Frederick Herzberg's Dual Factor Theory

Since companies are constituted by individuals, the existence of a Work Psychology and of the organizations that are in charge of studying the functioning of these within the organizations.

Within this psychology of organizations, the psychologist Frederick Herzberg stood out, who was interested in the study of job satisfaction and created the well-known Herzberg Dual Factor Theory.

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Who was Frederick Herzberg?

Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) was an American psychologist who went on to become a one of the most reputable people in the field of business management and administration.

Thanks to his Dual Factor Theory and implementation of job enrichment, he gained wide recognition within the field of work psychology and organizations, an area in which proposals are always welcome that lead to a more efficient management of human capital, as well as well-being in the company.

What is Herzberg's Dual Factor Theory?

Also known as Herzberg's Theory of Motivation and Hygiene

, it hypothesizes about the factors that produce satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the worker and how he covers his labor needs.

The basis of the theory is that the elements that cause job satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the worker are of totally different natures. Likewise, the theory is rooted in the idea that the person has two types of needs: the need to avoid pain or events that cause discomfort and, on the other hand, the need or desire to progress and mature both emotionally and intellectual.

When this system of needs is applied to the workplace, they require different incentives, hence the talk of duality. This duality consists of two types of factors that operate in work motivation: hygiene factors and motivation factors. Both make it possible to explain a good part of the work dynamics that take place within organizations.

• You may be interested in: "Maslow's pyramid: the hierarchy of human needs"

The two Herzberg factors

As mentioned above the theory proposed by Herzberg consists of two factors. that modulate worker motivation.

hygiene factors

Hygiene factors encompass those factors extrinsic to the worker and are mainly associated with job dissatisfaction.

Hygiene factors are located in the environment that surrounds the worker and includes the conditions that determine the work carried out by him. These factors are said to be extrinsic because these depend on the decisions of the company and the way it has to manage them.

According to Herzberg, throughout history the people in charge of directing and managing the companies only considered hygienic factors as a means to motivate or punish the employee. worker. Companies and industries used bonuses and salary incentives, flexible company policies and external rewards with the ultimate goal of getting workers to produce more amount.

The factors that Herzberg classified as hygiene are:

• Salary and other financial incentives or materials
• Company and organization policies
• Affinity bonds with peers
• Physical context where the worker carries out his tasks
• Surveillance and supervision of the worker
• status or position that the worker occupies within the company
• Job stability

However, the investigations carried out by Herzberg concluded that these factors were only useful to reduce or avoid dissatisfaction in workers, but not to generate genuine satisfaction with your work. In addition, when the worker considered that these factors were not excellent or appropriate enough, they generated discontent very quickly.

• Related article: "Types of motivation: the 8 motivational sources"

Motivation factors

Unlike hygiene factors, motivation factors are intrinsic to workers, since they are directly associated with satisfaction both with the position and with the nature or type of tasks that the person performs within the company.

These motivational factors would be under the control of the individual, and include the feelings or perception that the worker has about his growth and development within the company, as well as professional recognition, the desire for self-realization and the need for responsibilities, etc

For a long time, jobs were created with the intention to cover the efficiency and economic needs of the company, eliminating any possibility that the worker felt motivated to grow or develop his work creativity, causing a feeling of indifference and reluctance.

These intrinsic motivational factors are:

• Faculty stimulating work
• Feelings of self-actualization
• Achievements
• Recognition by superiors
• Possibility of increased responsibilities

conclusions

After identifying all these factors, Herzberg drew a series of conclusions that completed his theory:

• A bad environment causes immediate dissatisfaction in workers, but a healthy work environment does not guarantee their satisfaction.
• Avoiding job dissatisfaction is just as important as promote job satisfaction.
• Hygiene factors and motivation factors are activated and deactivated independently, being able to give characteristics of both factors in the same person.
• Hygiene factors all have the same relevance.
• The improvement and development of hygiene factors has short-term positive effects.
• Hygiene factors are temporary and cyclical. So the worker is renewing these needs as time goes by.

Task enrichment according to this psychologist

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Frederick Herzberg also gained his popularity within work psychology through the introduction of task enrichment. Herzberg himself developed a series of tips to improve worker satisfaction.

These tips are:

• abolish or remove certain controls while maintaining worker responsibility about his own task.
• Increase the number of responsibilities that fall on each worker.
• Less authority from the top of the company and greater freedom for workers.
• Feedback on results and objectives of each worker.
• Assignment and distribution of new and different tasks, increasing the degree of complexity of these.
• Assignment of tasks that allow the worker Demonstrate your skills and progress professionally.