On 18th January 2000, Frederick Hertzberg died in Salt Lake City. The New York Times stated that he was “one of the most influential management teachers and consultants of the post-war era…”
Hertzberg was an author of three books:-
- The Motivation to Work (1959)
- Work and the Nature of Man (1966 and 1973)
- The Management Choice: To Be Efficient and To Be Human (1976)
Also, he wrote a wide range of articles for the Industry Week magazines. Some of his articles were called:-
- Economic Crisis and Work Motivation (Feb. 25, 1974)
- The Human Need for Work (July 24, 1978)
- Hertzberg on Motivation for the 80’s: Piecing Together Generations of Values (Oct. 1, 1979)
- Productivity Begins with the Individual (Nov. 30, 1981)
- Worker’s Needs (Sept. 1, 1987)
The Two Factor Theory
In 1960’s, Frederick Hertzberg interviewed two hundred accountants and engineers. He asked them what they liked and disliked about their jobs and the reason why. Hertzberg set the results into two categories and called them “motivation factors” and “hygiene factors”. This became known as ‘two factor theory’.
Motivation Factors
Motivation factors develop positive job satisfaction and psychological growth. It can encourage employees to achieve above-average performance and effect. Motivation factors include:-
- Status
- Opportunity of advancement (e.g. promotion)
- Gaining recognition
- Responsibility
- Meaningful and interesting work
- Challenging/stimulating work
- Personal achievement and personal growth in a job
Hygiene factors
Hygiene factors create job dissatisfaction and de-motivation. Hygiene factors include:-
- Company policy and administration
- Wages, salaries and other financial rewards
- Quality of supervision
- Quality of interpersonal relations
- Working conditions
- Feeling of job security
The evidence of de-motivated employees at work is:-
- Low productivity
- Poor production
- Strikes/industrial disputes/breakdown in employees communication and relationships
- Complaints about pay and working conditions
Motivation factors and hygiene factors can be arranged into four circumstances:-
- High motivation as a result of high hygiene- employees are highly motivated and have few complaints
- Low motivation as a result of high hygiene- employees have few complaints but are not highly motivated
- High motivation as a result of low hygiene- employees are motivated but have a lot of complaints
- Low motivation as a result of low hygiene- unmotivated employees with a lot of complaints
Hertzberg felt that management should concentrate on reorganising work conditions so, that employees can be motivated. He believes that there are three ways to do this:-
- Job Enlargement
- Job Rotation
- Job Enrichment
I have explained these job designs fully, on page 2 and 3.
Hertzberg suggested that job enrichment is a better way, to encourage employees to work better. Job enrichment takes place when the job holds:-
- A completed unit of work, rather than leftovers
- Instant feedback about the quality of the work
- Direct communication (not via a supervisor)
The work of Hertzberg led many successful companies such as, Volvo and Toyota, to rearrange their working conditions to provide employees with finished unit of work.
