Ghana is a nation in West Africa, situated between Ivory Coast to the west, Togo to the east, Burkina to the

north and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. Ghana has seen its part of political and economic uproar like other African countries, and its banking system has been influenced by these turbulent periods. In the late 19th century, the first banking institutions were set up in British West Africa. In 1894, the Bank of British West Africa backed by the London-run African Banking Corporation was established. The British until 1957 were in charge of West Africa and its banking institutions. Today, the banking system in Ghana has seen a wide range of policies implemented to keep up with the western world. 1989 saw the inception of the Ghana Stock Exchange, and Ghana has worked with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to develop new, progressive policies (Retrieved online on July 2, 2011 from http://www.ehow.com/facts_5510268_history-banking-ghana.html). Social Security Bank (SSB) limited is a subsidiary of the Societe Generale Group, one of the Euro-zones largest banks: it is among the top French companies by market capitalization and one of the 15 largest banks in the world. Societe Generale Social Security Bank (SG-SSB) is one of the five (5) largest retail banks in Ghana. The banks mission is to create a preferred banking institution, which employs professionalism, team work and innovation to provide quality products and services that best satisfy the needs of its customers. The bank, ho0ever, covers the breadth of the country and is represented in every region in Ghana. Its 38 branches are fully networked. It is also strongly represented in the western Region where they financial support is provided to support cocoa farmers. The HRM Department have the leading role in developing and implementing policies and procedures to support the effective management of employees, spanning across employee entry and exit, with the view to ensuring achievement of the banks overall objectives. The three major objectives of the human resource depart of the bank are: Manages the employee relation environment through regular engagement with the unions in areas of negotiation (collective bargaining) of salary, conditions of service, communication of business information to staff, etc; Provides advice and guidance to line managers in all areas of people management such as discipline and grievance, performance, transfers, sickness and absences, leave management; Provides administrative and welfare support in diverse ways including payroll, staff record management, MIS, processing of employee claims, exit and bereavement support.

This researcher then finds the necessity for a study that specifically tackles the improvement of motivational strategies for employees in the banking system since even works have not been in this subject. This study is therefore intended to explore the factors to be considered in banking industry. Therefore this study attempts to answer the primary query: What is the impact of motivation in encouraging employees creates a culture of achievement in a business, especially in the banking sector in Sub-Sahara African countries? More so, a careful review of the history of employee relation or the human resource issues of the SG SSB indicates much study and analysis has not been conducted. This forms the major part of the limitation of this study.

Currently, the banking history also has it that most new banks ensnare or lure employees believing to the most experienced from others. Mostly, banks from Ghana use this basically as competitive tool to weakness their major rivals by offering huge and lucrative salary among other packages. Taking a careful look at the current level of employees motivation of that SG SSB, the bank has not lost most of its keys employees to the other banks or even to the lucrative organizations in the country. This therefore gives a greater sense in conducting a study about the techniques and strategies the bank is using to motivation the employees. According to Leigh (2005), almost 90 percent of employees leave their organizations because of issues with their job, manager, culture or work environment, Leigh Branham reports, yet nearly 90 percent of managers believe that employees leave and stay mostly for the money (Leigh, 2005; pg. 238). However, in a country where employment is very difficult to come by, will anybody just leave an international bank like SG SSB without any incentive from any quarters? This question also makes a reason to conduct this study. Thus, the researcher would to find out what is happening in the human resource department of the bank: Is the employees sitting on pains and making the bank also sitting on time-bomb unknowingly? Randomly speaking to some employees of the bank, it was ascertained that they, the employees, are not receiving proper compensation, lacks recognition, job security is certain and their fringe benefits (their appraisal or rewarding system is not much encouraging as compare to the other banks) are not forth-coming. They stated that though these when present do not motivate them but taking them away disrupt their concentration and eventually affecting their motivational level to work. Inferring from the information gathered from the employees, it could stated that the bank do not frequently organize survey to check to examine the employees perception of motivation in the bank. The employees expressed on the positive side that there are suggestion boxes to receive their complaints but they are a slow in addressing them. They also added that the banks training and development is well structured and is the main tool that makes most of them not leave the bank. Most researchers in motivational field assert the view that achievement behavior is an interaction between situational variables and the individual subject's motivation to achieve (Scott, 2005). Two motives are directly involved in the prediction of behavior, implicit and explicit (Brunstein & Maier, 2005). For persons with implicit goals achieve goals, they need to set their internal standards higher, whereas the others should tend to adhere to the societal norms. These two motives often work together to determine the behavior of the individual in direction and passion. (Brunstein & Maier, 2005) Envisage an office situation in the up-to-the-minute business world in which there are no time limits, no bosses and also no competition individuals in the business world must necessarily perform tasks in the midst of deadline threats and competition so as to persevere, no matter how much enjoyment these individuals get from their work. (Fernando, 2005) No report has been made concerning the effect or the problems that have arisen from lack of motivation in SG SSB. However, drawing the analogy from the reports in the media that employees of SG SSB have been alleged stealing customers savings by various means. From the Ghana News Agency (GNA) website on October 2009, the Akim Oda branch of the bank was closed down due to the arrest of four top official of the bank, for allegedly misappropriate GHc592, 000 cedis belonging to the bank. Previously, several reports have been made about

some officials or employees using various means to steal from the bank and its customers. These may not necessarily be as a result of lack of motivation, but it gives a concern to investigate if it is. Thus, this may be as to the Ghanaian adage a hungry human could not prepare a meal without eating the food before he finished cooking it.