Frederick Herzberg's Theory Of Motivation And Employee Dissatisfaction

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.

According to the Two-Factor theory (Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory), which is closely related to the Maslow’s theory of motivation, such factors as salary or safe and pleasant working conditions (hygiene factors)

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 Herzberg two factor theory there are “two issues that play an important role in the workplace experience: hygiene factors and motivational factors”( Fischer and Baack, 2013 ). Hygiene factors contains wages, hours, working conditions and relationships with supervisors. Motivational factors consist of achievements, recognition, actual work or job, responsibility, and the chance for advancement or growth, and relationships with peers. Herzberg states that a person is either satisfied and driven or unfulfilled and

According to Bateman & Snell (2009), Motivators to employee job performance are centered on extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards are characteristics of the workplace that attract and retain people. They revolve around organization and management policies, working conditions, pay, benefits, and other so-called “hygiene” factors. Intrinsic rewards are motivators that provide employees personal satisfaction in the performance of their jobs such as opportunities for personal and career growth, recognition and the feeling of achievement in the successful completion of a task. (p. 486). Herzberg’s two-factor theory suggests

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

David McClelland and Notably Jonh Atkinson, his associates, had done his research basically focused on needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model, higher order (social and esteem) needs (Venugopalan, 2007). McClelland’s acquired needs theory defines that an individual’s specific needs are accordingly to one’s life experiences which needs are acquired over time (Ball, 2009). As Motivation is essential to almost any feature of life and this word is also often used in reference to work. Work is not necessary due to innately human activity, but not in new modern-day work arrangement, motivation plays as an important role to create global productivity and scalability which mean that motivation drive people to use their ability and capacity into work to produce qualification of work. Therefore, McClelland described motivational need in three different types:

Nevertheless, McClellands theory of Needs can extend on Maslow’s (1943) theory, by highlighting the importance of belongingness to motivate individuals not exclusively for survival, but to

Herzberg proposes several way to maintain employee’s motivation to continue practicing their specific task. Herzberg proposes one thing called “The motivation to work”. Herzberg did a study where he came to conclude 5 job satisfactions and dissatisfactions. The five satisfaction he found where: achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, and advancement (Starling, 2015). If this five satisfaction where introduce in any company or

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

The study, as reported in the journal, was using Herzberg’s Hygiene Factors and Motivators to examine (a) what motivates employees in the retail industry and (b) their levels of jobs satisfaction. Tan & Waheed (2011) stated that the survey was done by way of convenient sampling to select sales personnel from women’s clothing stores at Bandar Sunway shopping mall located at Selangor, Malaysia. One hundred and eighty selected sales personnel of heterogeneity were surveyed by a questionnaire written in English. The questionnaire included a series of statements and questions pertaining to determinants of job satisfaction. The survey candidates were requested to indicate their degree of agreement to each. According to the researchers, linear regression analysis was performed to test the relationship between Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory and job satisfaction and further analysis was done evaluating the relationship between money and job satisfaction.

It is widely accepted that a good deal of motivation has its origins in certain basic needs. Need theories particularly the works of Maslow, Alderfer and McClelland- are based on the assumption that basic wants or requirements govern much of people’s behaviour. This notion has pervasive implications for human resources policies and practices tend to develop the performance of a range of human needs, the more likely it is that motivation and performance will be improved.