Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The survival and growth of a corporate organization depend to a large extent on the productivity of its workforce. Similarly, the wealth of a nation as well as socio-economic wellbeing of its people depends on the effectiveness and efficiency of its various sub components (Akinyele, 2007). Productivity is therefore of great importance to the individual worker, the organization, the national economy at large and therefore also important to the upliftment of the welfare of the citizen and reduction of mass poverty in the polity (Yesufu, 2000 &Akinyele, 2005). Productivity of the Nigerian worker has been adjudged lower than that of counterparts in the western world for decades (Yesufu, 2000 &Thingan, 2005). According to World Bank Report (2009), labour productivity in Nigeria is persistently low, labour productivity recorded an average growth rate of 1.2% from 2000- 2008, this is below the 1.9% recorded in sub Saharan African countries (World Bank, 2009).
The Nigerian educational sector is not only an integral part of the economy, but also an influential part because of its contribution to the economy. Because the sector has remained largely industrious mentally; but rely heavily on number of manual workers, it is also bogged down with the low productivity picture painted above (Wahab, 2001 &Akindele, 2003).
A major method tertiary institutions employ to improve their workers productivity is the use of incentive schemes. Results of researches on the use of these schemes indicated they have induced increased productivity in workers in different proportions, (Aina, 2000; Fagbenle, 2003; Wahab, 1984 &Ameh 2013). While these studies have been instructive, they have however, concentrated on either financial or non-financial incentives.
Job enrichment is a way to motivate workers by giving them opportunity to use a range of their abilities, this is done by giving them more responsibilities and varieties in their job. The purpose of job enrichment is to reverse the negative effects of repetitive tasks requiring autonomy, and having effects such as boredom, lack of flexibility and employees dissatisfaction. An enriched job will contain (a) a range of tasks and challenges of varying toughness (b) a complete unit of work and (c) feedback, encouragement and communication mechanisms. (Leach & Wall, 2004).
The earliest efforts on job enrichment were by Herzberg and later by Hackman and Oldham who designed a job characteristics model. Kotila (2001) reported that the model assumed that if five core job characteristics are present (skill variety, task identify, task significance, autonomy, feedback). Three psychological states critical to motivation will be produced in the worker, namely; meaningfulness of work, responsibilities for work outcomes and knowledge of results. Then there would be five positive job outcomes, namely; internal work motivation, job satisfaction, growth satisfaction low absenteeism and high quality performance. The three groups of advantages were (a) renewal consisting of reduction of boredom, making new contacts, thinking about new career options and change in view point (b) exploration, made up of the following: trying new skills, developing new relationships, testing management and administrative skills and (c) specialization, also consisting; re-education, in-depth exploration using special skills and meeting a need that were underserved. These multifaceted advantages suggest that job enrichment has potentials for increasing workers productivity in general, perhaps also in the educational institutions such as universities.
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