1. BIKRAM PRADHAN
M.COM(BERHAMPUR UNIVERSITY)
ODISHA

2. • He first published his theory in 1959 in a
book entitled ‘The Motivation to Work’ and
put forward a two factor content theory which
is often referred to as a two need system.

3. Introduction to the Theory:
• Fredrick Herzberg and his associates
developed the MOTIVATION HYGIENE
THEORY, commonly known as the two factor
theory, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Herzberg and his associates conducted a
research based on the interview of 200
engineers and accountants who looked for 11
different firms in Pittsburgh area, U.S.A.

4. • The purpose of the research was to find out as to what variables are
perceived to be desirable goals to achieve and conversely,
undesirable conditions to avoid. During the course of the
interviews, these men were asked to describe a few previous job
experiences in which they felt “exceptionally good” or
“exceptionally bad” about jobs. They were also asked to rate the
degree of which their feelings were influenced-for better or worse-
by each experience which they described.

5. • Based upon the answers received from these 200 people, Herzberg
concluded that there are certain factors that tend to be consistently
related to job satisfaction and on the other hand, there are some
factors, which are consistently related to job dissatisfaction. The
last of job conditions, he referred to as MAINTENANCE OR
HYGIENE factors and the first job conditions as
MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS. The motivational factors are
intrinsic in nature and the hygiene factors are extrinsic in nature.

6. Motivational Factors:
1. Hygiene Factors:
• Hygiene factors or the maintenance factors do not
motivate people, they simply prevent dissatisfaction and
maintain status quo. Such factors do not produce positive
results but prevent negative results. If these factors are not
there it will lead to job dissatisfaction. These are not
motivators, as they maintain a zero level of motivation or
in other words, these factors do not provide any
satisfaction but eliminate dissatisfaction.

7. ACCORDING TO HERZBERG THERE ARE TEN
MAINTENANCE OR HYGIENE FACTORS: The word hygiene is taken from the
medical science, where it means
taking preventions to maintain your
health but not necessarily improve
it. Similarly, hygiene factors in this
theory prevent damage to efficiency
but do not encourage growth. As
such, these are also called
dissatisfies.
SL.NO. HYGIENE FACTOR
1. Company policies
2. Technical Supervision
3. Inter-Personal relations with Supervision
4. Inter-Personal relations with subordinate
5. Inter-Personal relations with peers
6. salary
7. Job security
8. Personal Life
9. Working Conditions

8. 2. Motivational Factors:
• These factors are intrinsic in nature and are
related to the job. The motivational factors have
a positive effect on job satisfaction and often
result in an increase in total output. Thus, these
factors have a positive influence on morale,
satisfaction, efficiency and productivity.

9. Herzberg concluded that six factors
motivate the employees:
SL.NO. Motivation factor
1. Achievement
2. Advancement
3. Possibility of Growth
4. Recognition
5. Work itself
6. Responsibility

10. • Any increase in these factors will improve the level of satisfaction,
thus, these factors can be used for motivating the employees. Based on
his research, Herzberg stated that managers have hitherto been very
much concerned with hygiene factors. As a result they have not been
able to obtain the desired behaviour from the employees. In order to
increase the motivation, it is necessary to pay attention to the
motivational factors.
• He further concluded that today’s motivational factors are tomorrow’s
hygiene factors. Because once a need is satisfied, it stops influencing
the behaviour. Further, one person’s hygiene may be another person’s
motivator, because motivation is also influenced by the personality
characteristics of individuals.

11. Critical Analysis of the Theory:
• Herzberg’s theory is appreciated on the ground that it
provides an insight into the task of motivation by drawing
attention to the job factors which are often overlooked. It
shows the value of job enrichment in motivation. Thus,
Herzberg’s theory has solved the problems of managers
who were wondering why their policies failed to motivate
the employees adequately.
• However, this theory has also not gone unchallenged. It
has been criticized on the following grounds:

12. 1. Not Conclusive:
Herzberg study was limited to the engineers and accountants. The
critics say that this theory is not conclusive because the professionals
or the white collar workers may like responsibility and challenging
jobs. But the general workers are motivated by pay and other benefits.
The effect of hygiene and motivational factors may totally be reverse
on some other categories of people.
2. Methodology:
Another criticism of this theory is directed at the method of research
and data collection. The interviewers were asked to report
exceptionally good or exceptionally bad job experience. This
methodology is defective because such information will always be
subjective and biased.

13. 3. Job Enrichment:
This theory has given too much emphasis on job enrichment and
has totally ignored job satisfaction of the workers. He didn’t
attach much importance to pay, status or interpersonal
relationships which are generally held as great motivators.
Keeping in view all these points we can conclude that Herzberg’s
theory has been widely read and there will be few people who are
not familiar with these recommendations. This theory provides
valuable guidelines to the managers for structuring their jobs in
order to include such factors in the jobs which bring satisfaction.