Two-Factor Theory of Job Satisfaction

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Although intrigued with Maslow's “hierarchy of needs”, many managers find it difficult to translate the model into concrete, on-the-job action. Frederick Herzberg and his colleagues found a way to meet that need when they conducted a research study on job satisfaction.

The research design was simple: They interviewed 200 employees to ask them to recall events in their work that made them feel satisfied or dissatisfied.

Herzberg uncovered two sets of factors that almost universally affected employees in two distinct ways. These two basic sets of factors - which he called "satisfiers" and "dissatisfiers" - included the following elements:

Satisfiers
Achievement
Recognition
Responsibility
Work Itself
Growth
Advancement

Dissatisfiers
Working conditions
Policies and administrative practices
Supervision
Interpersonal relations
Salary (all forms of financial compensation)
Status
Job security
Personal life

Job “satisfiers” are the real motivators in an organisational framework. Since factors like achievement, recognition, and advancement are integral to the job itself, Herzberg refers to them as job-content factors.

Job “dissatisfiers” are not, as the term might imply, factors that lead to job dissatisfaction. Rather, they are the environmental factors - the job context factors - that contribute, pleasantly or unpleasantly, to the job. Although they may have distinctly positive or negative effects, Herzberg feels that they are not the primary motivators and do not play primary roles in job satisfaction.

Herzberg also refers to job dissatisfiers as “hygiene factors" in the medical sense of the word: environmental and preventive. Hygiene factors produce no growth or increase in output. They do prevent losses in worker performance due to work restrictions and must be constantly “maintained” by management on an ongoing basis.

Herzberg and Maslow

What happens when Herzberg's two-factor theory of job satisfaction meets Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

The relationship between the Motivation-Hygiene theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Generally speaking, the dissatisfiers, or hygiene factors, represent the lower-level needs on Maslow’s hierarchy, and the satisfiers, or motivators, are roughly analogous to the upper levels of the hierarchy - self-esteem and self-actualisation. (Some authors divide the “esteem” level of the hierarchy into status and recognition and classify status as a hygiene factor and recognition as a motivator.)

The Manager's Role

Building on the two-factor theory of job motivation, Herzberg and his colleagues coined the term “job enrichment” to describe the process of redesigning work in order to emphasise the motivators. Job enrichment can be viewed as the deliberate upgrading of responsibility, increasing the scope and challenge of each job position.

The role of the manager, from Herzberg's point of view, is to determine the growth needs and, thus, the real motivators of employees. Theoretically, by maintaining the hygiene factors while emphasising the motivators, Managers can obtain the highest level of job satisfaction among employees and thus maximise motivation and productivity.

Limitations

While Herzberg’s approach to management is valuable, research designed to test it has met mixed results. Perhaps the major conclusion to be drawn from the conflicting research studies is that human motivation is so complex that it cannot be reduced to a single, simple formula that will reliably predict an employee's behaviour in all situations. An employee's home life, immaturity, restlessness, or other characteristics can render almost any motivational model invalid.

Job enrichment, too, has its limitations. From a practical standpoint, there are limits to how much an individual job can and should be enlarged or enriched. Again, research has shown that job boredom is often caused by individual characteristics (such as youth or home life) that are not job-related. In these circumstances, job enrichment is not a panacea.

Summary

• Herzberg's two-factor theory describes what does and doesn't motivate employees.
• Job “satisfiers” are primary factors in employee motivation and satisfaction.
• Job “dissatisfiers” are necessary but not vital to employee motivation.
• The role of a manager is to increase the responsibility, scope, and challenge of each employee's job.

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