Motivation and Herzberg's hygiene theory

Motivation

Motivation is the inner drive that stimulates a person to take action and continue it to achieve a goal. In organizations, it is the willingness of employees to put effort into achieving organizational goals while satisfying their own needs.

Herzberg's hygiene-maintenance (two-factor) theory

Frederick Herzberg (1959) interviewed 200 engineers and accountants and asked when they felt very good and very bad about their jobs. He concluded that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are caused by two different sets of factors.

1. Hygiene (maintenance) factors (extrinsic, related to job context) Company policy and administration, supervision, salary, working conditions, interpersonal relations, job security, status.

• If they are poor, employees are dissatisfied.
• If they are good, dissatisfaction is removed but employees are not necessarily motivated (they are "not dissatisfied").

2. Motivators (intrinsic, related to job content) Achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, personal growth.

• Their presence creates satisfaction and motivation.
• Their absence leads to "no satisfaction", not to dissatisfaction.

Hygiene:    Dissatisfied <------> Not dissatisfied
Motivators: Not satisfied <-----> Satisfied

Implications

1. Provide good hygiene factors (fair pay, safe workplace, clear policy) first.
2. Then motivate through job enrichment: more responsibility, recognition, growth.
3. Do not assume that raising salary alone will motivate.

Example: A telecom engineer with good pay and safe conditions may still be unmotivated if work is routine; giving her a challenging project and recognition motivates her.

Criticism: the sample was small and only professionals; method bias (people credit themselves for success and blame others); salary can also motivate; ignores individual differences.