The Effect of Motivation Strategies on the Performance of Fuel Service Station Attendants at GAPCO, Uganda

Abstract

The general objective of the study was to establish the effect of motivational strategies on the performance of fuel station attendants at GAPCO Uganda. Specifically, the study strived to establish the effects of compensation, recognition and job design on the performance of fuel station attendants at GAPCO Uganda Ltd. The study used a cross sectional study design using quantitative and qualitative approaches on a sample of 62 fuel service station attendants. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and interview guide and was analyzed using frequency, percentages, correlation and regression analyses. The study found out that compensation significantly affected the performance of fuel station attendants; recognition significantly affected the performance of fuel station attendants; job design significantly affected the performance of fuel station attendants. The study concluded that the poor compensation practices, inadequate recognition and inadequate job characteristics were de-motivating to most staff and it adversely affected the performance of service station attendants leading to failure by employees to meet the performance expectation of speed of service and quality of customer service. The study recommends that to achieve the speed of service, number of customers served and quality of customer service, the management of GAPCO and franchise dealers should conduct job evaluations to develop attractive basic pay compensation systems which consider internal and external equity, use meetings, letters of recognition, employee of the month display and peer performance reviews to recognize service station attendants and co-opt consultant to redesign jobs of fuel attendants to provide for enhanced skills variety, task significance, task identity, job autonomy and performance feedback intrinsic job characteristics