, MSC, ANIVS, RSV

ABSTRACT

Employees’ commitment in real estate firms and/or any other business organisation is an important factor of organisational success, but the problem is that sometimes organisations do not realize the very extent of the importance of this commitment. Since low job performances, absenteeism and lack of creativity are costly to firms; organisational commitment is assumed to be a desirable quality of employees. From literature, this paper reviewed the various types of organisational commitment, traits of employees’ commitment and the extrinsic and intrinsic motivational tools that could help inspire commitment in employees of estate firms in particular and other related business organizations in general.

Keywords: Real estate firms, employee commitment, employing organisation

1.        INTRODUCTION

High-performing companies recognize that employee commitment is a major contributing factor toward sustaining long-term success and creating value. The dictionary meaning of the word ‘commitment’ are many and varied but within the context of this paper, commitment is defined as the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose; the act of binding oneself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action (WordWeb, n.d.). As indicated by Becker, Randal and Riegel (1995), commitment is the belief in and acceptability of the values and goals of the organization, strong desire to remain a member of a particular organization and the willingness to exert high level of efforts on behalf of the organisation. A similar definition to that of Becker, et al (op cit) was given by Mowday, Porter and Steer (1982); the trios see commitment as ‘attachment’ and ‘loyalty’. The trio described three components of commitment as an identification with the goals and values of the organisation; a desire to belong to the organisation; and the willingness to display effort on behalf of the organisation. According to Salancik (1977), commitment is a condition in which an employee becomes bound by his/her actions and it is these actions that sustain his/her activities and involvement in the organisation that he works with. Northcraft and Neale (1996) opined that commitment is an attitude reflecting an employee’s loyalty to the organisation – an ongoing process through which organisation members express their concern for the organisation and its continued success and wellbeing.

From the above definitions, it could be deduced that ‘commitment’ is the willingness of an employee to work hard and give his/her energy and time to execute the assigned work schedule productively without compulsion. Mishra (2005) opined that commitment is the result of sustained good people management. This means communicating organisational values clearly; ensuring staff support; appropriate training; and paying equitably among others. It is common to see some employees giving their best in terms of punctuality, regular attendance, productivity, excellent relation with clients on behalf of their organisations, and exhibiting other painstaking commitments to their employer. In this sense, organisational commitment is viewed as:

• willingness of an individual to identify with and the desire not to leave an organisation for selfish interest or marginal gains;
• willingness to work selflessly and contribute to the effectiveness of an organisation;
• willingness to make personal sacrifice, perform beyond normal expectations and to endure difficult times with an organisation– low propensity to “bail-out” in difficult times; and
• acceptance of organisation’s values and goals — the internalization factor.

According to Walker Information cited in Howell (2011), the top three drivers of employee commitment are satisfaction, fairness, care and concern for employees. Put simply, committed employees want to enjoy their work, feel appreciated by virtue of the positive contribution being made to their company’s strategic objectives. Additionally, employees who have trust in their leadership, and are trusted by their employer, have a greater dedication and are ultimately more productive on the job. What is apparent is that, as long as the organisation has been able to attract the good employees and has provided a suitable work environment, employee commitment will be largely influenced by the interactions that occur between co-employees and with their employers.

Commitment is complex and continuous, and requires employers to discover ways of enhancing the work life of their employees. Thus, organisations that have difficulty in retaining and replacing competent employees will find it hard to optimise performance (Cripe, no date). Apart from the immediate expenses of the recruitment process, other hidden costs include management time and loss of productivity and this is because new employees take time to become effective in their roles. This paper is a theoretical review of the factors responsible for the level of commitment of employees to their employing organisations. In the end, this paper offer practical motivational tools that could help engender employees’ commitment in real estate firms.

2.      NATURE OF ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT

Mishra (2005) viewed organisational commitment as the emotional attachment and involvement of employees with their organisation, that mediates the effect that certain personal, job and work factors have on specific outcomes: i.e., as a state within the individual that provides the means whereby these factors impact on various outcomes. As further indicated by Mishra (2005), organisation commitment is influenced by what may have happened to employees during their stay in the organisation, particularly how pleasant or unpleasant employees have found such experiences. These experiences are viewed as a major socializing force and hence an important influence over the extent to which employees feel emotionally involved and attached to the organisation which is typically seen as the sources of these experiences. Quoting Buchanan (1974) and Patchen (1990), Mishra (op cit) identified four distinguishable kinds of experiences that may separately influence employee commitment; these are the:

• attitudes of individuals towards the informal groups in the organisation to which they belong;
• felt dependability and reliability shown by the organisation towards individuals;
• perceptions of individuals of their general importance of the organisation; and
• extent to which individuals feel their expectations have been met by the organisation since they joined it.

