Motivators and Hygiene

Maslow introduced theory on job satisfaction and motivation. In previous education classes at Benedictine University Maslow was studied in detail as the cornerstone of motivating high school children. His theory is based on a hierarchy of five needs, physiological, safety, social, achievement/esteem, and self-actualization. Individual needs are met by the importance attached to the various needs and the amount of importance the person attaches to it.

I believe any discussion on motivation should begin with Herzberg’s dual factor theory of job satisfaction. Herzberg takes Maslow’s theory one-step farther. According to Herzberg, people are influenced by two sets of factors, Motivators and Hygiene. The Hygiene factors include things like pay and benefits, company policy, security, working conditions, supervision, status and relationships. The Motivating factors include achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth and the work itself. Hygiene factors are associated with X type leadership while Motivating factors are viewed as Y type leadership.

Hygiene factors are not the source of satisfaction, but these issues must be dealt with first in order to create an environment in which personal satisfaction and motivation is possible. Hygiene factors can prevent dissatisfaction but if improperly used, they can result in negative feelings. They are factors that describe the conditions of work rather than the work itself. In short, People are made dissatisfied by a bad environment, but a good one rarely satisfies them. On the other hand, prevention of dissatisfaction is just as important as encouragement of motivator satisfaction. Herzberg says that if you want to motivate people, you have to be concerned with the job...

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... Ships travel all over the world and as a repair coordinator; I will be required to work with people all over the world. The different cultures will also provide more task variety. I remain amazed at how accurate my MPS was and hope it helps me find a better situation.

I believe all these theories to be useful in analysis of employee motivation. The only issue that I still have is one that every manager deals with. The manager must have the foresight and accurate perception of each situation on order to be an effective motivator and take the correct actions. Many leaders struggle with this and they do not even realize it. I guess the word I am looking for is awareness. If a leader is not aware of the climate, people, and general perception of the employees, he will not know which application to use and as a result, he will be an ineffective motivator.