Motivation, Work & Herzberg

The "most requested article from the Harvard Business Review" (according to its editors) is Herzberg's Two-factor Motivation-Hygiene theory F. Herzberg, (with B Mausner & B.B. Snyderman) The Motivation to Work. 1959, Herzberg expanded his motivation-hygiene theory in his subsequent books: Work and the Nature of Man (1966); The Managerial Choice (1982); and Herzberg on Motivation (1983).. Herzberg proposed that what motivates people at work is different from what causes dissatisfaction (rather than being its opposite). Job satisfiers are «motivators» and are about doing the job, whereas the job dissatisfiers are «hygiene factors» within the job's context.

We can look at these two independent factors in the context of this framework of expectations and obligations in employment.

The Maintenance or Hygiene Factors

Herzberg's hygiene factors are indeed extrinsic but they are not entirely outside the employee's control. They are mostly relevant as incentives-CG7 (or disincentives) at the time of signing a contract. Items like:

► Company policy and administration
► Benefits
► Work conditions
► Status
► Security
► Technical supervision

These should all be investigated and evaluated carefully by a person considering signing a contract of employment.

Once the contract is signed, the natural hope is that these incentives will be maintained. Incentives-CG7 exert a continual influence on both the employee and the management. However, these incentives may change (e.g. due to government regulations or a new CEO). If unfavorable, this may create pressure on an employee to exit the organization or to protest in other ways.

The Motivation Factors

Herzberg's motivating factors are intrinsic to working in the contracted post. The various factors seem to more or less cover the remaining 6 Groupings:

Achievement— links to Results-CG3
Recognition— links to Assessments-CG4
Work Itself— links to Work-CG1
Responsibility— links to Authority-CG2
Promotion/Advancement— links to Authority-CG2

The upper three groupings seem to be missing. Growth is possibly relevant to Personal Presence-CG5, but it scored rather low on both of his factors.

What about Money?

Salary was found to be about both hygiene and motivation equally. This is easy to understand: there is a certain rate for the job that an employee reasonably expects, and then there is additional payment (e.g. bonuses, re-grading) that reflect quality of performance.

What about Relationships?

Relations with peers and superiors were found to be important hygiene factors. Relations with subordinates had less effect. Given that every relationship with a subordinate (A to B)  is also a relationship with a superior (B to A), this area must be viewed as still problematic in organizations. For more: review legitimating authority; or see the fuller account of employment relationships in the next section.

Note on the Literature

Many of Herzberg's ideas went on to infuse a rich and humane management and organizational development literature. The notion of a psychological contract between an employee and the organization has developed and it aligns directly with the concept of a «compact based on expectations and obligations» proposed here. However, it seems clearer to speak of a contract that is social and legal, and inner feelings like expectations and obligations that are equally real, but never fully captured in documents.

More recently psychologists and management thinkers are once again re-discovering, with apparent surprise, that money is not the prime motivator. With a sense of satisfaction, they assert as if they are the first to notice, that the major motivating factors are as identified by Herzberg, and as explained and shown in this THEE framework.

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Originally posted: 11-Nov-2011