Information gleaned from literature revealed that two basic approaches have been used to study organisational commitment over the years; these are: (a) commitment-related attitudes and (b) Commitment-related behaviours.

a. The commitment-related attitude approach defines organisational commitment as a partisan, affective attachment to the goals and values, and to the organisation for its own sake, apart from its purely instrumental worth (Buchanan, 1974). Porter, Crampton and Smith (1976) define it as the willingness of an employee to exert a high level of effort on behalf of the organisation, and an acceptance of the organisation’s major goals and According to Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979), attitudinal commitment represents a state in which an individual identifies with a particular organisation and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in order to facilitate these goals.

b. The commitment-related behaviour approach focuses on a behavioural pattern guided by internalized normative pressures to act in a way that meets organisational goals and interest (Wiener, 1982). Wiener and Gechman (1977) argued that the pattern of behaviour resulting from commitment should possess the following characteristics:

• • it should reflect personal sacrifices made for the sake of the organisation;
  • it should show persistence – that is, the behaviour should not depend primarily on environmental controls such as reinforcements or punishment, and
  • it should indicate a personal preoccupation with the organisation, such as devoting a great deal of personal time to organisation-related actions and thoughts

O’Malley (2000) in Robinson (n.d.) and others (Tella, Ayeni & Popoola, 2007; Ugboro, 2006; Brown, 2003; and Meyer & Allen, 1991) indicated that organisation commitment can be divided into five components, each of which is created by different factors. These are:

a. Affiliative Commitment: An organisation’s interests and values are compatible with those of the employee, and the employee feels accepted by the social environment of the organisation.

b. Associative Commitment: Organisational membership increases employees’ self-esteem and The employee feels privileged to be associated with the organisation.

c. Moral Commitment: Employees perceive the organisation to be on their side and the organisation evokes a sense of mutual obligation in which both the organisation and the employee feel a sense of responsibility to each This type of commitment is also frequently referred to in the literature as Normative Commitment. According to Ugboro (2006), normative commitment is induced by a feeling of obligation to remain with an organisation. Such a feeling of obligation often results from what Wiener (1982) characterized as “generalized value of loyalty and duty“. This view of commitment holds that an individual demonstrates commitment behaviour solely because she or he believes it is the moral and right thing to do. According to Ugboro (2006) quoting Schwartz and Tessler (1972), personal norms is the factor responsible for internalized normative pressure, and this makes organisational commitment a moral obligation because the individual feels he or she ought to do so. Employees think that they ought to remain with an organisation because they think it is morally right to do so; for example, employees have received scholarships, training investments, etc. This feeling of moral obligation is measured by the extent to which a person feels that he or she should be loyal to his/her organisation, make personal sacrifice to help it out and not criticize it. With this type of commitment, the employee feels obligated to stay with the organisation because it is the moral and right thing to do.

d. Structural commitment: This refers to a relationship based on employee’s financial interests or interests related with possibilities to improve professional skills and make a career. Employees usually tend to give considerations as to how much effort has been put while working in the company, whether they are adequately rewarded for their efforts, and finally, are there any alternatives (better paid, more interesting and perspective jobs)? If an employee thinks that the company is investing in them in the real sense of it, such employee will repay with diligence and In other words, structural commitment bothers on the costs associated with leaving the organisation. Employees believe they are involved in a fair economic exchange in which they benefit from the relationship in material ways. There are enticements to enter and remain in the organisation and there are barriers to leaving. This type of commitment is also frequently referred to in the literature as continuance commitment. Here, the employee feels obligated or need to stay with the organisation because the cost of leaving is too high. Ugboro (2006) defined ccontinuance commitment as the willingness to remain in an organisation because of personal investment in the form of non-transferable investments such as close working relationships with co-workers, retirement investments and career investments, acquired job skills which are unique to a particular organisation, years of employment in a particular organisation, involvement in the community in which the employer is located, and other benefits that make it too costly for one to leave and seek employment elsewhere.

