Frederick Herzberg Motivation Analysis

Emotional sources of motivation are more powerful, and they are best conveyed informally in an organization through the respect of peers, the admiration of subordinates, the approval of one’s personal network and community and the like. Money becomes the default motivator because it is measurable, tangible and fungible — and trouble strikes when the prospect of a lot of money becomes the primary goal. That usually feeds a very self-serving emotion, greed.

It depends on what kind of motivation you’re after. Money is better at attracting and retaining people than at influencing their behavior. Those of us who subscribe to the writings of the authority on motivation Frederick Herzberg, who died in 2000, believe that the most effective way to

Sure, you need to pay your employees fairly and competitively. If people working in your sector are paid on average Rs100-Rs200 per hour, you won’t be able to get away with paying your employees Rs80 per hour. But once you pay competitively, it’s not wages that keep your employees going above and beyond every day, it’s something else. And interestingly enough, even if you paid your employees more than the average in your region, you still wouldn’t keep them motivated on an ongoing and sustainable basis.

At one time, employees were considered just another input into the production of goods and services. What perhaps changed this way of thinking about employees was research, referred to as the Hawthorne Studies, conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932 (Dickson, 1973). This study found employees are not motivated solely by money and employee behavior is linked to their attitudes (Dickson, 1973). The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers (Bedeian,

Even if resources were unlimited, it would be difficult to stipulate your ideal salary. Intuitively, one would think that higher pay should produce better results, but scientific evidence indicates that the link between compensation, motivation and performance is much more complex. In fact, research suggests that even if we let people decide how much they should earn, they would probably not enjoy their job more.

A sound concept in principle, however, in reality most people don’t consider money to be the main motivator. In fact, research has shown that the association between salary and job satisfaction is very weak. These results have important implications for employers – if you want an engaged workforce, money is clearly not the answer. Furthermore, if you want your employees to be happy in their role, money is not the answer. Money does not, and cannot, buy engagement or motivation.

In his research, Dr. Herzberg discovered that the factors that produced job satisfaction were separate and distinct from those that led to job dissatisfaction. In other words, job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are not opposites of each other. Instead, the opposite of job satisfaction is no job satisfaction; and similarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is no job