Two-factor theory

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For Schachter's theory of emotion, see two-factor theory of emotion.
The two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg's motivation-hygiene
theory and dual-factor theory) states that there are certain factors in
the workplace that cause job satisfaction while a separate set of factors cause
dissatisfaction, all of which act independently of each other. It was developed
by psychologist Frederick Herzberg.[1]

Contents

 1Fundamentals
 2Workarounds
 3Validity and criticisms
 4References
 5Further reading

Fundamentals[edit]
Feelings, attitudes and their connection with industrial mental health are related
to Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation. His findings have had a considerable
theoretical, as well as a practical, influence on attitudes toward administration. [1]
[2]
 According to Herzberg, individuals are not content with the satisfaction of lower-order
needs at work; for example, those needs associated with minimum salary levels or safe
and pleasant working conditions. Rather, individuals look for the gratification of higher-
level psychological needs having to do with achievement, recognition, responsibility,
advancement, and the nature of the work itself. This appears to parallel Maslow's theory
of a need hierarchy. However, Herzberg added a new dimension to this theory by
proposing a two-factor model of motivation, based on the notion that the presence of
one set of job characteristics or incentives leads to worker satisfaction at work, while
another and separate set of job characteristics leads to dissatisfaction at work. Thus,
satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not on a continuum with one increasing as the other
diminishes, but are independent phenomena. This theory suggests that to improve job
attitudes and productivity, administrators must recognize and attend to both sets of
characteristics and not assume that an increase in satisfaction leads to decrease in
dissatisfaction.
The two-factor theory developed from data collected by Herzberg from interviews with
203 engineers and accountants in the Pittsburgh area, chosen because of their
professions' growing importance in the business world. Regarding the collection
process:
Briefly, we asked our respondents to describe periods in their lives when they were
exceedingly happy and unhappy with their jobs. Each respondent gave as many
"sequences of events" as he could that met certain criteria— including a marked change
in feeling, a beginning, and an end, and contained some substantive description other
than feelings and interpretations... The proposed hypothesis appears verified. The
factors on the right that led to satisfaction (achievement, intrinsic interest in the work,
responsibility, and advancement) are mostly unipolar; that is, they contribute very little
to job dissatisfaction. Conversely, the dis-satisfiers (company policy and administrative
practices, supervision, interpersonal relationships, working conditions, and salary)
contribute very little to job satisfaction.

— Herzberg, 1964[3]
From analyzing these interviews, he found that job characteristics related to what an
individual does — that is, to the nature of the work one performs — apparently have the
capacity to gratify such needs as achievement, competency, status, personal worth, and
self-realization, thus making him happy and satisfied. However, the absence of such
gratifying job characteristics does not appear to lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
Instead, dissatisfaction results from unfavorable assessments of such job-related
factors as company policies, supervision, technical problems, salary, interpersonal
relations on the job, and working conditions. Thus, if management wishes to increase
satisfaction on the job, it should be concerned with the nature of the work itself — the
opportunities it presents for gaining status, assuming responsibility, and for achieving
self-realization. If, on the other hand, management wishes to reduce dissatisfaction,
then it must focus on the workplace environment — policies, procedures, supervision,
and working conditions.[1] If management is equally concerned with both, then managers
must give attention to both sets of job factors.
Two-factor theory distinguishes between:

 Motivators (e.g. challenging work, recognition for one's achievement,

responsibility, opportunity to do something meaningful, involvement in decision
making, sense of importance to an organization) that give positive satisfaction,
arising from intrinsic conditions of the job itself, such as recognition, achievement, or
personal growth.[4]

