5. Herzberg Two Factor Theory of Motivation

Figure: 1.3

Herzberg’s hygiene and motivational factors. 

(Source: Herzberg, 1987).

What is the Herzberg Two Factor Theory of Motivation?

Herzberg’s Motivation Theory model goes by a number of different names, including Two Factor Theory, Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory, and Duel Structure Theory. Frederick Herzberg developed the model in 1959. Herzberg did this by interviewing over 200 professionals and he referred to those things that influenced job satisfaction as motivating Factors and the Herzberg Two Factor Theory is a theory about motivation of employees (Haruna, 2013). This theory assumes on the one hand, that employees can be dissatisfied with their jobs. This often has something to do with so-called hygiene factors, such as salary and work conditions. On the other hand, employees’ satisfaction has to do with so-called motivation factors. These factors have to do with development opportunities, responsibility and appreciation. Herzberg claims these factors exist side by side (Ball, 2003).

Taking away the dissatisfaction factors doesn’t necessarily mean employees will be satisfied. To motivate a team using motivation factors, the hygiene factors need to be taken care of first. Motivation and job satisfaction is not overly complex. The problem is many employers and managers look at the hygiene factors as a way to motivate when in fact, beyond the very short term, they do very little to motivate (Dartey and Amoako, 2011).The above actions help in eliminating job dissatisfaction in organizations and there is no point trying to motivate people or employees until these issues are addressed. Addressing the above issues should not be an end in itself but rather managers are to be aware that just because someone is not dissatisfied does not mean one is satisfied either. It is crucial in the work environment to identify conditions for job satisfaction (Dartey, 2011).

What is Two Factor Theory?

Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation tries to get to the root of motivation in the workplace. You can leverage this theory to help you get the best performance from your team.

The two factors identified by Herzberg are motivators and hygiene factors.

1. Motivating Factors

The presence of motivators causes employees to work harder. They are found within the actual job itself (Alshmemri and Shahwan, 2017).

2. Hygiene Factors

The absence of hygiene factors will cause employees to work less hard. Hygiene factors are not present in the actual job itself but surround the job (Alshmemri and Shahwan, 2017).

The impact of motivating and hygiene factors is summarized in the following diagram. Note that you will often see motivators referred to as factors for satisfaction, and hygiene factors referred to as factors for dissatisfaction.

Motivating factors include:

According to Alshmemri and Shahwan (2017) Motivation factors are as follows

• Achievement: A job must give an employee a sense of achievement. This will provide a proud feeling of having done something difficult but worthwhile.
• Recognition: A job must provide an employee with praise and recognition of their successes. This recognition should come from both their superiors and their peers.
• The work itself: The job itself must be interesting, varied, and provide enough of a challenge to keep employees motivated.
• Responsibility: Employees should “own” their work. They should hold themselves responsible for this completion and not feel as though they are being micromanaged.
• Advancement: Promotion opportunities should exist for the employee.
• Growth: The job should give employees the opportunity to learn new skills. This can happen either on the job or through more formal training.

As an examples: Most BPO organizations depends on their targets so the company expect their employees should be praised and recognized for their accomplishments by their team leaders according to the knowledge and the point schemes of the employee annual performance appraisals. And also give the chance to the employees have a sense of achievement of their own task according to the company goals. This depends on their own job task. Most organizations provided training and development sessions continuously to their employees for their growth and advancement opportunities in an organization to motivate the employees to perform well. The management hold the senior employees to monitoring the groups and they must hold themselves responsible for the work mostly the target oriented companies. The managers gave them ownership of the work to fulfil the company requirements. They should minimize control but retain accountability and the work itself should be meaningful, interesting and challenging for the employee to perform and to get motivated according to the company expectations.

Hygiene factors include:

According to Alshmemri and Shahwan (2017) Motivation factors are as follows,

• Company policies: These should be fair and clear to every employee. They must also be equivalent to those of competitors.
• Supervision: Supervision must be fair and appropriate. The employee should be given as much autonomy as is reasonable.
• Relationships: There should be no tolerance for bullying or cliques. A healthy, amiable, and appropriate relationship should exist between peers, superiors, and subordinates.
• Work conditions: Equipment and the working environment should be safe, fit for purpose, and hygienic.
• Salary: The pay structure should be fair and reasonable. It should also be competitive with other organizations in the same industry.
• Status: The organization should maintain the status of all employees within the organization. Performing meaningful work can provide a sense of status.

