What is Herzberg's two-factor theory?

Two-factor theory was put forward by American psychologist Herzberg in 1959, and its full name is "Theory of Incentive and Health Care Factors".

Through the investigation and consultation of more than 200 engineers and accountants in Pittsburgh 1 1 industrial and commercial institutions, Herzberg found that most of the dissatisfied items listed by the respondents were related to their working environment, while the factors that made them satisfied were generally related to the work itself. Accordingly, he put forward the two-factor theory.

The traditional theory holds that the opposite of satisfaction is dissatisfaction, while according to the two-factor theory, the opposite of satisfaction is dissatisfaction, and the opposite of dissatisfaction is dissatisfaction. Therefore, the factors that affect employees' work enthusiasm can be divided into two categories: health care factors and incentive factors, which are independent of each other and affect people's work behavior in different ways.

The so-called health factors are those factors that cause employees' dissatisfaction. Their improvement can alleviate employees' dissatisfaction, but it can't make employees feel satisfied and stimulate their enthusiasm. It mainly includes enterprise policies, administrative management, wage distribution, labor protection, work supervision and various personnel relations. They are also called "maintenance factors" because they are only preventive and only play a role in maintaining the status quo of work.

The so-called incentive factors are those that make employees feel satisfied. Only their improvement can satisfy employees, give them higher incentives, mobilize their enthusiasm and improve labor productivity. It mainly includes the opportunity of job performance, the pleasure of work itself, the sense of achievement in work, the expectation of future development, the sense of responsibility in the post and so on.

The two-factor theory accords with Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. The low-level demand in Maslow's theory is equivalent to the health care factor, and the high-level demand is similar to the incentive factor.

Two-factor theory aims to meet this goal. Health care factors are to meet people's requirements for external conditions; The incentive factor is to meet people's requirements for the work itself. The former is indirect satisfaction and can motivate people from the inside; The latter is direct satisfaction and can motivate people from the inside. Therefore, the two-factor theory holds that to arouse people's enthusiasm, we must work hard on the word "satisfaction". Herzberg's two-factor theory, like Maslow's and McLelland's, focuses on some reasons for trying to persuade employees to pay attention to job-related performance. It is one of the most controversial incentive theories at present, perhaps because it has two unique aspects. First of all, this theory emphasizes that some work factors can lead to satisfaction, while others can only prevent dissatisfaction; Secondly, there is no single continuum between job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

By investigating the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity of a group of accountants and engineers, and through semi-organizational interviews, herzberg has accumulated information on various factors that affect these people's feelings about work, indicating that there are two different factors.

1, incentive factors and health care factors

The first kind of factors are incentive factors, including work itself, recognition, achievement and responsibility. These factors involve the positive feelings about the work and the content of the work itself. These positive feelings are related to personal past achievements, recognition and responsibility, and they are based on lasting rather than short-term achievements in the work environment.

The second kind of factors are health care factors, including company policies and management, technical supervision, salary, working conditions and interpersonal relationships. These factors are related to the negative factors of work, as well as the atmosphere and environment of work. In other words, these factors are external factors of work and work itself, while the incentive factors are internal, or internal factors related to work.

From another perspective, external factors mainly depend on formal organizations (such as salary, company policies and systems). Only when companies recognize high performance can they be rewarded accordingly. However, internal factors, such as the sense of accomplishment in completing tasks well, are largely personal inner activities, and organizational policies can only have an indirect impact. For example, only when the standards of excellent performance are determined can organizations influence individuals to think that they have accomplished their tasks quite well.

Although motivation factors are usually related to personal positive feelings about work, sometimes they also involve negative feelings. However, health factors have almost nothing to do with positive feelings, and only lead to depression, separation from organization, absenteeism and other results. The figure below illustrates the main content of the two-factor theory. As shown in the figure, the achievement is over 40% in the satisfactory work experience and less than 10% in the unsatisfactory work experience.

Herzberg's theory holds that satisfaction and dissatisfaction do not exist in a single continuum, but are completely separated. This double continuum means that one can feel satisfied and dissatisfied at the same time. This also implies that health care factors such as working conditions and salary can not affect people's job satisfaction, but can only affect their job dissatisfaction.

2. Debate about the two-factor theory.

A major criticism is that the procedures adopted by Herzberg are limited by its methods. In other words, the method he uses to measure these factors determines the result (while people tend to attribute good work performance to their own efforts and think that the reason for poor performance is others).

Another major criticism is to doubt whether satisfaction and dissatisfaction are really two scales, and the research results are mixed. Some researchers have found that some factors can lead to satisfaction and dissatisfaction. At the same time, other researchers have found that incentives can cause dissatisfaction, while health factors can lead to satisfaction. These findings challenge the two-factor theory, but do not overturn the concept that satisfaction and dissatisfaction belong to different continuum respectively.

There is some evidence that certain types of experience can bring high performance, such as improving the sense of responsibility and challenge of work and providing opportunities for promotion. Unfortunately, herzberg hardly intends to establish a theory to explain why some work factors have positive or negative effects on job performance. Similarly, he rarely tries to explain why some achievements are attractive to employees and why individuals choose one kind of behavior and give up other behaviors to get the desired results.