Đorđević (2004) outlined the many factors that may lead to continuance commitment. These include the:

• level of investment they have accumulated in organisation. Some employees may have made financial investments upon joining an organisation and some employees may have made non- financial investments to gain the role status within their organisations (they “sacrificed” to create it), and
• employees’ perceived lack of alternatives outside of the organisation. If employees believe that fewer work opportunities exist outside of their organisations, the perceived costs of leaving current organisations will be higher, and they will develop a stronger sense of continuance commitment to their organisations.

e. Affective commitment (or emotional commitment) can be defined as a relationship where employees appreciate and enjoy their job and believe in what they are doing. Employees accept company goals as their own and honestly perform their tasks. It is the psychological attachment to Employees derive satisfaction from their work and their colleagues, and their work environment is supportive of that satisfaction. Allen & Meyer (1991) argued that this is the most important form of commitment as it has the most potential benefits for organisations. Employees who have high affective commitment are those who will go beyond the call of duty for the good of the organisation. This form of commitment has also been referred to as ‘engagement’ and is the form of commitment that is most usually measured by organisations. In this category, the employee wants to stay with the organisation and feels emotionally attached. According to Mishra (2005), affective commitment is the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organisation and that conceptually, it can be characterized by at least three factors:

• A strong belief in and acceptance of the goals and values;
• A willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the Organisation; and
• A strong desire to maintain membership in an organization

As indicated by Ugboro (2006), affective commitment is employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organisation and its goals. It results from, and is induced by an individual and organisational value congruency (i.e. corresponding in character or kind). As a result, it becomes almost natural for the individual to become emotionally attached to, and enjoy continuing membership in the organisation. The factors which help create intrinsically rewarding situations for employees are job characteristics such as task significance, autonomy, identity, skills variety and feedback concerning employee job performance, perceived organisational support or dependence (the feeling that the organisation considers what is in the best interest of employees when making decisions that affect employment conditions and work environment), and the degree that employees are involved in the goal-setting and decision-making processes.

Common to these five (5) types of commitment is the view that commitment is a psychological state that characterizes the employee’s relationship with the organisation and has implication for the decision to continue or discontinue membership in that organisation. As reported by Tella, Ayeni & Popoola (2007), commitment provided strong evidence that affective and normative commitment are positively related and continuance commitment is negatively connected with organisational outcomes such as performance and citizenship behaviour. The implication of this would be that employees with strong affective commitment remain with an organisation because they want to; those with a strong continuance commitment remain because they have to; and those with a strong normative commitment remain because they feel they ought to (Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993). Even though there appears to be some overlap between affective and normative commitment, both were found to be relatively independent of continuance commitment and therefore, they can be measured separately.

Employees’ commitment is a valuable and intangible asset which can produce very tangible results. It is therefore important for organisations to build and manage employees’ affective commitment. Đorđević (2004) indicated that empirical evidence shows that affective commitment is strongly related to the results that organisations value the most and he consequently counselled that organisations should implement policies which will increase affective commitment. Đorđević (op cit) divided these policies into two groups, namely short-term and long-term policies and long-term polices quoting Camilleri (2002):

Short-term policies

Long-term polices

Short-term policies leading to increased affective commitment are: o   treating the employee with respect and consideration; employees must feel that they are valued and appreciated, o   organisations are to be customer- oriented; employees tend to identify with an organisation that respects them as well as its customers, o   management must clearly define the job and responsibilities of employees; supervisors must precisely communicate to their employees what has to be done and what their expectations are, o   designing stimulating jobs; a tasks that allows employees to use their skills, professional knowledge and judgment, offers job enrichment and employee autonomy. This significantly contributes to increasing organisational commitment, and, o   providing high quality information to employees about company’s plans and activities; this is extremely important during periods when the company is experiencing a crisis since, at that time, employees feel insecure and uncertain about the future.

Long-term polices leading to increased affective commitment are human resources management practice which are valid for a long period of time. These practices are: o   Recruitment and selection. Recruitment strategies may be designed to influence the desirable type of commitment. Organisations may provide practical job previews that describe both positive and negative aspects of the job. When organisations provide such information, applicants are better able to determine whether the job will meet their specific needs. o   Socialization and training. Providing a supportive environment tends to be a very effective strategy for strong sense of employees’ commitment. Training, otherwise, might lead to different forms of commitment. Employees who receive training might perceive that the organisation values them as individuals and therefore develop a stronger affective commitment. The same training could lead to the development of continuance commitment if it provides specific skills which are valuable only to that organisation. o   Assessment and promotion. The perception of fairness in the assessment and promotion process is also very important. Affective commitment is likely to decrease when an employee perceives assessment and procedures as unfair. o   Compensation and benefits. Compensation and benefit packages may be viewed in two different ways. If the employees view a compensation and benefits package from a purely financial view point, then continuance commitment may increase. If however, the employees perceive the organisation as one that is fair in rewarding its employees, then affective commitment is likely to increase.

