~ 13 ~ International Journal of Research in Finance and Management 2019; 2(2): 13-22 P P-ISSN: 2617-5754 E-ISSN: 2617-5762 IJRFM 2019; 2(2): 13-22 Received: 10-05-2019 Accepted: 15-06-2019 Dr. Marcus Garvey ORJI Ph.D. Department of Business Administration Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria Martha Ebere Ezimmuo Department of Bursary, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria Correspondence Dr. Marcus Garvey ORJI Ph.D. Department of Business Administration Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria Effect of financial incentives on employee work habit and performance in Nigerian public enterprises Dr. Marcus Garvey ORJI and Martha Ebere Ezimmuo Abstract Poor performance in the Nigerian public enterprises in most cases stem from dissatisfaction among employees, this dissatisfaction is attributed to many factors of which low financial incentive and Limited opportunity for career advancement are suspected to be among. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of Financial incentives on employees work behavior and performance in Nigerian Public Enterprises. The study is a descriptive survey and both primary and secondary data were used, and formulated hypotheses tested using Kendal coefficient of concordance. The findings of the study indicated that there is a significant relationship between financial incentives and work habits and performance of employees of Nigerian Public Enterprises, also limited opportunities for career advancement demotivate employees of Nigerian Public Enterprises, Provision of adequate training opportunities and career development programs motivates and encourages higher performance among employees of Nigerian Public Enterprises, equally Lack of annual salary increment tied to employee performance contributes to low motivation and poor performance among employees of Nigerian Public Enterprises. The study draws its conclusion on the fact that improved financial incentive energizes employees in Nigerian Public Enterprises to focus on work activities and encourage better performance, and recommended among other things that the management of Nigerian Public Enterprises needs to understand their employees better and use appropriate tactics like financial incentive to influence their work behavior and over- all performance. Also, opportunity for career advancement should not be limited or politicized, because the implications of that are low quality expectations and lack of trust among employees of Nigerian Public Enterprises. Keywords: Financial incentive, work behaviour, performance, public enterprises 1. Introduction Money in whatever form is sweet to behold and stay with. It energizes the spirit and gladdens the heart of Men. It is one if not the best incentive to motivate and influence work habit of Nigerian employees. By motivating the work force, management creates ‘will to work’ which is necessary for the achievement of organizational goals. Managers fulfill their organizational goals through the work of employees. Thus, managers need to have highly efficient and productive staff members. Organizations offer attractive financial incentive packages to attract and retain people with high quality and thereby to stay competitive, because financial incentives increase individual effort and thereby produce “incentivized” behaviour (Wickramasinghe & Dabere, 2012) [44] . Financial Incentive can be defined as the program aimed at improvement of individual’s performance via financial bonuses. Financial Incentive programs refer to extrinsic motivation of employees rather than intrinsic. Financial incentives and rewards make continuation of the employment relationship because it create the basis for high levels of commitment so, firms must develop strategies that include financial incentives and rewards for example promotion, bonus, profit sharing or gain sharing and employees stock ownership etc (Saleem, 2011) [35] . According to Tang’s (1992), income generally has strong positive correlation with employees’ job satisfaction. This can indicate that also monetary incentives should have positive effect on job satisfaction. Indeed several studies have reported that different kind of monetary incentives have positive effect on employees’ overall job satisfaction (Green & Heywood 2008, Puoliakas & Theodossiou 2009) [9, 32] . Work behaviour includes all behaviours present in work context leading to the specific achievement and describing the way how work has been performed by employee