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(Two Factor Theory)
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To better understand employee attitudes and motivation, Frederick Herzberg made studies to find out which factors in an employee\'s work environment are the reasons for satisfaction or dissatisfaction. He published his researches in the book: "The Motivation to Work" in 1959.
The studies included interviews in which employees were asked what they liked and disliked about their work. Herzberg found that the factors causing job satisfaction (and presumably motivation) were different from those causing job dissatisfaction. He developed the motivation-hygiene theory to explain these results. He called the satisfiers motivators and the dissatisfiers hygiene factors, using the word \"hygiene\" in the sense that he found maintenance factors which are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but which do not provide satisfaction.
The following list presents the top six factors causing dissatisfaction and the top six factors causing satisfaction, listed in the order of higher to lower importance.
Factors Affecting Job Attitudes
Leading to Dissatisfaction:
- Company policy
- Supervision
- Relationship w/Boss
- Work conditions
- Salary
- Relationship w/Peers
Leading to Satisfaction:
- Achievement
- Recognition
- Work itself
- Responsibility
- Advancement
- Growth
Herzberg said that the factors causing satisfaction are different from those causing dissatisfaction, but you couldn't say they are opposites of each another. The opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but rather, no satisfaction. Similarly, the opposite of dissatisfaction is no dissatisfaction.
At first glance this distinction between the two opposites may sound like a play on words but he argued that there are two distinct human needs portrayed. First, there are physiological needs that can be fulfilled by money, for example, to purchase food and shelter. Second, there is the psychological need to achieve and grow, and this need is fulfilled by activities that cause one to grow.
From the above list of results, one observes that the factors causing satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not part of the work itself, they are external factors. Herzberg often referred to these hygiene factors as \"KITA\" factors, where KITA is an acronym for Kick In The A..., the long process of giving incentives or the short process of a Kick In The A...
Herzberg argued that these provide only short-run success because the motivator factors that determine whether there is satisfaction or no satisfaction are intrinsic to the job itself, and do not result from carrot and stick incentives.
Implications for Management
If the motivation-hygiene theory holds, management not only must provide hygiene factors to avoid employee dissatisfaction, but also must provide factors intrinsic to the work itself in order for employees to be satisfied with their jobs.
Herzberg argued that job enrichment is required for intrinsic motivation, and that it is a continuous management process.
According to Herzberg:
- The job should have sufficient challenge to utilize the full ability of the employee.
- Employees who demonstrate increasing levels of ability should be given increasing levels of responsibility.
- If a job cannot be designed to use an employee\'s full abilities, then the firm should consider automating the task or replacing the employee with one who has a lower level of skill. If a person cannot be fully utilized, then there will be a motivation problem.
Critics of Herzberg\'s theory argue that the two-factor result is observed because it is natural for people to take credit for satisfaction and to blame dissatisfaction on external factors. Furthermore, job satisfaction does not necessarily imply a high level of motivation or productivity.
But in the end the true motivation comes from the within of a person and not from the KITA-Factors.
The combination of hygiene and motivation factors can result in four conditions:
- High Hygiene / High Motivation: The ideal situation where employees are highly motivated and have few complaints
- High Hygiene / Low Motivation: Employees have few complaints but are not highly motivated. \"The job is a pay check\" situation
- Low Hygiene / High Motivation: Employees are motivated but have a lot of complaints. This is a situation where the job is exciting and challenging but salaries and work conditions are not up to par.
- Low Hygiene / Low Motivation: The worst situation. Here we have unmotivated employees with lots of complaints.
Vocabulary:
hygiene - Gesundheit
attitude - Einstellung
presumably - wahrscheinlich
sense - Sinn
maintenance factors - Hauptfaktoren
avoid - vermeiden
provide - bereitstellen, sichern
affecting - Einfluss nehmend
policy - Politik/Strategie
supervision - Beaufsichtigung, Leitung, Kontrolle
achievement - Leistung
recognition - Anerkennung / Identifizierung mit dem Unternehmen
work itself - Arbeit
advancement - Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten
growth - Entwicklung
rather - ziemlich, fast
similarly - ähnlich
glance - Blick
distinction - Unterscheidung
argue - argumentieren
observe - beobachten, bemerken
external - äußerliche
provide - bereitstellen
intrinsic - innere
incentive - Anreiz, Ansporn
carrot and stick - Zuckerbrot und Peitsche
enrichment - Bereicherung
sufficient challenge - genügend Herausforderung
ability - Können, Fähigkeit
imply - beinhalten
within - Inneres
complaint - Beschwerde
pay check situation - Kriege Geld für den Job, sonst aber interessiert er mich nicht.
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