Motivation is an individual’s resolve to do a job. Motivation theories stipulate that employees have levels of needs that are to be satisfied by their employers in order to motivate them to perform. Research has shown that organisations that want to excel in their performance should invest in the motivation of their employees. Thus, suggesting a link between motivation and organisational performance. The purpose of this research was to examine the influence employee motivation has on the performance of healthcare organizations in Botswana and to investigate the unexplored factors that motivated health care workers in a Botswana cultural setting. The prevailing problem, was that, health care facilities in Botswana were performing poorly and the staff had low motivation. Lack of organisational effectiveness of the health care facilities translated into substandard quality care which impacted on the patients and resulted in unsatisfactory care outcomes and increased patients’ complaints. This study explored the literature on theories governing motivation and organisational performance. The research was guided by research questions and hypotheses.
The selected approach for the research was mixed method approach, also known as triangulation, that involved quantitative and qualitative research methods. This approach was selected for its robustness. Health care workers from both the public and private healthcare facilities in Botswana were the study participants and both probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling techniques were employed. Data for the study was collected through questionnaires and structured interviews. The generated data was analysed by statistical tools and thematic analysis method for the data collected by the quantitative and the qualitative methods respectively.
The findings of the study were that a positive relationship existed between staff motivation and organisational performance and that, generally the health workers in health care organizations in Botswana were demotivated. Therefore, it was recommended that the leadership of organisations and the management should give the motivation of their employees the importance that it deserves as this will lead to them greatly boosting their performance. Recommendations for future studies were made that included further studies of the private sector as it was not possible to include them.