Question 4 (i) part ii
Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation (short note)
5 marks
- Time to write
- About 10 minutes
From an older CBCS paper
Question
Question 4 (i) part ii · 5 marksWrite notes on any three of these: 5×3
- Herzberg's two factor theory of motivation
Reworded from the university paper; the task is the same. The original paper belongs to the University of Delhi. See DU's question bank.
Before you write
Read off the question and its marks
Read from the question
- any threeThe paper asks for any 3, and this is one of them. Only 3 are marked: a fourth earns nothing.
- notes onA note opens with the meaning, then two or three key points. No long introduction.
Write it in this order
- Read; underline the asks; jot your points 1 min
- 1 The study and the two-factor idea 1 mark 2 min
- 2 Hygiene factors 1 mark 2 min
- 3 Motivators 1 mark 2 min
- 4 Implications for managers, with example 1 mark 1 min
- 5 Criticism 1 mark 1 min
- Check: every ask answered, key terms underlined 1 min
Try it first. About 10 minutes for 5 marks. Write it out, then open the solution.
Solution
Hover or tap a marked figure, like 72,000, to see how it is made and where else it appears.
Herzberg extended Maslow's work. In the 1950s he asked about two hundred engineers and accountants near Pittsburgh, using the critical incident method, to describe times when they felt exceptionally good or exceptionally bad about their jobs. Good feelings were linked mostly with the job itself, its content; bad feelings mostly with its surroundings, the job context. Before him, motivation and its absence were taken as two ends of one scale; Herzberg argued that two separate sets of factors are at work.
1AC, clean desk, water cooler—Mohan has nothing to complain about, and still no spark.
Hygiene factorsWhen they are adequate, employees are merely not dissatisfied.
2Hand him a real project and the same desk comes alive; colleagues gather and clap.
MotivatorsThese relate to the content of the job itself; their presence produces satisfaction and motivation.
Hygiene or maintenance factors belong to the job context and are extrinsic. They are the dissatisfiers: Herzberg found that these factors mainly make employees dissatisfied. Examples are pay, job security, working conditions, the quality of supervision, company policy and administration, status, and relations with supervisors, peers and subordinates.
Motivators, or satisfiers, belong to the job content and are intrinsic: responsibility, achievement, the work itself, recognition, advancement and the possibility of growth. They are internal rewards felt while doing the work, so the employee is self-motivated. Herzberg stated a general tendency only: a factor that satisfies one employee may dissatisfy another.
Employees are moved most by what they achieve for themselves, so management's role is to provide the right setting for performance and to help rather than to boss. Managers who looked only at maintenance factors often got poor results; the model shifted the emphasis to intrinsic factors. A Chennai IT firm that raises salaries and improves its canteen may stop complaints, but its engineers are motivated by challenging projects, credit for their work and a path to lead a team.
Critics say the model plays down the motivating power of pay, status and relations with others, which it treats only as maintenance factors; that it is tied to Herzberg's own method, since other methods have not produced the same results; and that motivation lies along a single continuum, not two separate factors.
Where the 5 marks sit
| # | Component | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The study and the two-factor idea | 1 |
| 2 | Hygiene factors | 1 |
| 3 | Motivators | 1 |
| 4 | Implications for managers, with example | 1 |
| 5 | Criticism | 1 |
| Total | 5 |
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