Case Summary Herzberg

Herzberg then spends several pages sarcastically outlining practices which have failed to increase motivation. Frankly these are mostly straw-men, such as sensitivity training andemployee counseling. I’m 9 pages into this article when finally something interesting shows up:

The factors involved in producing job satisfction (and motication) are separate and distinct from the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction … it follows that these two feelings are not opposites of each other. The opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction but, rather, no job satisfaction; and similarly the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not job satisfaction, but no job dissatisfaction.

Herzberg is articulating a theory here, that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposite ends on a single axis, but rather there are two separate axes. He identifies the factors involved in each axis (he labels them Hygiene Factors and Motivator Factors).

Dissatisfaction Factors (Hygiene Factors)

• Company policies and administration

• Supervision

• Interpersonal relationships

• Working conditions

• Salary

• Status

• Security

Satisfaction Factors (Motivator Factors)

• Achievement

• Recognition for achievement

• The work itself

• Responsibility

• Growth

• Advancement

Job Enrichment

Herzberg’s framework for improving motivation he calls job enrichment. He warns against a horizontal perspective (giving people more work, or more kinds of un-motivating work) and encourages a vertical perspective (more end-to-end ownership of an area).

He identifies 7 principles of vertical job enrichment (and the corresponding motivator factors).

1. Removing controls while retaining accountability (responsibility and personal achievement)

2. Increasing the accountability of individuals for own work (responsibility and recognition)

3. Giving a person a complete natural unit of work (responsibility, achievement, and recognition)

4. Granting additional authority to employees in...