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Navachab Gold Mine (NGM) is an open-pit mining operation situated 180 kilometres west of the capital city of Windhoek and only 11km outside the town of Karibib, in Namibia. The mine started its production in December 1989 at a cost of N$ 85 million with an estimated operational life of the mine lasting until the year 2025. Epangelo Mining Company (Pty) Ltd is established by the Namibian Government as the sole shareholder, purposed to maintain and enhance the involvement of the Namibian Government in the exploration, mining and beneficiation of identified strategic minerals within the country (Ministry of Mines and Energy, 2008). NGM currently employs 421 permanent employees and over 400 contractors.
Problem Statement: According to the Herzberg two-factor/content motivational theory (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959); Adam’s (1963) Equity Theory; Vroom’s (1964) Expectancy Theory and; Goal-Setting Theory (Locke & Latham, 1990), rewards when used as motivators have an impact on work motivation and job satisfaction. Navachab Gold Mine (NGM) annually revises its benefits offered to its employees, which include annual increase in salary and housing allowance as rewards to influence work motivation and job satisfaction. Although, the mine offers these rewards as motivators, it has been unable to avoid industrial unrest and protests as witnessed in January 2014. This possibly is due to demotivated employees or rewards offered by the NGM do not the required positive impact on work motivation and job satisfaction. NGM shows evidence of having attempted all micro-level mechanisms identified by Amoateng (2018), to increase production, apart from impact of work motivation and job satisfaction. Yet, the mine seems to be unable to achieve its annual targets of gold production as reflected in Table 1.