Herzberg 's Motivation Hygiene Theory

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.

Maslow used this concept to portray the needs and wants of individuals in the workplace. He used a pyramid scheme to aid in his portrayal of the several stages of requirements each individual faced. Maslow discovered that there were five categories of needs that each individual possessed: Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem and Self Actualisation. In order from left to right, as each need became satisfied the next stage becomes more important to achieve, therefore, more useful as a motivator. Similarly, like Maslow, Herzberg also created multiple influential theories that helped shape managerial thought as it stands today. Herzberg’s greatest contribution to this field lies in his “Two-Factor Theory” (Motivation-Hygiene Theory). Like Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”, this theory also states that individual’s have needs and wants in the work place. As a result of multiple tests, Herzberg concluded that employee’s have two specific sets of needs in the workplace. These needs were separated into Hygiene and Motivator factors. Examples of “Hygiene” factors included wages and working conditions, whereas, “Motivating” factors tended more towards recognition and reward. There are huge similarities to be found between both Maslow and Herzberg’s concepts of motivational factors as both recognise the importance of employee’s needs and wants being

Motivation is all about the why of individual behaviors. There are entire books, courses, and even fields of study focused on understanding motivation, but it is all based on the same fundamental question: Why do we do the things we do?

Embracing Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, the company has embarked on offering its employees incentives that contribute to job satisfaction. The

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.

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

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

Today’s managers have a lot of tasks on their plate, even more so than managers of the past due to stricter rules and regulations imposed by the Federal Government, as well as the arduous amount of paperwork involved with documenting employees work habits and interactions be they good or bad. Ad on top of all this the need for annual or quarterly performance appraisals and daily supervision, it can make a manager feel overwhelmed, especially if they have employees who don’t seem to be overly motivated to do their jobs, or do them adequately. With this in mind, it is important to understand the motivational theories that make employees want to excel, management theories that we can use to better guide our employees, and their effect on leadership styles today. It is also important as well to understand how they relate to our personal lives, career enhancement opportunities, and ultimately and most importantly, our relationship with God.

Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory- a theory that explores factors associated with satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the workplace (Bell et al., 2014).

Herzberg provides steps at the end of the article that managers should follow to implement his motivation-hygiene theory. He says that jobs should be selected on the basis of enrichment and motivation. Brainstorming should be done through client relationship rather than hierarchical and one should be willing to reorganize the jobs. Generalities, Job Dissatisfaction aspects and Horizontal Loading should be avoided. While enrichment, the direct involvement of the employees whose jobs are enriched should be avoided. The design has to be tested on pilot groups and

The mission of the human resource department of ANZ bank is to provide best company, best leader and opportunities to the employees. It is highly responsible for coming up with strategic human resource functions of the bank which includes major practice areas of rewards, remuneration, culture, change, ethics, employee relations, operations, transformations, organizational capability and other shared values of human resource services. Corporate social responsibility is another mission of the ANZ bank. Herzberg theory was applied to the work processes of the employees to improve their engagement activities towards the work which is bound to provide higher satisfaction to the customers (Porter, 2008).

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.