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Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation: hygiene factors and motivators
Why removing dissatisfaction is not motivating people: Herzberg's study, hygiene factors and motivators, job enrichment, the criticisms, and Maslow compared.
The idea in one line
The opposite of job dissatisfaction is not satisfaction but no dissatisfaction, and the opposite of job satisfaction is not dissatisfaction but no satisfaction. Frederick Herzberg argued that these are two separate scales, driven by two different sets of factors. That is why his theory is called the two-factor or motivation-hygiene theory.
The study behind it
Herzberg, with Bernard Mausner and Barbara Bloch Snyderman, published the theory in The Motivation to Work (1959). They interviewed about 200 engineers and accountants in firms around Pittsburgh, USA, using the critical incident method: each person described a time they felt exceptionally good about their job and a time they felt exceptionally bad, and why.
The good stories and the bad stories turned out to be about different things. Good periods were mostly about what people did. Bad periods were mostly about the conditions around the work.
The two sets of factors
| Hygiene factors (job context) | Motivators (job content) |
|---|---|
| Company policy and administration | Achievement |
| Supervision | Recognition for achievement |
| Relationship with supervisor, peers and subordinates | The work itself |
| Working conditions | Responsibility |
| Salary | Advancement |
| Status | Growth |
| Job security | |
| Personal life (as affected by work) |
Hygiene factors got their name from medicine: like clean water and sanitation, they prevent illness but do not make anyone healthier. Poor hygiene causes dissatisfaction. Good hygiene simply avoids it.
Motivators are what make people put in effort and feel satisfied. Their absence leaves people neutral, not angry.
A workplace illustration
A software company raises salaries, renovates its office and introduces a fair leave policy. Complaints drop sharply, but productivity and commitment hardly change. Herzberg would say the company has fixed hygiene. To motivate, it would now need to give teams ownership of whole projects, recognise good work specifically and publicly, and create real paths to grow.
The reverse also holds. A brilliant, meaningful job will still lose people if pay is unfair or the supervisor is hostile. Hygiene has to be adequate before motivators can work.
Job enrichment: Herzberg’s practical answer
In his 1968 Harvard Business Review article, “One more time: How do you motivate employees?”, Herzberg argued that rewards and pressure (which he called “KITA”) only produce short-term movement, not motivation. He recommended job enrichment, or vertical loading:
- Remove some controls while keeping accountability.
- Increase people’s accountability for their own work.
- Give a person a complete, natural unit of work.
- Grant more authority and freedom in the job.
- Make reports and feedback available directly to the worker.
- Introduce new and more difficult tasks.
- Assign specialised tasks that let people become experts.
Job enrichment adds depth (more control and responsibility). Job enlargement only adds breadth (more tasks at the same level), and Herzberg considered it of little use for motivation.
Herzberg and Maslow compared
| Maslow (1943) | Herzberg (1959) | |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | One hierarchy of five needs | Two separate sets of factors |
| Basis | Clinical observation, theory | Interviews using critical incidents |
| Lower level | Physiological, safety, social needs | Hygiene factors |
| Higher level | Esteem, self-actualisation | Motivators |
| Pay | Satisfies lower needs | A hygiene factor |
| Key message | Needs are met in order | Removing dissatisfaction is not motivating |
Criticisms
- Method-bound. People tend to credit themselves for good outcomes and blame their surroundings for bad ones. The critical incident method may have produced the two-factor split, rather than discovered it.
- Narrow sample. Engineers and accountants in one region of the USA in the 1950s may not represent factory workers, or employees in other cultures.
- No overall measure of satisfaction was used; satisfaction and productivity were assumed to move together.
- Ambiguous factors. Salary in particular can be both a hygiene factor and a form of recognition.
Even so, the theory remains one of the most useful in practice, because it explains a common puzzle: why pay rises and better facilities reduce complaints without raising commitment.
Practice questions
- Explain Herzberg’s two-factor theory with suitable examples. (10 marks)
- Distinguish between hygiene factors and motivators.
- Compare Maslow’s need hierarchy theory with Herzberg’s two-factor theory.
- What is job enrichment? How does it differ from job enlargement?
- “Money is not a motivator.” Discuss in the light of Herzberg’s theory.
Questions students ask
What are hygiene factors in Herzberg's theory?
Hygiene factors are features of the context of a job: company policy and administration, supervision, relationships with the supervisor, peers and subordinates, working conditions, salary, status and job security. When they are poor, people are dissatisfied. Improving them removes dissatisfaction but does not, by itself, motivate.
What are motivators in Herzberg's theory?
Motivators are features of the content of the job itself: achievement, recognition for achievement, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth. When they are present, people feel satisfied and motivated; when they are absent, people are not so much dissatisfied as simply not motivated.
Is salary a hygiene factor or a motivator?
Herzberg classed salary as a hygiene factor, because in his data it appeared far more often in accounts of bad periods at work than good ones. He noted, though, that pay can also act as a sign of recognition and achievement, which is one reason critics see salary as the least clear-cut item in the theory.
How is Herzberg's theory different from Maslow's?
Maslow describes a single hierarchy of five needs that people satisfy in order. Herzberg describes two separate sets of factors. Roughly, his hygiene factors correspond to Maslow's lower needs (physiological, safety, social), and his motivators to the higher needs (esteem and self-actualisation).
What is job enrichment?
Job enrichment, Herzberg's practical recommendation, means loading a job vertically: giving the person more responsibility, more control over how the work is done, a complete natural unit of work, direct feedback, and new and more difficult tasks. It differs from job enlargement, which only adds more tasks of the same level.