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  • Hygiene Factor

    In the last byte, we looked at the role Motivation Factors played. In today’s blog, we look at Hygiene Factors and attempt to understand them.

    Hygiene Factors are said to be a work condition that relates to dissatisfaction caused by discomfort or pain. The job dissatisfaction could be either due to the absence of the factor completely, or it’s presence to an insufficient level. Some of these hygiene factors are: Company Policy and Administration, Supervision, Interpersonal Relations, Working Conditions, Salary, Status and Security. These factors are related to the context of a job and may be considered to be support factors.

    If we look at these factors closely, we realize that these are factors which do not really motivate people to work harder and achieve more. They definitely affect the person’s discontent. Excellent hygiene factors generally result in an employee being “not dissatisfied” and this would add in to the reduction in the number of complaints about the contextual considerations. When these hygiene factors are low and poor in quality – the general complaints like “poor supervision”, “poor medical benefits” are head about.

    Even if these hygiene factors are not up to the mark, there are instances where people are completely motivated to perform their tasks. This is generally when the motivational factors are pretty strong and this influence on the employee is higher. This might look surprising! However, the dichotomy gets sorted out when we realize that the two factors – motivational and hygiene are independent of each other.

    Hygiene factors are important to a certain threshold level, but beyond the threshold they do not play a very significant role. The motivational factors on the other hand, are essential to enhance the employee motivation to excel at work.

  • Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory – 2

    In the last byte, we began looking at Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory and began understanding the Motivation Factors. In today’s byte, we will continue the discussion on Motivation Factors and then understand about Hygiene Factors.

    Continuing on the discussion of Motivation Factors, we would fist begin with identifying a few of these factors – achievement, recognition of achievement, work itself, responsibility, advancement, growth etc. The presence of these factors leads to superior performance in the employees. This input is factored in, when designing the compensation packages for employees. It is not merely the financial benefits that are always offered to employees as a reward mechanism, involving these into the reward mechanism could prove extremely motivating for the employees.

    There is however and interesting dimension of Salary here – salary could be extremely motivation to certain degree; however it is only to a certain level. If the salary is not up to a certain expected mark for the employee, it could in fact be de-motivating – in such a scenario, salary also acts as a hygiene factor! This nature of salary is pretty unique!

    Motivation factors lead to a positive mental health and challenge people to grow, contribute to work environment, and invest themselves in the organization.

    Research has indicated that the absence of these motivational factors will not create dissatisfaction; however it lead to lack of satisfaction. Motivational factors are found to be more important than the hygiene factors, since they directly affect the motivational drive of a person towards completing a job well. When they are absent, the person is de-motivated to perform well and achieve excellence.

  • Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

    In the last byte, we looked at the summary of the various need theories. In today’s byte, we look at Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory and attempt to understand it better.

    If we look at our job, there are certain situations where we are extremely content and satisfied with the work we do, while there are certain activities which we are extremely dissatisfied with. In fact it is not the complete job itself but certain aspects of it which makes us feel satisfied or dissatisfied with the job. Herzberg studied this to a greater detail and formulated the Two Factor Theory.

    Those work conditions that relate to the satisfaction of the need for psychological growth – are called motivational factors. Those work conditions that relate to dissatisfaction caused by discomfort or pain are called hygiene factors. This classification originates from the observation that, people have two sets of needs – one that relates to avoidance of pain and one relates to the desire for psychological growth. Thus, motivational factors are related to job satisfaction, while the hygiene factors are related to job dissatisfaction.

    We shall initiate a discussion on the Motivational Factors now, which we shall continue in the next byte:

    Herzberg says that job satisfaction is produced by building the motivational factors into a job. This process is called Job Enrichment. Some of these motivational factors are: Responsibility, Achievement, Recognition, Advancement and the work itself. The presence of such factors enhances the performance of an individual.

  • Summarizing the relations between Motivation Theories

    In the last byte, we looked at the need for affiliation and the need for autonomy. Given that we have discussed a number of need based theory, we could summarize it in the following diagram. 


  • Need for Affiliation, Autonomy

    In the last byte, we looked at the need for power as a source of motivation. In today’s byte, we look at the need for affiliation and how it forms a source of motivation and the need for autonomy.

    The Need for Affiliation concerns itself with people’s interest in establishing and maintaining warm, close intimate relationship with other people. People with high need for affiliation express their emotions and feelings to others and expect the same in return from others. These people feel disturbed when there are conflicts and complication in their relationships, and generally work through any barrier in their closeness to people. This nature of theirs gets them to be very close and personal with others, they emphasize friendship and companionship.

    Managers could need to understand this need of the employees who work under him/her to really be able to leverage their ability and keep them motivated.

    Moving beyond the need of affiliation, researcher Murray identified another need – the need for autonomy. This represents the desire for independence and freedom from any constraints. The people who have high need for autonomy like to work alone and to control the pace of work. They dislike bureaucracy – rules, regulations and procedures. Entrepreneurs are generally found to fall into the category of people who have a pretty high need for autonomy.

  • Need for Power

    In the last byte, we understood the need for achievement as a motivational factor for people better. In today’s byte, we look at the need for Power as a driver of Motivation.