3.      FEATURES OF EMPLOYEES’ COMMITMENT

According to Hayday (2003), commitment has several components and these include compatibility of values, pride in the organisation, loyalty, job satisfaction and feeling fairly rewarded. Commitment must also be understood as a two-way street, involving responsibilities on the employer to develop and value employees. Employers can positively influence how their employees feel by taking necessary steps to create a work environment that indicates, by action, that the employee is valued. As indicated by Insightlink Communication (n.d.), trust, security and the knowledge that employees need and consideration of their opinions are among the traits that keep commitment strong. At work, these qualities can even be more important than the value of monetary compensation and rewards. For instance, emotional rewards can actually have a larger impact than monetary rewards on the overall employee satisfaction. In other words, although employees might leave one job for another with better pay, their cause for leaving might not necessary be salary but a myriad of other reasons which may include mistrust of the employee, the employee feeling unappreciated, not respected or not recognised for the time and effort he/she must have put into the assigned work. The primary implication is to emphasize the importance of employee-employer relations and the need for organisations to really demonstrate that they are sincerely concern about their employees. Even though salary is important, it is only one part. Consequently, employers must also address the issue of fairness, quality of supervision and support for employees to successfully achieve a work/life balance. Insightlink Communication (n.d.) and Westphal (n.d.) outlined the following factors as those that positively affect employee satisfaction:

• Clearly stated guidelines defining appropriate work behaviour and job
• Supportive communications with immediate supervisors and senior
• The quality of the supervisory relationship.
• Favorable developmental training and
• Clearly-defined career goals and
• Frequent recognition, both formal and
• Fair and objective feedback on performance, provided on a regularly-scheduled
• Personal and family-oriented policies and
• Sufficiency of pay benefits and rewards

DeLegge Consulting (2006) citing the research conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting (2005) stated that though pay and benefits are critical factors in employees’ decisions to stay with or leave an organisation, but career opportunities contribute most to higher levels of employee commitment. Furthermore, Mercer’s survey findings paint a positive picture of the current work environment and employee engagement, (i.e. the employee’s willingness to go “above and beyond” assigned job responsibilities to support the organisation’s success). Tella, Ayeni & Popoola (2007) identified eight variables that are relevant to organisational commitment in the research conducted by Dornstein and Matalon (1998). These variables are: interesting work, co-worker’s attitudes towards the organisation, organisational dependency, age, education, employment alternatives, attitude of family and friends. On their part, Tella, Ayeni & Popoola (op cit) identified the following factors as noticeable heterogeneity to organisational commitment:

• skill variety and role ambiguity are best predictors of satisfaction, while leadership and the organisation’s age are the best predictor of commitment.
• background variables such as gender, level of education, or team size were not clearly related to three forms of commitment.
• there is positive correlation between education and organisational
• age was not related to organisational
• men had higher level of commitment than the

4.    OBSERVABLE TRAITS OF EMPLOYEES’ COMMITMENT TO THEIR JOBS AND EMPLOYING ORGANISATIONS

As variously stated by Brown (2003), Meyer & Allen (1997), Morrow (1993) and Steers (1975), organisational commitment is generally considered a useful measure of organisational effectiveness. In particular, organisational commitment has the potential to predict organisational outcomes such as performance, turnover, tenure, and organisational goals. Organisational commitment is determined by a number of factors, including (Nortcraft & Neale, 1996):

◙    personal factors (e.g., age, tenure in the organisation, disposition, internal or external control attributions);

◙    organisational factors (job design and the leadership style of one’s supervisor);

◙    non-organisational factors (availability of alternatives).

