Maslow's need hierarchy and Herzberg's two-factor theory compared

Maslow's need hierarchy in brief

Abraham Maslow, in a paper of 1943, built a theory of motivation on human needs, arranged in five levels: basic physiological needs, safety or security, belonging or affiliation, esteem, and self-actualisation. At work, basic salary meets the first level, while job security and pension plans meet the second. The theory assumes that behaviour springs from needs, that a need already met no longer motivates, and that a person moves to a higher level only after the lower one is satisfied. The two lower levels are met mainly through money and lose their pull once reasonably satisfied; the higher ones are psychological.

Herzberg's two-factor theory in brief

Herzberg extended Maslow's work. In the 1950s he asked about two hundred accountants and engineers near Pittsburgh to recall times when they felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs; good feelings were linked to the content of the job, bad feelings to its surroundings. He therefore separated two sets of factors:

• Motivators (satisfiers), tied to job content: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth.
• Hygiene or maintenance factors (dissatisfiers), tied to job context: pay, job security, working conditions, status, company policy, supervision and relations with others.

Before Herzberg, satisfaction and dissatisfaction were thought to be two ends of one scale; he argued that the two are driven by different factors.

Where the two theories agree

1. Both explain motivation through what people need. Herzberg's model is a content theory that grew out of Maslow's, and Maslow's whole theory treats needs as the basis of motivation.
2. Pay and security are basic, not inspiring. Maslow places salary and security at the lowest levels; Herzberg classes pay and job security as hygiene factors.
3. A met lower need stops driving effort. Herzberg held that for many workers in modern society lower-order needs are largely met and only maintain their present level, which matches Maslow's view that a satisfied need no longer motivates.

Where the two theories differ

Consider a software services firm in Hyderabad. A pay rise and a clean, safe office stop engineers from complaining, but they work hardest when given a challenging client project, visible credit and a path to team lead. Maslow would read this as engineers moving up to esteem and self-actualisation; Herzberg would say the pay and office removed dissatisfaction while the project and credit supplied motivation.

Conclusion

The two theories are close cousins, and the source texts present them side by side as similar models: the pay and security that Maslow puts at the foot of his ladder are hygiene factors for Herzberg, while achievement and growth sit near the top of both. Maslow describes a ladder of needs inside the person; Herzberg tells the manager which features of the job keep employees content and which actually spur them on.