Employee Incentives and Employee Performance in the Port Sector of Cameroon: An Empirical Assessment

Abstract

The port sector is a strategic artery of the Cameroonian economy, with the Port of Douala-Bonabéri alone handling the overwhelming majority of the country's seaborne trade and serving as a maritime gateway for landlocked neighbours such as Chad and the Central African Republic. Sustained pressure to reduce cargo dwell time, cut congestion, and compete with rival regional ports has placed the productivity of port employees, dockworkers, terminal operators, customs liaison staff, and administrative personnel, at the centre of national economic policy. This article empirically examines the relationship between employee incentives and employee performance within Cameroon's port sector, drawing on equity theory, expectancy theory, and Herzberg's two-factor theory. A descriptive correlational design was adopted, combining a structured questionnaire administered to staff of the Port Autonome de Douala and affiliated terminal and forwarding companies with key-informant interviews of union and management representatives. Findings show that both monetary incentives (salary, bonuses, and overtime pay) and non-monetary incentives (recognition, training, promotion prospects, and job security) are significantly and positively associated with employee performance, with monetary incentives showing the strongest association among unionized dockworkers and non-monetary incentives mattering more among administrative and supervisory staff. However, respondents also reported persistent gaps between incentive policy and practice, delayed bonus payments, opaque promotion criteria, and limited recognition for shift and casual workers, that blunt the motivational effect of existing schemes. The article concludes that a balanced, transparently administered incentive architecture, rather than reliance on pay alone, offers the most promising route to improved productivity and service reliability across Cameroon's port sector, and it proposes targeted reforms for port authorities and terminal operators.