In the light of the above, it could be inferred that before an employee can be said to be committed to his/her employer, the following observable traits should manifest:

a. Punctuality: A popular maxim says, “punctuality is the sole of business” It is therefore expected that the commitment of an employee will be judged by promptness to work and how early he attends to his/her functions. One of the first signs of discontent by employees is that they will get late to work and will delay work unnecessarily and this will have adverse effects on the organisation’s

b. Honesty: Every organisation is responsible for the actions of its employees in the course of the performance of their duties; this is referred to in legal parlance as “vicarious liability”. It is therefore expected that the best way an employee can protect the integrity of his/her organisation is to be honest in his/her duties and dealings with clients. The employee must not defraud his/her employing With dishonesty employee, an organisation’s interest will be in jeopardy.

c. Teamwork: In order to achieve set goals of an organisation, there is need for cooperation among the various employees and departments that make up the The management communicates the goals and objectives of the organisation to the various individuals and employees who are expected to work individually and in contact towards the attainment of such objectives. It is therefore expected that commitment of employees will be shown by teamwork and co-operation towards the attainment of goals.

d. Loyalty: Every organisation is in competition with one another in trying to achieve its objectives and since employees are crucial to the attainment of the set objectives and are custodians of vital business secrets, loyalty is one of the greatest factors that show commitment of an employee to his/her employing organisation.

e. Innovation: This refers to the ability of an employee to stimulate new ideas within his/her organisation to bring about improvement in the running of the affairs of the organisation. Every organisation depends on the ideas and contributions of all the stakeholders i.e. management and employee in order to achieve the vision and mission of the organisation The commitment of an employee can therefore be judge by the quality of the ideas and contributions he makes to the development of his/her employer or organisation.

5.      THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT

Employee commitment has been defined as the employee effort to achieve organisational objectives. It embraces both motivation (actions to make people work more effectively), and self-motivation or empowerment (getting people to motivate themselves)” (Holden, 1998). Employee commitment is the loyalty and support of workforce to the goals of organisation” (Begin, 1997). It is a psychological attachment felt by the employee for the organisation (O’Reily, & Chatman, 1986). It is in fact an employee’s orientation towards the organisation in terms of his/her loyalty and involvement in the organisation (Robbins & Coutler, 1999). Greenberg and Baron (2000) described employee commitment as an extent to which an employee identifies and is involved with his/her organisation or is unwilling to leave it. The importance of employee commitment in the workplace includes (Mohsan et al, n.d.):

• The performance of an organisation highly depends on the commitment of its employees; more the employees are committed, better the performance of the entire organisation.
• Employee commitment is the key factor that determines the success of an organisation in today’s modern business world since, in the situation of increasing competition and constant technological advancements an organisation needs to have skilled, reliable and committed human resources to maintain its competitive position in the market.
• The effectiveness, quality and productivity of employees’ work still remain the major contributing factors to the progress of the company and employee commitment is considered as key to quality and productivity improvements.
• It is evident that financial stimuli solely can hardly inspire and motivate the employees to do their part of work more effectively and productively. In such a situation, the only factor which turns to be paramount importance is employees’ commitment since it is due to the highly committed employees; organisations can produce positive results in terms of productivity and
• Employee commitment has variously been found to be positively and significantly correlated to lots of positive organisational outcomes such as job satisfaction, motivation, job involvement and attendance (low rates of absenteeism) which resultantly enhance employees’ and ultimately organisational performance and productivity.

6. MOTIVATION: An Effective Tool to Inspire Commitment in Employees

Motivation can be defined as an urge that energises, activates or directs a person to act in a particular way; and targeted toward the achievement of a set goal or a set of objectives, whether personal or otherwise. Motivation, in general, applies to the totality of the needs, wishes or forces that may influence someone to act in a particular way for the purpose of achieving set goal or objectives. In Moshan (n.d.), motivation is defined as the “Drive or energy that compels people to act with energy and persistence towards some goal” Mohsan et al (n.d.) quoting Berman, Bowman, West, & Wart (2010). On his part, Armstrong (2006) viewed motivation as “a goal-directed behavior which involves taking a course of action which leads to the attainment of a goal or a specific valued reward”.

Motivation is the willingness or desire to do something, conditioned by the activity or action’s ability to satisfy some need (DeCenzo & Robbins, 1996); it is the willingness of an employee to exert some effort or action in order to achieve the organisational goals, conditioned by the action’s ability to satisfy employee’s individual needs (Robbins & Coulter, 1996). According to Schollard (1987), motivation promotes peace of mind; it gives a feeling of job security that may prompt an employee to work dedicatedly and happily too. The employees thus work towards the achievement of certain organisational goal and a periodic reward in the form of wages or salary. Nonetheless, an incentive or motivation becomes necessary for various reasons.