 Hygiene factors (e.g. status, job security, salary, fringe benefits, work

conditions, good pay, paid insurance, vacations) that do not give positive
satisfaction or lead to higher motivation, though dissatisfaction results from their
absence. The term "hygiene" is used in the sense that these are maintenance
factors. These are extrinsic to the work itself, and include aspects such as company
policies, supervisory practices, or wages/salary.[4][5] Herzberg often referred to
hygiene factors as "KITA" factors, which is an acronym for "kick in the ass", the
process of providing incentives or threat of punishment to make someone do
something.
According to Herzberg, hygiene factors are what causes dissatisfaction among
employees in the workplace. In order to remove dissatisfaction in a work environment,
these hygiene factors must be eliminated. There are several ways that this can be done
but some of the most important ways to decrease dissatisfaction would be to pay
reasonable wages, ensure employees job security, and to create a positive culture in
the workplace. Herzberg considered the following hygiene factors from highest to lowest
importance: company policy, supervision, employee's relationship with their boss, work
conditions, salary, and relationships with peers.[6] Eliminating dissatisfaction is only one
half of the task of the two factor theory. The other half would be to increase satisfaction
in the workplace. This can be done by improving on motivating factors. [7] Motivation
factors are needed to motivate an employee to higher performance. Herzberg also
further classified our actions and how and why we do them, for example, if you perform
a work related action because you have to then that is classed as "movement", but if
you perform a work related action because you want to then that is classed as
"motivation". Herzberg thought it was important to eliminate job dissatisfaction before
going onto creating conditions for job satisfaction because it would work against each
other.[7]
According to the Two-Factor Theory, there are four possible combinations: [8]

1. High Hygiene + High Motivation: The ideal situation where employees are highly
motivated and have few complaints.
2. High Hygiene + Low Motivation: Employees have few complaints but are not
highly motivated. The job is viewed as a paycheck.
3. Low Hygiene + High Motivation: Employees are motivated but have a lot of
complaints. A situation where the job is exciting and challenging but salaries and
work conditions are not up to par.
4. Low Hygiene + Low Motivation: This is the worst situation where employees are
not motivated and have many complaints.
Unlike Maslow, who offered little data to support his ideas, Herzberg and others have
presented considerable empirical evidence to confirm the motivation-hygiene theory,
although their work has been criticized on methodological grounds.

Workarounds[edit]
Herzberg's theory concentrates on the importance of internal job factors as motivating
forces for employees. He designed it to increase job enrichment for employees.
Herzberg wanted to create the opportunity for employees to take part in planning,
performing, and evaluating their work. He suggested to do this by: [4][5][9]

 Removing some of the control management has over employees and increasing
the accountability and responsibility they have over their work, which would in return
increase employee autonomy.
 Creating complete and natural work units where it is possible. An example would
be allowing employees to create a whole unit or section instead of only allowing
them to create part of it.
 Providing regular and continuous feedback on productivity and job
performance directly to employees instead of through supervisors.
 Encouraging employees to take on new and challenging tasks and becoming
experts at a task.
Validity and criticisms[edit]
In 1968 Herzberg stated that his two-factor theory study had already been replicated 16
times in a wide variety of populations including some in Communist countries, and
corroborated with studies using different procedures that agreed with his original
findings regarding intrinsic employee motivation making it one of the most widely
replicated studies on job attitudes.
One such replication was done by George Hines and published in December 1973 in
the Journal of Applied Psychology. Hines tested Herzberg's two-factor motivation theory
in New Zealand, using ratings of 12 job factors and overall job satisfaction obtained
from 218 middle managers and 196 salaried employees. Contrary to dichotomous
motivator-hygiene predictions, supervision and interpersonal relationships were ranked
highly by those with high job satisfaction, and there was strong agreement between
satisfied managers and salaried employees in the relative importance of job factors.
Findings are interpreted in terms of social and employment conditions in New Zealand. [10]
While the Motivator-Hygiene concept is still well regarded, satisfaction and
dissatisfaction are generally[who?] no longer considered to exist on separate scales. The
separation of satisfaction and dissatisfaction has been shown to be an artifact of
the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) used by Herzberg to record events.[11] Furthermore,
it has been noted the theory does not allow for individual differences, such as particular
personality traits, which would affect individuals' unique responses to motivating or
hygiene factors.[4]
A number of behavioral scientists[who?] have pointed to inadequacies in the need for
hierarchy and motivation-hygiene theories. The most basic is the criticism that both of
these theories contain the relatively explicit assumption that happy and satisfied
workers produce more, even though this might not be the case. [citation needed] For example, if
playing a better game of golf is the means chosen to satisfy one's need for recognition,
then one will find ways to play and think about golf more often, perhaps resulting in a
lower output on the job due to a lower amount of focus. [citation needed]. However, despite the
effect on output, employees' job satisfaction (for example, measured by Herzberg's
theory) is important for retention, which is critical in professions that experience
shortages.[12]
Another problem however is that these and other statistical theories are concerned with
explaining "average" behavior, despite considerable differences between individuals
that may impact one's motivational factors. For instance, in their pursuit of status a
person might take a balanced view and strive to pursue several behavioral paths in an
effort to achieve a combination of personal status objectives. [citation needed]
In other words, an individual's expectation or estimated probability that a given behavior
will bring a valued outcome determines their choice of means and the effort they will
devote to these means. In effect, this diagram of expectancy depicts an employee
asking themselves the question posed by one investigator, "How much payoff is there
for me toward attaining a personal goal while expending so much effort toward the
achievement of an assigned organizational objective?"[13] The expectancy
theory by Victor Vroom also provides a framework for motivation based on expectations.
This approach to the study and understanding of motivation would appear to have
certain conceptual advantages over other theories: First,
unlike Maslow's and Herzberg's theories, it is capable of handling individual differences.
[citation needed]
 Second, its focus is toward the present and the future, in contrast to drive theory,
which emphasizes past learning.[citation needed] Third, it specifically correlates behavior to a
goal and thus eliminates the problem of assumed relationships, such as between
motivation and performance.[citation needed] Fourth, it relates motivation to ability: Performance
= Motivation*Ability.[citation needed]
That said, a study by the Gallup Organization, as detailed in the book First, Break All
the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do by Marcus Buckingham and Curt
Coffman, appears to provide strong support for Herzberg's division of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction onto two separate scales. In this book, the authors discuss how the study
identified twelve questions that provide a framework for determining high-performing
individuals and organizations. These twelve questions align squarely with Herzberg's
motivation factors, while hygiene factors were determined to have little effect on
motivating high performance.

