Employee Motivation and the 2-Factor Theory

One of the courses in Term 6 is the Managing Teams course taught by Prof. Henry Moon from the London Business School. While the course started later than the other courses (schedule/visa issues) and we are only 2 classes in, the course is a whole lot of fun and has the capacity to make one really think!
Employee motivation was today’s topic and I really liked the way it went. One of the factors discussed really got me thinking and is the reason for this post. The Two Factor Theory or Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory essentially believes that factors that affect job satisfaction as well as factors that affect job dissatisfaction in the workplace are separate from each other. While this may not be directly obvious, what it believes is that factors like salary are the bare minimum you look for in your job. Having more of it does not really mean you have higher job satisfaction! Of course this will not hold true for everyone. Someone may of course be motivated solely by a monetary incentive, but you know what I am getting at.
While there has been some debate over the years on the exact validity of this theory (refer to Wiki links above), there is empirical evidence that shows the very same thing and is what got me interested in blogging about it.
Apologies for the black and white image, the ppt hasn’t been uploaded yet, and I didn’t want to wait. 🙂
This really is food for thought. What does it mean? That people are most easily dissatisfied by different kinds of company bureaucracy, something that I am sure the majority of us knew already, but the way the whole thing was explained …. lets say we can see why he teaches at LBS!