There are two basic forms of motivation namely, the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

1. Extrinsic motivation: This is that type of drive that basically motivates and this could be in the form of money, promotion, etc. This type is easily put off when these values have been satisfied or as soon as it becomes obvious that these satisfactions cannot be
2. Intrinsic motivation: It is an inner urge that fundamentally sets one into the path of self- If a staff is intrinsically motivated, it is almost definitely certain that he would not give up even where he is faced with problems, since he is not ‘instigated’ by any external influence. Intrinsic motivation has a lot to do with the kind of upbringing, mode of life, acceptance of responsibility and lastly challenges posed by the job.

The best employee motivation efforts focus on what employees deem to be important to them. As stated by Cuthie (n.d.), the methods of motivating employees today are as numerous and different as the companies operating in the global business environment. The basic considerations/questions are:

• What is the nature of the company and its industry?
• Is it small or big?
• What kind of culture is fostered?
• Is it conservative or innovative?
• What is important to the employees?
• What steps have been taken to find out?

A well motivated and committed workforce feels that their organisation value them and they are playing an essential role within their respective organisations which significantly enhance both employees’ as well as organisational performance (Shore, & Martin, 1989; Meyer, Paunonen, Gellaty, Goffin, & Jackson, 1989). Turner and Lawrence opined that there are three basic characteristics of a “motivating” job; these are:

• It must allow a worker to feel personally responsible for a meaningful portion of the work accomplished. An employee must feel ownership of and connection to the work he/she Even in team situations, a successful effort will foster an individual’s awareness that his/her contributions were important in accomplishing the group’s tasks.
• It must provide outcomes which have intrinsic meaning to the individual. Effective work that does not lead a worker to feel that his/her efforts matter will not be maintained. The outcome of an employee’s work must have value to him/her and to others in the
• It must provide the employee feedback about his/her accomplishments. A constructive, believable critique of the work performed is crucial to a worker’s continuance or improvement of that which has already been performed.

According to Maslow (1954), motivation is aroused by a set of hierarchy of needs which were identified by him as follows:

• Physiological needs: These could be said to be the basic human need for sustaining life itself,

e.g. food, shelter and clothing. Maslow stated that until these needs are satisfied to the necessary or anticipated degree other needs are not likely to motivate people.

• Security or safety needs: These, Maslow said, are the needs to be free from danger and job
• Affiliation or recognition: This is said to be the need to recognise one’s existence; the need to be accepted within a particular class, society, organisation, etc. It is a psychological need, which affects one’s ego or esteem.
• Esteem needs: This is the need for power, self-confidence and respect. Individuals feel elated when people accord them the respect and status of an important personality.
• Need for self-actualisation: Maslow sees this as the highest need in his theory of hierarchy of According to him, this is the desire to become what one really wants for himself/herself; it is the need to have ‘accomplished’ or ‘arrived’ at ones expected potential life ambition. At this point, the individual feels that he/she has achieved the desired life ambition.

BOMI International (2000) stated that individual growth is central to an organisation’s success. To this end, effort must be made to identify individual employee needs and foster employee job satisfaction and that by so doing; employees will progress toward self-actualization and thus improve the organisation in the process. As indicated by BOMI (op cit), the various rewards, practices, and programs that organisations may use to satisfy employees’ needs include the following:

Physiological (basic) needs	o    Furnish a pleasant and comfortable environment o    Provide for a “comfortable” salary.
Security needs	o    Adhere to safety rules and regulations o    Minimize layoffs and downsizing o    Provide well-defined job descriptions o    Minimize negative stroking and threatening behaviours o    Provide information about the firm’s financial status and projections o    Provide “just” compensation and supportive fringe benefits.
Social needs	o    Encourage the team concept to execute projects o    Systematically use job satisfaction surveys o    Sponsor office business and social meetings o    Provide close personal leadership o    Encourage participation in professional and community groups o    Compensate on the basis of total team performance.
Self-esteem needs	o    Include employees in goal-setting and decision-making processes o    Provide opportunities to display skills and talents o    Provide recognition symbols—for example, print names on stationery o    Provide opportunities for coaching and development o    Use a positive reinforcement program o    Pay attention to office size, office location, parking spaces, and other perks o    Institute a mentor system o    Compensate as recognition of growth.
Self- actualization needs	o    Provide for participation in goal-setting and decision-making processes o    Provide opportunities and support for a career-development plan o    Provide job rotation to broaden experience and exposure o    Offer optimal innovative and risk-taking opportunities o    Encourage direct-access communication with clients, customers, suppliers, and vendors o    Provide challenging internal and external professional development opportunities o    Provide supportive leadership that encourages a high degree of self-control o    Compensate as a reward for exceptional performance.

