Principles of Hotel Management

C
ONCEPT
 
OF
 T
WO
 F
ACTORS
During the late 1950s Fredrick Herzberg, a US behavioural
scientist (psychologist), and his associates developed two factor
theory of motivation. This is also known as the ‘Motivation-
Hygiene theory’. This theory is based an empirical research on
job attitudes of 200 engineers and accountants of a company.
The researchers asked two questions from those two hundred
employees:
(i) “Can you describe, in detail, when you felt exceptionally
good about your job ?”
(ii) “Can you describe, in detail, when you felt exceptionally
bad about your job ?”

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Principles of Hotel Management
They were all asked to describe the conditions that had led
to those feelings.
Herzberg analysed the responses and revealed that factors
which made respondents feel good were totally different from
those which made them feel bad. Herzberg grouped those
responses in two categories :
(i) Hygiene factors or maintenance factors,
(ii) Motivators or satisfiers.
These are described in the table given below :
Herzberg’s Hygiene Factor and Motivators
Hygiene Factors
Motivators
*
Company policy and
*
Achievement
administration
*
Recognition
*
Working conditions
*
Advancement
*
Job security
*
Responsibility
*
Salary
*
Personal growth
*
Quality of supervision
*
Opportunities
*
Interpersonal relations
*
Work itself
with superiors, co-workers
and subordinates.
Hygiene factors or maintenance factors are related to the
job environment. There are eight factors : working conditions,
job security, salary, quality of supervision, company policy and
administration, interpersonal relation and fringe benefits.
Presence of these factors in job environment is essential if a
reasonable level of satisfaction in employees is to be maintained.
The absence or deficiency in these factors can cause
dissatisfaction. The presence of these factors is necessary to
avoid dissatisfaction and pain in the work environment. These
factors do not motivate employees.

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According to Herzberg, there are six motivators or motivation
factors : achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement,
personal growth and the nature of the job itself. Adequacy of
these factors make employees satisfied with their job and
consequently motivate them. Their absence, however, rarely
dissatisfies or demotivate the employees.
According to Herzbergs job satisfaction and job
dissatisfaction are not opposites of each other. Absence of job
dissatisfaction does not mean presence of job satisfaction.
Satisfaction is achieved through motivators and dissatisfaction
results from absence of adequate hygiene factors.
Therefore, managers should maintain adequate amount of
hygiene factors in order to avoid dissatisfaction among
employees. On the other hand, managers must ensure adequacy
of motivating factors in order to motivate employees. However,
presence of hygiene factors is essential for creating favourable
frame of mind for motivation. The merits or contributions of
Herzberg’s theory are summarised as follows :
1. It clearly distinguishes between the factors that motivate
employees on the job and the factors that maintain
employees on the job. In other words, it clearly states
that the presence of hygiene factors is necessary in
order to avoid dissatisfaction in employees. On the other
hand, the presence of motivation factors is essential to
motivate employees. Thus, both the groups of factors
have different roles to play.
2. It recommends specific measures (i.e. motivators) to
improve motivation levels.
3. It helps in understanding the effect of job content on
motivation of employees.
4. It explains the significance of job enrichment on the job
redesign and motivation.
5. It is a rational approach to motivation.

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