Fredrick Herzberg’s two factor theory
Herzberg’s theories, produced in the 1950s, concern job design and satisfaction. From numerous interviews with accountants and engineers he concluded that two sets of factors are important.
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Hygiene factors, which include reasonable pay, satisfactory conditions of work and benefits such as sick pay.
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Motivators, which include responsibility, challenge and self-improvement.
Hertzberg believed that properly designed jobs provide satisfaction and personal development for the employee. The workers become motivated, perform well and are less likely to be absent. To Tesco this theory is very important. They have taken advice from such theory and adapted their policies where possible to suit their employees. Tesco pay competitive rates, their working conditions are of top quality and they have many benefits. These are a result of understanding this theory and implementing them so that they get the desired results that all companies want.
Abraham Maslow’s hierarch of needs
Maslow developed his ‘Theory of Human Motivation’ in 1943. He believed that motivation comes from a desire to satisfy needs. He placed these in a hierarchy with the basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid and higher needs at the top.
In practice Maslow accepted that a variety of needs will exist at the same time, but suggested that once lower needs are satisfied then higher needs become the strongest motivators.
Maslows theory has the same basis of Fredrick Herzbergs’s two factor theory because they both argue that what satisfies a person is the hygiene factors and the Motivators. Fredrick just says that a combination of these two factors leads to better performance where are Maslow goes further to say that they come in a set order where once basic needs are satisfied, higher, more complicated desires will be sought. Both Maslow and Fredrick speak of the same requirements in their theory.
Evidence of both these theories can be seen in the day to day running of one of the Tesco stores. One such examples is the promotion of senior managers to managerial positions. In this instance the desire of the employee in question has been fulfilled and soon their desire will advance and they may start looking for further responsibility.
Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Y.
In his book , The Human Side of Enterprise, he put forward two extreme views about the way in which organisations manage their employees. He called theses ‘Theory X’ and ‘Theory Y’.
‘Theory X’ states that all employees are lazy unambitious and dislike extra responsibilities. They will always resist change of any kind and are totally uninterested in the future success or otherwise of their employer. They are not interested in how the organisation works and prefer to be told what to do.
‘Theory Y’ is exactly the opposite. Employees are interested in their work and want to be asked for their opinions on how to improve things. They want to be given more responsibilities and will naturally work hard without having to be told what to do all the time. They are also prepared to accept change because they understand it is in everyone’s best interest to move with the times.
In practice theses views are extreme ends of the scale and Tesco like most other organisations falls between the two. They have both employees who have the characteristics of ‘theory X’ as well as employees with characteristics of ‘theory Y’. Naturally the more characteristics an employee holds of ‘theory Y’ the more likely that that person will be promoted to higher, more responsible positions as it’s in the best interest for Tesco to make ‘theroy Y’ employees managers key workers. One reason is that ‘theory Y’ employees are more likely to have better attendance and punctuality rates because they are self motivating, and this is a great advantage to Tesco and will help Tesco move further.
McGregor’s theories are similar to Muslow’s and Fredrick Herzberg’s. They are all closely related because they all base their theories on the same principle of desire. All their theories show that if a person desires for something and the condition is right then they will work towards it with all their effort. For example, if their s a managerial position and they have the ability to grasp that position then they will, but only if they have the desire to take such responsibility. If however, the conditions are right but the desire is absent then they may not try for such a position or may be promoted with no desire which could lead to chaos. On the other hand, if there is an employee with the desire and no opening is in sight then he/she may decide that the best option for them is to move to another company. Therefore, Tesco endeavours to provide eager, hardworking employees the benefits and promotions they rightly deserve.