Source: BOMI International (2000)

Motivation could be of a tremendous tool to any organisation if used effectively; this is because, it is an invaluable tool to the employer who appreciates the value of coordination, delegation of duties and control, among others.

The Importance of Employee Motivation

Employee motivation is an essential component of business operations – high motivation coincides with job satisfaction, a sense of pride in one’s work, a lifelong commitment to one’s organisation, and the desire to put the achievement of organisational goals ahead of personal goals, thereby enhancing an organisation’s performance and productivity (Linz, Good, & Huddleston, 2006). Just like the psychological need for any individual to be appreciated over his/her efforts, Moshan et al (n.d.) stated that the same idea of thought stems the need for rewards and recognition in order to increase the work drive of an employee and increase his/her efficiency and seriousness towards work. Organisations will strive to motivate its employees in order to survive and compete in dynamic corporate environment successfully as motivation puts human resources into action, improves level of efficiency of employees, enables the organisations to attain sustainable competitive advantage over the rivals and ultimately leads to the achievement of organisational goals. Employee motivation is important because (Mohsan et al, n.d.):

• It is one of the most important and essential factors for the achievement of employees’ and ultimately organisational targets and goals (Berman, Bowman, West & Wart, 2010).
• Motivation increases the job involvement and satisfaction of employees by making the work more meaningful and interesting as well as keeps the employees more productive and improves their subsequent job performance (Kamery, 2004; Nelson, 1996; Ekerman, 2006).
• Lord (2002) opined that productivity is a function of employee motivation. The motivators such as accomplishment, pay, job responsibility, promotions and recognitions enhance the job satisfaction of employees which creates confidence, loyalty, and commitment and improve productivity of the organisation.

7.      IMPLICATIONS OF MOTIVATION AND EMPLOYEES COMMITMENT IN ESTATE FIRMS

Any employee, who claims to be satisfied, lacks nothing and needs nothing, still needs to be motivated. This is because there is scarcely any human being who is not in want or in constant in need of one thing or the other. Therefore, everyone really needs to be motivated, and as such, motivational policies should be formulated by every estate firms as this will serve as an effective tool in achieving the firm’s objectives. This study has shown that motivation could actually:

• aid the attraction of good workers
• ensure job security and retention of good employees
• promote maximum work output from employees
• allow for a flexible inter-personal relationship within the estate
• help reduce the risk of or disallow insubordination, unfaithfulness,

Taking a cue from Maslow (1954), some of the many ways by which employees in estate firms could be effectively motivated include the following:

a. Good remuneration or monetary incentive: Remuneration refers to the salary structure of an estate firm. It is a combination of the monthly salary and allowances paid to the employees of such firms for their services. To stimulate commitment, such estate firms must ensure that its employees are well remunerated so as to reduce the employee fraudulent tendencies. Monetary incentives may be given to employees for generating cost savings or innovative ideas; to boost productivity; and to reduce

It must be noted that money is effective only when it is directly tied to an employee’s ideas or accomplishments otherwise, its motivating effects may be short-lived. Furthermore, monetary incentives may be counterproductive if not made available to all members of the firm (Cuthie, 2010). In order to use this tool to effectively motivate employee, Tella, Ayeni & Popoola (2007) counselled that,

… personnel managers must consider four major components of a salary structure. These are:

• the job rate, which relates to the importance the organisation attaches to each job;
• payment, which encourages workers or groups by rewarding them according to their performance;
• personal or special allowances, associated with factors such as scarcity of particular skills or with long service; and
• fringe benefits such as holidays with pay, pensions, etc.

It is also important to ensure that the prevailing pay in other related establishments is taken into consideration in determining the pay structure of their organisation.

