FREDERICK HERZBERG: BIOGRAPHY, THEORY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND WORKS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) was an American psychologist famous for being one of the first promoters of the study of motivation in the workplace. His main contribution to the field of social psychology was the theory of the two factors, one of the most used even today within companies.

Frederick Herzberg also became famous because he was one of the first researchers within psychology to use semi-structured interviews to collect data and better understand his study subjects. Using this method, I asked different people questions about their experience, trying not to have preconceptions about what they might answer.

Frederick Herzberg

His theory of motivation at work, also known as the theory of motivation - hygiene, considers that for an employee to be happy in his position there must be some factors that, if not present, impede his well-being, but do not enhance it when they are. On the other hand, there are other factors that increase motivation when they appear but are not necessary for it to occur.

Frederick Herzberg was one of the most important social psychologists of the 20th century, and his contributions continue to be used even today. In this article we will study both his life and his research, focusing mainly on the theory of the two factors of motivation in the workplace.

Biography

Frederick Herzberg (1923 - 2000) was a clinical psychologist and researcher in social psychology, known for being one of the most important thinkers in the field of motivation and leadership. He was born on April 18, 1923 in Massachusetts, United States, where he spent his childhood and part of his youth.

Once he entered college, he went to New York and later to Pittsburgh, where he spent several years studying. Once he earned his degree, he landed a teaching position at Case Western Reserve University, within the area of ​​business management. However, already within this first institution he established a mental health department in the company.

Frederick Herzberg transferred to Utah Business College in 1972, where he remained for the rest of his life. There he also became part of the business management department, researching on this subject and giving classes on it to the students of the center.

Professional life

Herzberg's first major work was his book Motivation to Work. In it, he talks about the discoveries he made with his colleagues Bernard Mausner and Barbara Bloch Snyderman when he was researching motivation in the workplace.

Herzberg's first investigation involved 200 Pittsburgh engineers and accountants. In it, thanks to his previous documentation and the design of the experiment, he was able to collect very sophisticated data that served him to raise his theory of motivation, which is still used today.

The research method followed by Frederick Herzberg in this study was very innovative for its time, since it was based on the use of open questions without any preconceived ideas about what the respondents could answer. Until that time, most similar investigations used closed questions (which could be answered with a yes or no).

After publishing this first hour with the basic concepts of his theory of motivation - hygiene, Herzberg continued to expand it in his following books: Work and the nature of man, The managerial choice and Herzberg on motivation.

During the last years of his life, this researcher continued to teach and expand his ideas on motivation in the workplace, the relationship between employee and employer, and work well-being.

Theory of motivation and hygiene of Frederick Herzberg

Frederick Herzberg grouped his findings into what he called the "two-factor theory" or "motivation-hygiene theory." The main idea behind it is that there are two types of factors in the workplace. While the former are directly related to dissatisfaction, the latter can increase satisfaction.

In this way, working on the first factors prevents workers from feeling unhappy with what they are doing, but cannot make them feel passionate about it. On the contrary, factors of the second type cannot eliminate dissatisfaction, but they are capable of motivating those employees who already feel good enough.

Herzberg's main discovery in this regard was that for workers to feel as comfortable as possible in their jobs, it is necessary to work on both types of factors. Next, we will see what each of them consists of and how they can be enhanced to achieve greater job satisfaction.

Factors for dissatisfaction (motivational)

The first group of motivational factors includes those that, if present, cause discomfort to the workers, but which, when absent, do not increase well-being beyond a certain point.

Factors of this type include elements such as overly restrictive company policies, excessive supervision, having a bad relationship with colleagues or bosses, poor working conditions, low pay, or a lack of job security. job.

The first step in improving worker motivation is to eliminate all of these factors as much as possible, so that employees can start to feel good about going to their position.

Currently, it has been proven that companies with greater flexibility for workers and more social incentives are those that achieve lower levels of dissatisfaction among their employees.

Factors for satisfaction

Once the factors that promote dissatisfaction have been worked on, the next step is to increase the motivation of the workers as much as possible through the second type of factors. The absence of these does not cause discomfort among employees, but the more that are present, the more comfortable they will be.

The factors for satisfaction are more related to elements such as the possibility of achieving significant achievements within the company, the recognition that the person gets for performing their role, the importance and impact of their own work, or the responsibilities they have to assume the individual in his position.

On the other hand, the ability to advance and continue learning on the job, and growth options within the company also greatly impact employee motivation.

It has recently been discovered that in today's world the factors for satisfaction are much more important than the former, since most of the jobs today offer quite attractive base conditions. Thus, more and more people choose their job based on the emotional well-being that they will achieve in it, and not so much for the salary or the hours worked.

Other contributions to the administration

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Frederick Herzberg's idea when creating his theory was to discover a reliable way to increase employee motivation, in such a way that managers and company bosses could apply it regardless of the context in which they were.

On the other hand, it was also intended to improve the living conditions of the employees, thus giving them the opportunity to take part in the tasks of managing, planning, evaluating and improving their own jobs.

In this sense, Herzberg continued to work his entire life on other innovations in this area, aimed at developing even more tools for workers and managers. Some of his ideas in this regard are the following:

- Eliminate some part of the control that managers have over employees, in such a way that they increase their autonomy and have to develop greater responsibility so that their work goes forward. This will increase your motivation and decrease the workload of your upper managers.

- Create a more compartmentalized work, in such a way that each employee is responsible for all phases of their product or service. This will increase the responsibility of each of the workers compared to if they can only take care of a small part of it.

- Provide direct and constant feedback to workers, so that they can know at all times what they can improve, what they are doing well and what they should change to achieve better results.

- Encourage workers to continue developing professionally, to train and to take on tasks that in principle pose a challenge to them but that may motivate them and give them more autonomy and skills in the future.

Published works

Throughout his career Herzberg published a large number of books and studies on motivation in the workplace. His most important works were the following:

- The motivation to work (1967).

- The needs of workers: the same all over the world (1987).

- Humanities, practical education in administration (1980).

- New perspectives on the will to work (1979).

- Animal managers or trainers (1971).

- Work and the nature of man (1966).

- The new industrial psychology (1965).

- Work and motivation (1959).

References

1. "Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors" in: Mind Tools. Retrieved on: February 28, 2020 from Mind Tools: mindtools.com.
2. "Introduction to Herzberg's Theory for Managers" in: What Makes A Good Leader. Retrieved on: February 28, 2020 from What Makes A Good Leader: whatmakesagoodleader.com.
3. "Motivation and hygiene factors" in: Business Balls. Retrieved on: February 28, 2020 from Business Balls: businessballs.com.
4. "Frederick Herzberg" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: February 28, 2020 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.
5. "Two - factor theory" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: February 28, 2020 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.