Maslow and Herzberg



Maslow and Herzberg

Maslow

Maslow hierarchy of needs is another theory that helps describe the basic situation in which all motivational effort must be directed. ( Forsyth , 2004 ,p17). In 1938, Henry Murray postulated 20 different needs that people attempt to satisfy. Abraham H. Maslow built on Murray's work to form one of the most widely recognized theories of motivation(Wren, 2005). It was based on conclusions he drew from his observations of individuals who came to him for assistance in coping with difficulties in their personal lives during the Great Depression ( Latham 2007). Another use of needs is more akin to the notion of motives (many social researchers prefer this term). Needs for achievement, affiliation, and the like have been popular topics of psychological research. Such needs are properties of individuals, deep-seated desires that drive peoples' behavior. The relative strength or mode of expression of such needs may be seen as a personality trait that can vary across people. Conscious wants are interpreted as being expressions of needs, mediated through cognitive structures and social circumstances shaping the perception of how far specific activities and choices are likely to satisfy them. Thus, a need to achieve may be expressed in efforts to excel at sports, business, professional, political, or artistic life. It may even take the form of ambitions to be a particularly effective consumer—getting the best value for money, being knowledgeable about a particular class of goods, and so on.

Herzberg's research led to the conclusion that two broad categories of factors affect an individual's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their jobs. Herzberg's first category of factors is referred to as motivator or implicit factors and is the key to true job satisfaction and motivation. Motivating factors are the nature of the work itself, actual job responsibility, opportunity for personal growth and recognition, and sense of achievement. The presence of such factors leads to satisfaction. Motivators are factors that are implicitly driven or driven internally within the individual. Herzberg refers to the second category as hygiene or extrinsic factors which involve characteristics of the work place such as policies, working conditions, pay, colleagues, and supervision. Hygiene or explicit factors are referred to as dissatisfiers and will lead to job dissatisfaction but not to satisfaction nor lead to motivation to do a good job. Hygiene factors are driven extrinsically or from outside the individual.

Hezberg

Herzberg believed that businesses should motivate employees by adopting a democratic approach to management and by improving the nature and content of the actual job through certain methods. Some of the methods managers could use to achieve this are:

Job enlargement - worker being given a better variety of task to perform (not essentially more difficult) which should make the work more fascinating.

Job enrichment - involves worker being given a wider series of more multifaceted, interesting and challenging tasks surrounding a complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of achievement.

Empowerment means delegate more command to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working ...