Employee motivation in the value Added Tax Service of Ghana

Abstract

Organisations achieve good results when the employees are motivated. This study was conducted to assess the factors of motivation that influence staff of Value Added Tax (VAT) Service to remain committed to the Service and their job. Descriptive research design was used for the study. Of the required sample size of 278 from a study population 1094 from 27 regional offices, mixed method comprising purposive, stratified and randomsampling was used to arrive at a sample size of 111. This was made of 14 management staff, 75 senior staff and 22 junior staff. Data were collected through questionnaire and analyzed with the support of Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS) Software version 15. The study revealed that VAT Service had some motivational policies in place. These include working conditions, organizational culture, level of feedback on performance and job variety. Employees were not satisfied with some of these policies and packages such as level of involvement in decision making, salary, end-of- service benefits, undefined careerpath, freedom and autonomy. Staff felt that management should take a holistic look at the motivational packages. They were strongly of the view that the incentives should be made attractive to encourage staff retention. By this revenue will be maximized to the state. Management commended both junior and senior staffs’ commitment to work and also commented on the meagerness of the end-of service benefit.However, one big challenge management wished could be addressed was political interferences in the leadership and management of the Service.