Describe Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation

This is also known as motivation-hygiene theory. Herzberg was a psychologist and he believed that, an individual’s relation to work is basic and ones attitude towards work can determine success or failure. He got the response for his questionnaire answered by several employees. His intention was to identify what the employee’s want from their job. He also expected from them the situation in which they felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs. This resulted into certain characteristics constantly related to job satisfaction and others to job desertification. Factors that lead to extreme dissatisfaction, in order of merit in terms of frequency where organizational policies and administration, type of supervision and the relation with supervisor, work environment, salary followed by comparatively low factors like status, personal relationship, etc. Alternatively, the factors relating to high satisfaction included similarly in order of importance achievements, recognition, work involvement, responsibility as well as advancement and growth. 69% of factors contributing to dissatisfaction were hygienic in nature. And 19% hygienic factors contributing to job satisfaction were hygienic in nature, the remaining factors in both the categories were respectively 31% and 81% and were motivator factors.
Herzberg argued that the response strongly indicated that opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction because removing dissatisfaction characterizing does not necessarily make the job satisfying. Therefore, his conclusion was that, job satisfaction factors are separate and distinct from those that lead to job dissatisfaction. And therefore elimination of factors for job dissatisfaction by managers may not necessarily help or create motivation. And therefore conditions around the job such as supervision quality, pay, company policies, physical working condition, relations with other and jobs security are called hygiene factors.
In the present context, many of these factors have depleted to a great extent. Similarly, the other side of the two factor theory also is becoming mild and therefore this theory may not carry as much vantage as it did during the twentieth century. The critiscism on this theory perhaps as indicated below may also be one of the factors for curtailing its importance at present. It is as indicated below.
i. Herzberg procedure is limited by his methodology because people generally take credit themselves when things go well and blame failure on extrinsic environment.
ii. No quantitative satisfaction asserting an employee may dislike a part of his job yet he thinks it is acceptable.
iii. The theory ignores situational factors and is said to be not in line with the early research.
iv. His theory does not give high profile of reliability because special efforts are to be made by the researchers in interpretation of the responses.
v. Herzberg assumed a relationship between satisfaction and productivity but he looked only at satisfaction and not productivity in research methodology he adopted.

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Titany answered the question on September 7, 2021 at 13:07