• Security: It is important that employees feel that their job is secure and they are not under the constant threat of being laid-off.

As an examples: Most BPO organizations depends on the performance and also the turnover rates are very high of their employees so the company salary structure should be appropriate and reasonable. It must be equal and competitive to those in the same industry in the same domain. And also keep their eye open for the company policies should not be too rigid. They should be fair and clear. It should include like flexible working hours, dress code, breaks, vacation, maternity leaves, and medical assistance. And also they offered very flexible health care plans and also this benefit for their family members too. The company allowed the working conditions should be very safe, clean and hygienic. The work equipment’s’ should be updated with new systems and well-maintained. The management always maintaining a better internal relationship with the employees and the connection of the employees with his peers, superiors and subordinates always appropriate and acceptable. There should be no conflict or humiliation element present. Always the company trying to make a good image of the job security of the employees.

How to Use this Herzberg Model in working environment

There is a two-step process to use the Two Factor Theory model to increase the motivation of your team.

1. Eliminate Job Hygiene Stressors

The first step to enhancing the motivation of your team is to ensure that the hygiene factors are not causing dissatisfaction. Each person will examine hygiene factors through their own unique frame of reference. Because of this, it’s important to work with each member of your team to understand their specific perspective (Büssing and Glaser 2000).

2. Boost Job Satisfaction

Once you have removed hygiene stressors, the next step is to boost the job satisfaction of each team member. We can do this by improving the actual content of the job itself. Again, a unique approach for each employee will be required and there are three techniques which can be used to achieve this are ( Ude and Coker, 2012). 

a. Job Enrichment

Job enrichment means enriching a team member’s job by giving them more challenging or complex tasks to perform. These more complex tasks should make the job more interesting (Bennett, 2015).

b. Job Enlargement

Job enlargement means giving a team member a greater variety of tasks to perform. This variety can also make a job more interesting. Note that with job enlargement the variety of tasks is increased, but not the difficulty of those tasks. If difficulty increased then that would be job enrichment (Dheerasinghe, 2009).

c. Employee Empowerment

Employee empowerment means delegating increasing responsibility and sharing positive ideas to each team member. This can be done by slowly increasing the amount of responsibility you delegate to an employee (Pradhan, et al, 2014).

As an example when considering my organization, the operational staff have 04 main discussions every one month and every two month with the team leaders, team in charges, HR departments and finally with the management team to know their new ideas about the advantages and the disadvantages of the current production process and the other job and administrative related tasks in the organization like internal facilities, grievances, personal and team issues and the developments what they are expecting from the company end.

References

• Alshmemri,M and  Shahwan-Akl .L (2017) Life Science - pdfs.semanticscholar.org
• Büssing, A and Glaser, J (2000) Work & Stress journal,  Taylor & Francis
• Bennett, D (2015). Job Enrichment, s.l.: s.n.
• Ball, J. (2003). UNDERSTANDING HERZBERG'S MOTIVATION THEORY, s.l.: s.n.
• Dheerasinghe, R (2009). Garment Industry in Sri Lanka Challenges, Prospects and Strategies, s.l.: s.n.
• Dartey, B. (2011), Application of Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory in assessing and understanding employee motivation at work,Vol 3. European Journal of Business and Management.
• Dartey-Baah, K. and Amoako, G.K. (2011).Application of Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory in Assessing and Understanding Employee Motivation at Work: A Ghanaian Perspective. European Journal of Business and Management, Vol 3, No.9.
• Herzberg, F. (2005). Motivation-hygiene theory Organizational behavior one: Essential theories of motivation and leadership, eds JB Miner, ME Sharpe Inc, New York, 61-74.
• Haruna, M. K. (2013) AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF HERZBERG'S TWO-FACTOR THEORY, s.l.: s.n.
• Pradhan, P, Thulasiraj, R. D, Kamlanabhan, R.D, T. J. and Muraleedharan, V. R (2014). Employee Empowerment, s.l.: s.n.
• Ude, U and Coker, M. A (2012). Incentive Schemes, Employee Motivation and Productivity In Organizations In Nigeria: Analytical Linkages, s.l.: s.n.