Cash motivation notwithstanding, staff could also be motivated without cash through following ways:

• Offering of opportunity to acquire additional knowledge in-house: An Estate Surveyor and Valuer with great urge for learning can easily be motivated with an offer of relatively easy access for knowledge acquisition in the course of his/her employment. This only becomes possible when the partner or manager is knowledgeable and experienced to teach them professional skills in, say, estate agency, management techniques, preparation of valuation and other estate reports, etc, thus building confidence in them especially when coupled with delegation of responsibilities and a certain degree of authority. Delegating staff to execute professional briefs will act as impetus that will enhance their sense of self worth.
• Provision of access to club membership: The profession of Estate Surveying and Valuation involves a good dose of socialisation and high level of human interpersonal relationships. The absence of this oftentimes denies the estate office the opportunity of getting choice briefs either for letting or sales and other valuation briefs. Employees can be allowed access to prestigious gulf clubs and other related social clubs could enhance the firm’s business
• Award of bonus and opportunity for profit sharing. The staff with the foreknowledge of such benefits will work harder for the good of the company.
• Prompt and regular payment of salaries: Staff should be paid salaries commensurate with their schedule of duties and educational qualifications and this must be as at when due.
• Provision of health care scheme: The morale of the employee can be boosted if their health condition is made a priority by their employers by making sure that employees have access to free healthcare facilities.
• Provision of life insurance scheme to cater for staff in case of any form of deformity in the course of their employment; and also that adequate compensation is paid to the beneficiary in case of untimely death while still in the employment of the
• Pension schemes: Pension schemes are not common in estate firms due to job insecurity and high rate of staff turnover. Nonetheless, this scheme can be incorporated into the firm’s staff retention policy whereby any staff that has served the company meritoriously for a period of, say, five years and above, can be made This will constitute part of terminal benefits of the staff concerned and thus engender commitment.

b. Job security: This refers to the assurance to employees that they will not lose their jobs unjustly. Most of the time, many employees view their jobs as precarious and this can be said to be one of the greatest reasons for lack of commitment in estate firms. Therefore any employer seeking commitment from its employees must ensure that staffs jobs are not unduly threatened.

c. Employee welfare: This includes access to health services by employees and their families, good leave package, good retirement plan, bus drive to convey staff to and from work. To stimulate commitment from its employee, these services must be made available to them.

d. Manpower training: This refers to continuous acquisition of skills for greater productivity and It is therefore expected that any estate firm that desires commitment from its employees must be committed to manpower training to inspire better service delivery from its employee.

e. Good teamwork: To develop and retain valuable employees, employers must create a positive work Good teamwork means building trust, addressing conflict, and the acknowledgment of positive efforts that help to further firm’s success.

It could be said that by giving incentives to staff as a mark of appreciation and recognition, it will, in no small way, help strengthen employees commitment and such firms will not only enhance staff productivity, but also ensure that the estate firms is able to successfully compete in the labour market where a good and loyal employee is the greatest asset. Thus, what helps retain employees is an emotional relationship which gradually develops when employees understand that they are important, needed, and cared about; so, it is not only with cash that an employee could be motivated for commitment. Furthermore, the concept of commitment to an employing estate firms is mostly dependent on the innate interest of an employee in the job. Thus the employee level of commitment will depend on his/her passion and his/her likes or dislikes for the assigned work. These issues go beyond adequate remuneration alone. It could therefore be inferred that the quality or extent of satisfaction derived by an employee from an employing estate firm is the greatest factor necessary to engender his/her commitment to that firm.

8.      CONCLUSION

From an organisation perspective, employees’ commitment is a valuable asset as it has a strong correlation with job performances, absenteeism, motivation and creativeness among other positive tendencies. Consequently, the need to build a committed and motivated workforce is considered as the main objective and a key to success in the competitive business environment. This goal, if achieved, could serve as a competitive edge to the organisation and the potential to enhance the profitability of such organisation. Therefore, heads of practice in estate firms should practice an open door policy, actively listen to employees, create work-life balance, and ensure an excellent rapport that will earn their respect and trust. Achieving this goal may require the need to regularly hold employer/employees’ meetings that encourage a culture of openness regarding their questions and concerns, while ensuring that respect for individuals voicing their concerns is maintained.

Furthermore, employers must build a routine that involves all the employees in decisions that will affect them without ceding management decision-making authority. Soliciting employees’ ideas and opinions will facilitate the setting of goals with clear expectations that incorporate individual responsibility and accountability. This must be complemented with the establishment of a feedback loop, monitor beneficial suggestions intake and implementation and be sure that the organisation’s feedback system is timely and effective. This practice could be the glue that will bind the organisation’s team’s efforts and thus ensure the firm’s growth through unalloyed committed of employees’ to the firm’s mission and vision.

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