two-factor theory

two-factor theory, theory of worker motivation, formulated by Frederick Herzberg, which holds that employee job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are influenced by separate factors. For example, bad working conditions are likely to be a source of dissatisfaction, but excellent working conditions might not produce correspondingly high rates of satisfaction, whereas other improvements such as increased professional recognition might. In Herzberg’s system, factors that can cause job dissatisfaction are called hygienes while factors that cause satisfaction are called motivators.

In 1957, Herzberg (a psychologist from Pittsburgh) and his colleagues did a thorough review of the literature of job attitudes and came forth with a new hypothesis that they tested later in an empirical study of 203 engineers and accountants, asking them to recall events that made them especially happy or unhappy about their jobs. Herzberg, Bernard Mausner, and Barbara Bloch Snyderman published a book based on those findings that revolutionized thinking about employee attitudes and, subsequently, considerable management policy and practice. Herzberg and his colleagues proposed that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are not the opposite ends of a single continuum but rather are orthogonal constructs, each caused by different antecedent conditions and resulting in different consequences. Job content factors, the motivators (so called because the results indicated that people performed better after events involving these factors), were necessary to make people happy at their jobs but were not sufficient. On the other hand, the hygienes—which were elements of the job context, such as employer policies, work relationships, and working conditions—had to be in place to prevent job dissatisfaction but, by themselves, could not create job satisfaction nor, consequently, work motivation.

The study stirred controversy among academics in the 1960s and early 1970s, mostly because of the empirical methods employed. It was alleged that the results of the research, and therefore the major tenets of the theory, were artifacts of the critical incident technique employed in the research. Tests of the theory using other research methods frequently failed to support the two-factor, orthogonal conclusion of the new model. The basic thrust of these criticisms, predicated on attribution theory, was that, naturally, people would attribute “felt-good” experiences to events during which they had a role, whereas events that had caused dissatisfaction had to have been caused by external factors.

In addition, there had been considerable overlap between the hygienes and the motivators in felt-good and felt-bad stories. In fairness, these overlaps were noted in the 1959 book in which Herzberg and colleagues reported their findings. For example, failure to receive recognition for good work (recognition being categorized as a motivator) was the principal cause of 18% of the felt-bad episodes. There was similar (although not as strong) association reported between instances of job dissatisfaction and two other motivators: work itself and advancement. Therefore, the empirical distinctions between the two categories of work factors and instances of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction were neither total nor definitive.