Theory Herzberg Motivation – Hygiene Theory

Frederick Irving Herzberg (1923 - 2000) was a noted psychologist who became one of the most
influential names in business management. He is most famous for introducing job enrichment and
the Motivator-Hygiene theory. His 1968 publication "One More Time, How Do You Motivate
Employees?" had sold 1.2 million reprints by 1987 and was the most requested article from the
Harvard Business Review.[1] Herzberg attended City College of New York, but left part way
through his studies to enlist in the army. As a patrol sergeant, he was a firsthand witness of the
Dachau concentration camp. He believed that this experience, as well as the talks he had with other
Germans living in the area was what triggered his interest in motivation. Herzberg graduated from
City College in 1946 and moved to the University of Pittsburgh to undertake post-graduate studies
in science and public health. He earned his PhD in psychology with a dissertation entitled
"Prognostic variables for electroshock therapy". He started his research on the workplace while
teaching as a professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and later
moved to the University of Utah where he held the position of professor of management in the
college of business.[2]

[edit] Two factor theory

Main article: Two factor theory

Herzberg proposed the Motivation-Hygiene Theory, also known as the Two factor theory (1959)
of job satisfaction. According to his theory, people are influenced by two factors:

Motivator Factors

 Achievement
 Recognition
 Work Itself
 Responsibility
 Promotion
 Growth

Hygiene Factors

 Pay and Benefits

 Company Policy and Administration
 Relationships with co-workers
 Physical Environment
 Supervision
 Status
 Job Security
 Salary
 1. People are made dissatisfied by a bad environment, but they are seldom made satisfied by a good
environment.
2. The prevention of dissatisfaction is just as important as encouragement of motivator satisfaction.
3. Hygiene factors operate independently of motivation factors. An individual can be highly
motivated in his work and be dissatisfied with his work environment.
4. All hygiene factors are equally important, although their frequency of occurrence differs
considerably.
5. Hygiene improvements have short-term effects. Any improvements result in a short-term removal
of, or prevention of, dissatisfaction.
6. Hygiene needs are cyclical in nature and come back to a starting point. This leads to the "What
have you done for me lately?" syndrome.
7. Hygiene needs have an escalating zero point and no final answer.[3

McClelland’s Theory of Needs

McClelland proposes that each of us have three fundamental needs that exist in different balances.
These affect both how we are motivated and how we attempt to motivate others.

n-ach: Need for achievement:

Seeks achievement, attainment of goals and advancement. Strong need for feedback, sense of
accomplishment and progress

n-affil: Need for affiliation:

Need for friendships, interaction and to be liked.

n-pow: Need for power

Authority motivated needs to influence and make an impact. Strong need to lead and to increase
personal status and prestige.

It seems that some people have a very strong need to achieve, whilst the majority of people are
not motivated in this way. McClelland was so interested by this that he focussed his research on
the need to achieve.

In a famous experiment, people were asked to throw rings over a peg (like at a fair). The distance
that one should throw from was not specified, and as a result most people threw their rings from
random distances. However, people with a high need for achievement chose their location carefully
so that they stood a realistic chance of getting the ring on the peg, but that it was not too easy.
They set an achievable goal that would stretch them.

This seems to be the nub of the whole thing - achievement motivated people set goals where they
feel that they can influence the outcome and ensure that those goals are balanced between
challenge and realism.
An achievement motivated person sees the achievement of a goal as the reward; it is more
satisfying than praise or monetary reward. Money is seen as good only in that it is seen as a
measure of their achievement. This idea of feedback is essential to the achievement motivated
person: the feedback needs to be informative to enable them to use it to improve their
achievement. In addition there is an element of competition - it is important for the individual to
be able to compare their achievement against others.

The key differentiator between this group and others is that achievement motivated people
frequently spend time thinking how things could be improved.

Rather than being the preserve of a privileged few with these characteristic, Mclelland believed
that these characteristics could be taught and developed training programmes.

Dave is someone who has a high need for achievement and I must admit that it does explain a lot
to me. I can normally see very quickly how to improve a system, and struggle to understand why
others might not want to improve it too. I also find it difficult to understand why people do the
things that they do more generally. Maybe it is because rather than wanting to make everything
as good as it can possibly be they have higher needs for power or affiliation.

It seems that I might not be alone in my difficulties as although n-ach people make good business
leaders and entrepreneurs their management style can suffer because they expect everyone to be
motivated in the same way as themselves.

However, it is the need for power that I have the most difficulty with. It seems very destructive to
have a need for power without a strong need to achieve as well. Surely having a strong motivation
to increase personal status and prestige will always lead to destructive and competitive tendencies?

Vroom’s Expectency Theory of Motivation

The expectancy theory of motivation is suggested by Victor Vroom. Unlike Maslow and Herzberg,
Vroom does not concentrate on needs, but rather focuses on outcomes.

Whereas Maslow and Herzberg look at the relationship between internal needs and the resulting
effort expended to fulfil them, Vroom separates effort (which arises from motivation),
performance, and outcomes.
Vroom, hypothesises that in order for a person to be motivated that effort, performance and
motivation must be linked. He proposes three variables to account for this, which he calls Valence,
Expectancy and Instrumentality.

Expectancy is the belief that increased effort will lead to increased performance i.e. if I work harder
then this will be better. This is affected by such things as:

1. Having the right resources available (e.g. raw materials, time)

2. Having the right skills to do the job
3. Having the necessary support to get the job done (e.g. supervisor support, or correct
information on the job)

Instrumentality is the belief that if you perform well that a valued outcome will be received i.e. if
I do a good job, there is something in it for me. This is affected by such things as: