Frederick Irving Herzberg was an American Psychologist who made a great contribution in the field of Business Management. He published a number of books including One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees, Motivation to Work, and Work and the Nature of Man. He also proposed the Motivator- Hygiene Theory, which is also widely known as the Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory of job satisfaction in 1959. This paper is a review of his article One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? , which is the second article to be published in the volume ‘On Managing People’ in 1968 (Herzberg, 1959).
In this article, Frederick examines the Kick in the Ass Motivator (KITAs). According to Herzberg, there is always a surest way of making somebody to do something, what he referred to as the KITA. He reports that both physical and psychological KITAs determine job satisfaction. There are 3 forms of KITAs, which include the negative physical KITA, negative psychological KITA, and the positive KITA. A boss who applies measures such as always walking around the worker as a way of ensuring he/she works can be said to be applying a negative physical KITA. Another psychological KITA is where a manager uses psychological measures to push the worker to deliver. In this case, the employee can hardly complain since there is no tangible evidence of attacks (Perry, Mesch, & Paarlberg, 2006).
However, no matter how many times the negative KITAs are used, they do not lead to employee motivation. A positive
Herzberg’s two factor theory of motivation at the workplace shows the difference between two factors of motivation. The two factors being satisfiers, which are the main causes for job satisfaction (motivation), from hygiene factors which are the main causes for job dissatisfaction (demotivation to stay in the job). Examples of motivating factors are achievement, recognition, responsibility and the work itself. Hygiene factors include: working conditions, salary, relationship with colleagues, supervision, etc. An organisation needs to influence satisfiers through performance management using range of tools such as: job descriptions, supervision, performance appraisals, continuous development/training, rewards and career development.
Herzberg showed that to truly motivate an employee a business needs to create conditions that make him or her feel fulfilled in the workplace.
According to researcher Lindner (1998), motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to aid in the survival of organizations. Not only is it important to meet the needs of the consumer, it is equally important that to make sure that associates are taken care of and remain motivated. For this reason, Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2012) “states much of management’s time is spent addressing the motivation of their employees” (p. 125). According to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007), employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity employees bring to their jobs; the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 1988). Despite its obvious importance, employee motivation can be an elusive quest for managers due to the multiplicity of incentives that can influence employees to do their best work. The reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated and the knowledge of how to motivate them is key to organizational success. It is imperative that employers get to know the personal needs and wants of their employees in order to establish tactics in which to motivate each of them. Once achieved, “managers are in a better position to encourage and reward employees to behave in effective ways” (Gibson et al, 2012, p.
Increasing productivity and sparking motivation in employees, are challenges that managers, businesses, and organizations have struggled with for centuries. While there are many beliefs about which method(s) yield the best results, and what is considered to be the desired result, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ management technique still does not exist. The current movement in psychology, called Positive Psychology, focuses on what is “right” in an individual, and not on their faults. This basic concept is starting to extend its influences into the workplace, making it seem that Positive Psychology may become the key ingredient corporate culture, and all places of employment alike, have needed to promote success and satisfaction in their lines of work.
Herzberg did a job satisfaction study of accountants and engineers, after that he developed this theory. He found that there are two groups of factors affect to an employee’s job satisfaction or job dissatisfaction. Herzberg's two-factor theory is probably the most widely known and accepted approach relating directly to job satisfaction. Herzberg addressed, the problem of job satisfaction in terms of those factors which cause satisfaction (motivators) and those which cause dissatisfaction (hygiene). This information then becomes the basis for evaluating an individual's job and making the changes necessary to increase worker motivation. Herzberg's two-factor theory of job-satisfaction is not new, as a matter of fact; it dates back to 1959 and is the outgrowth of a research study project on job attitudes conducted by Herzberg, Mausner and
Chapman, Alan (n.d.). Frederick Herzberg motivational theory, motivators and hygiene factors. Businessballs.com Retrieved 7/21/10 from http://www.businessballs.com/herzberg.htm
We present this analytical report, finished at your request, by correcting the formatting of the existing report and writing the unfinished parts. We include reasons and consequences for lack of motivation along with the techniques or strategies to motivate employees. Also included are benefits of motivating employees.
According to Herzberg, individuals are not satisfied with lower-order needs at work, for example, those associated with minimum salary levels or safe and pleasant working conditions. Theses individuals look for the gratification of higher-level psychological needs such as achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself. Motivation-hygiene theory, based on the presence of one set of job characteristics or incentives lead to worker satisfaction at work, while another and separate set of job characteristics lead to dissatisfaction at work. Moreover he found that job characteristics related to what an individual does is the nature of the work he performs, having the capacity to gratify such needs such as achievement, competency, status, personal worth, and self-realization, leading to satisfaction. However, the absence of such gratifying job characteristics does not lead to dissatisfaction. Instead, dissatisfaction results from unfavorable assessments of such job-related factors as company
Herzberg, a pioneer in motivation theory, determined that there are two factors that motivate employees: high-order needs and low-order needs. Those high-order needs are met by intrinsic motivation, such as fulfilling our personal needs and growth: achievements, recognition, promotions, work itself, and responsibility. He refers to low-order needs as hygienic factors; those needs cannot motivate employees but can minimize dissatisfaction in the work-place. Hygienic factors include, pay, company guidelines, quality of supervision, working conditions, relationships with co-workers, and job security (Damij, 2015, p.2).
Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following
The subject of motivation has been an important component in both theoretical and applied literature. There are many reasons why the motivational theories have generated so much discussion. In an organization motivation has been considered an important factor because employee motivation is considered essential for an organization 's status within the business environment and the community. The two motivation theories selected for this paper is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg hygiene factors.
According to Herzberg, the factors leading to job satisfaction are distinctly different from those that lead to job-dissatisfaction. Therefore, the managers who seek to eliminate factors that create job-dissatisfaction can bring about peace at the workplace but cannot motivate the employees. These factors are termed as hygiene factors comprising administration, supervision, working conditions, salary and wages etc. While absence of hygiene factors will lead to dissatisfaction, mere presence of these factors will not satisfy (i.e. motivate) the employees. In order to motivate the employees, managers must resort to ‘motivators’ (those factors that motivate the employees towards better performance) such as recognition, challenging assignment, responsibility, opportunities for growth and self-fulfillment etc.
Herzberg’s two-factor theory Psychologist Frederick Herzberg developed a ‘two-factor’ theory for motivation based on ‘motivators’ and ‘hygience factors’. Hygience factors are basic human needs at work. It do not motivate but failure to meet them causes dissatisfaction. The hygience factors
Herzberg (1987) believed that there are factors that led to job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction. The factors that led to job satisfaction are labeled as motivators and they included: achievement, recognition for an achievement, the work being done by the employee, responsibility, and the opportunity for growth or advancement. These are all internalized factors that
Motivation is one of the most discussed topics in the present era’s organisations, especially since renowned psychologists like Maslow and Herzberg are dedicating their efforts to understanding it. Companies are investing a significant amount of resources in improving productivity in order to maximise profits. One of these important resources is of human nature. In order to get the very best out of employees, some motivational approaches need to be used. But what is motivation and how do I successfully motivate? I will try to relate one of my personal experiences with a friend to some of the most influential motivational theories. After introducing my story and making a definition of motivation I will address the ideas of Taylor,