Since companies are made up of individuals, the existence of a Psychology of Work and organizations that is responsible for studying their functioning within organizations is necessary.
Within this psychology of organizations, the psychologist Frederick Herzberg stood out, who was interested in the study of job satisfaction and created Herzberg’s well-known Dual Factor Theory
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) was an American psychologist who became a one of the most reputable people in the field of business management and administration
Thanks to his Dual Factor Theory and the implementation of work enrichment, he earned great recognition within the field of work and organizational psychology, an area in which proposals that lead to more efficient capital management are always welcome. human, 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/she meets his/her work 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 on an emotional level. as an intellectual.
When this system of needs is applied to the workplace, they require different incentives, hence the term duality. This duality consists of two types of factors that operate in work motivation: hygiene factors and motivation factors Both allow us to explain a good part of the work dynamics that take place within organizations.
Herzberg’s two factors
As mentioned above, the theory proposed by Herzberg consists of two factors that modulate the worker’s 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 the worker. These factors are said to be extrinsic because these depend on the company’s decisions and the way it manages them.
According to Herzberg, throughout history the people in charge of directing and managing companies only took hygienic factors into account as a means to motivate or punish the worker. Companies and industries used salary bonuses and incentives, flexible company policies, and external rewards with the ultimate goal of getting workers to produce in greater quantities.
The factors that Herzberg classified as hygiene are:
However, research 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 Furthermore, when the worker considered that these factors were not excellent or appropriate enough, they generated discontent very quickly.
Motivation factors
Unlike hygiene factors, motivation factors are intrinsic to workers, since they are directly associated with satisfaction with both the position and the nature or type of tasks that the person does within the company.
These motivational factors would be under the domain of the individual, and include the feelings or perception that the worker has about his or her 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 would feel motivated to grow or develop their work creativity, causing a feeling of indifference and reluctance.
These intrinsic motivational factors are:
Conclusions
After identifying all these factors, Herzberg drew a series of conclusions that completed his theory:
A bad environment causes immediate dissatisfaction on workers, but a healthy work environment does not guarantee their satisfaction.
Avoiding job dissatisfaction is just as important as promote job satisfaction
Hygiene and motivation factors are activated and deactivated independently, and characteristics of both factors can occur 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. Therefore, the worker renews these needs as time passes.
Task enrichment according to this psychologist
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Frederick Herzberg also gained popularity within work psychology thanks to the introduction of task enrichment. Herzberg himself developed a series of tips to improve worker satisfaction.
These tips are:
abolish or eliminate certain controls while maintaining the responsibility of the worker 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 their degree of complexity.
Assignment of tasks that allow the worker demonstrate your skills and advance professionally
