ABSTRACT
The management of people at work is an integral part of the management process. The aim of this research is to evaluate the motivational factors of employee consultants in the Nigerian construction industry, with a view to improve motivational practices which leads to growth and sustenance of the Nigerian construction industry. The objectives of this research are the factors of motivation that influences the performance of employee-consultants, the practices of management of consulting and construction firms in the motivation of employee-consultants, the impact of motivation in developed and fast growing consulting/construction firms and the challenges to management motivation and demotivational factors of employee-consultants in Nigerian construction industry. The research work focused on employee-consultants as the key players in the construction industry. A sample size of 108 construction/consultancy, and 150 employee-consultants firms were randomly selected to answer the two set of questionnaires. From the research findings, the ranking of motivational factors reveals the first six factors as outlined in order of their significance from the research: Job security (0.9), salary (0.89), working condition (0.87), reward (0.84), Training and development (0.83) and Leadership respectively (0.82). The absence of the necessary support needed to carry out work was identified to be the most significant demotivational factor from the employee-consultant, while the management of construction/consulting firm has to deal with the Amount of Fee paid (workers' wages) as their major hindrance to motivation. The survey concluded that majority of employee-consultants were generally dissatisfied with the level of motivation in their organizations. The Research recommends that new incentive schemes, such as flexible working hours, subsidies can be engaged. The area for further research should focus on the implementation strategy of motivational factors.