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c Herzberg, Frederick; Mausner, Bernard; Snyderman, Barbara B. (1959). The
Motivation to Work  (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley. ISBN 0471373893.
2. ^ Herzberg, Frederick (1966).  Work and the Nature of Man. Cleveland: World
Publishing. OCLC  243610.
3. ^ Herzberg, Frederick (January–February 1964). "The Motivation-Hygiene Concept and
Problems of Manpower".  Personnel Administration (27): 3–7.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Hackman, J. Richard; Oldham, Greg R. (August 1976). "Motivation Through the
Design of Work: Test of a Theory".  Organizational Behavior and Human Performance.  16(2): 250–
279.  doi:10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7. OCLC  4925746330.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b Herzberg, Frederick (January–February 1968). "One More Time: How Do You
Motivate Employees?". Harvard Business Review.  46  (1): 53–62.  OCLC 219963337.
6. ^ "Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Two Factor Theory)".  NetMBA.com.
Retrieved December 9,  2014.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b "Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors".  Mindtools.com.
Retrieved December 2,  2014.
8. ^ "Summary of Herzberg's Motivation and Hygiene Factors. Abstract". Value Based
Management. Retrieved  December 9, 2014.
9. ^ Schultz, Duane P.; Schultz, Sydney Ellen (2010). Psychology and Work Today: An
Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology  (10th ed.). New York City: Prentice Hall.
pp.  38–39.  ISBN  0-205-68358-4.
10. ^ Hines, George H. (December 1973). "Cross-cultural differences in two-factor motivation
theory". Journal of Applied Psychology.  58  (3): 375–377.  doi:10.1037/h0036299.
11. ^ King, Nathan (1970). "Clarification and Evaluation of the Two-Factor Theory of Job
Satisfaction". Psychological Bulletin.  74  (1): 18–31.  doi:10.1037/h0029444.  OCLC 4643874729.
12. ^ Holmberg, Christopher; Sobis, Iwona; Carlström, Eric (November 2015). "Job Satisfaction
Among Swedish Mental Health Nursing Staff: A Cross-Sectional Survey".  International Journal of
Public Administration. 39 (6): 429–436. doi:10.1080/01900692.2015.1018432.
13. ^ Georgopolous, Basil S.; Mahoney, Gerald M.; Jones, Jr., Nyle W. (December 1957). "A
Path-Goal Approach to Productivity".  Journal of Applied Psychology. 41 (6): 345–
353.  doi:10.1037/h0048473.  OCLC 4643146464.