    Need for Power as described earlier, is concerned with making and impact on others. It is the desire to influence others, the urge to change people or events and the desire to make a difference in life. This need is generally interpersonal in nature as it involves influencing others in the environment. People with high need for power could generally be like control people and events that happen around them.

    McClelland makes 2 distinctions in power:

    1. Socialized Power – which could be used for the benefit of others
    2. Personalized Power – which can be used for individual gains
    The Socialized Power is constructive in nature, and could yield a better bonding between people while Personalize power could be very disruptive and have destructive impact.

    McClelland’s research has indicated that managers who were rated “best” in the research had a very high need for socialized power, as opposed to personalized power. That is, they have an interest in organizational goals and have a concern for others; they also have a desire to be useful to the larger group, organization or society.

    Managers with high socialized power needs and a good success track record are found to grow the quickest in their organization compared to their contemporaries.

  • Need for Achievement

    In the last byte, we began understanding McClelland’s Need Theory and the definitions of the various theories. In today’s byte we look at the need of achievement in greater detail.

    Need for Achievement:
    As mentioned in the last byte, the need for achievement concerns with issues like excellence, competition, challenging goals, persistence, and overcoming difficulties. People with high need of achievement could be seen seeking excellence in performance, and enjoy working towards challenges and difficult goals and is perceiving and competitive at work. Such people have been found to perform better than those with this at a moderate or low need for achievement.

    People with such high need of achievement are having 3 distinct characteristics:

    1. They set goals that are moderately difficult, yet achievable.
    2. They like to receive feedback on their progress towards these goals.
    3. They do not like having external events or other people interfere with their progress
    These people often hope to succeed and plan for it. They do not mind working single handedly or in teams, as long as they get the appropriate model for their task. These people find it easy to develop expertise and they are very good at what they do. They are found to develop competency and expertise in the field they choose to endeavor, pretty quickly.

    Research has shown that achievement tendencies are highest for the United States, an individualistic culture, and lowest for Japan and Hungary, which are collective societies.

  • McClelland’s Need Theory

    In the last byte, we looked at ERG theory and understood what aspects of motivation it could explain. In today’s blog we look at McClelland’s Need Theory and attempt understanding it. While the first 3 theories of that we have discussed this far deal with the need as a basis of motivation. We now shift our attention to discuss about theories that focus on personality and learned needs.

    McClelland identified three learned or acquired needs, which he called manifest needs. These are:

    1. Need for Achievement
    2. Need for Power
    3. Need for Affiliation
    Some individuals have a high need for achievement, whereas others have a moderate or low need of achievement. Similarly one could think of the other two needs. Different needs dominate different people. A Manager may need a strong need of power a moderate need for achievement and a weak need for affiliation, this combination gives rise to a very different implication on the behavior of an individual.

     

    We could define these needs as below:
    Need for Achievement: Is a manifest (easily perceived) need that concerns individuals’ issues of excellence, competition, challenging goals, persistence, and overcoming difficulties.
    Need for Power: Is a manifest (easily perceived) need that concerns an individual’s need to make an impact on others, influence others, change people or events and make a difference in life
    Need for Affiliation: Is a manifest (easily perceived) need that concerns an individual’s need to establish and maintain warm, close, intimate relationships with other people.

    We shall explore these to a greater depth in the next byte.

  • ERG Theory

    In the last byte, we looked at who McGregor’s’ Theory X and Theory Y was built on the work of Maslow – Hierarchy of Need. In today’s byte, we look at ERG Theory and attempt to understand it.

    The ERG Theory was proposed by Clayton Alderfer, by reorganizing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. He classified Maslow’s Physiological and Physical Safety needs in an “existence” needs category. Moving further, the interpersonal safety, love and interpersonal esteem needs were classified into “Relatedness” need. Maslow’s self-actualization and self-esteem needs were classified into “growth” needs category.  This reclassification of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory as Existence, Relatedness and Growth gets this theory its name – ERG Theory. We could look at the mapping of Maslow’s hierarchy to ERG theory as shown below.


     
    While the Maslow’s theory explains the progression of how a person moves towards higher order needs, it doesn’t explain scenarios where one is frustrated due to one’s inability to meet the higher order needs in the hierarchy. This could be explained by the ERG theory of Alderfer. The Regression hypothesis states that people regress to the next lower order needs and intensify their desire to gratify these needs. Thus this theory explains both the progressive need gratification and regression when faced with frustration.

  • Motivation – Theory X & Theory Y

    In the last byte, we looked at the hierarchy of needs theory by Maslow. In today’s byte, we take a dig at understanding Theory X and Theory Y.

    An implication of the need theory of motivation for organizations is important when one is to manage people at work. A simple reorganization by Douglas McGregor was to look at the physiological and safety needs as the “lower order” needs while the remaining three would form the “upper order” needs. We have shown this in the earlier diagram.

    He proposed 2 alternative sets of assumptions about people at work based on the need motivators. Following table summarizes the assumptions. [This has been taken from the book “The Human Side of Enterprise” by Douglas M McGregor]


     
    McGregor believed that Theory X assumptions are appropriate for employees motivated by lower order needs. Theory Y assumptions, in contrast, are appropriate for employees motivated by higher order needs.