Real World Application of Herzberg's Theory of Motivation - Essay Example

Real World Application of Herzberg Theory of Motivation The vital difference between the man and machine is essentially that of emotions. Machines keep on working with the same pace, regardless of the fact that whether we praise them or condemn. However, this is not the case with human beings. It is, in most of the cases, beneficial, especially from the perspective of organizational behavior, to motivate the employees and provide the favorable factors so as to increase their job satisfaction and thus enhance the organizational feasibility. This paper is intended to analyze the application of the Herzberg's theory of motivation, which basis the employee satisfaction on two dimensions; 'hygiene' and 'motivation'. (Harris and Hartman, 2002) We will start our analysis by founding our definitions on what we perceive of the key terms related to the theory. Building on it, we will see the application of this theory in Soft Tech. JOB SATISFACTION: Job satisfaction is one of the most frequently studied outcomes of various organizational behavior studies. The term 'Job Satisfaction' refers to one of the extent to which an individual likes his or her job. As defined by Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, "Job satisfaction is the degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about their jobs. It is an attitude or emotional response to one's tasks as well as to the physical and social conditions of the workplace." (Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, 2002) Thus we can say that job satisfaction is the level to which an employee is feeling good or positive about his or her job. PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK: Feedback is the objective information about individual and collective performance. Subjective information like 'you are doing well' does not qualify the criteria of the objectivity and thus can not be called an ideal feedback. (Miner, 1988) .Feedback serves two functions; that is instructional and motivational. Besides providing the instructions for further improvement, feedback should also be aimed to motivate the employees rather than condemn them. (Tosi, Rizzo and Mero, 2000) WHAT IS HERZBERG'Z THEORY OF MOTIVATION Being so important for the organizational culture, organizational behavior researchers have laid a great stress in determining the factors which influence the employee satisfaction. As a result, a number of theories regarding the issue have been evolved. Herzberg theory of motivation is one of them. (Szilagyi and Wallace, 1983) The Herzberg theory of motivation is based on the fact that the satisfaction level of an employee is deeply affected by two broad categories; hygiene factor and the motivation factor. Herzberg asked the employees to report the times they felt very satisfied with their jobs and the times they felt discontented. He noted all the factors which led to increase the job satisfaction of the employees and same for the dissatisfaction. On the basis of this study he gave this theory, which is also known as motivator-hygiene theory, which identifies different factors as foremost causes of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. (Philip and Duncan, 1982) According to this theory, hygiene factors are those factors which cause job dissatisfaction. He noticed that these tasks are more related to the work environment, rather than the nature of work itself. Some of the common hygiene factors are as follows: Organizational policies Quality of supervision Working conditions Base wage or salary Relationships with peers Relationships with subordinates Security (Luthans, 2006) Herzberg asserts that these factors are though responsible for job dissatisfaction, yet their presence does not guarantee the job satisfaction. Lets take the example of salary, if the employees are under paid, their satisfaction towards their work will be lesser. However, if they are appropriately paid, even then this will not bring the job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is achieved through a number of other factors like: Achievement Recognition Responsibility Advancement Growth (Luthans, 2006) The factors which enhance the job satisfaction are called the motivators. APPLICATION OF HERZBERG'S THEORY OF MOTIVATION AT SOFT TECH INC. A theory without any application is like a body without blood. Unless a theory does not have an application, the theory is worthless, in most of the cases, be it management, finance, medicine or any other discipline of studies. (Parks and Simpson, 2007) The practical of the organizational behavior theories are seen in the work setting. Let's explore the application of the theory in the real world at Soft Tech. HYGIENE FACTORS: Soft Tech provides a satisfying environment. As we have discussed earlier, the dissatisfaction emerges as a result of various hygiene factors. Most of these factors were not present at Soft Tech. (Ritchie and Thompson, 2002) Organizational policies The organizational policies at Soft Tech are aimed to reduce any element of job dissatisfaction from their work environment. The organizational chain is not too strict so as to discourage the interaction between the managers and workers. They are free to share the work related problems to the management. There is also the policy of suggestion of the year. A suggestion box has been place in the most accessible and prominent location of the second floor of their office. Every week these suggestions are read and those suggestions which are really well and worth implementation are recognized and also the award of the suggestion of the year is also given. Most of the time, the policies are employee friendly. The policy for earn leaves are also very well appreciated by the employees. There is a very fair and properly managed system of grievances. The employees have a particular chain to follow in order to record grievances, however, their names, until or unless necessary, are not revealed to the person against whom the complaint is lodged. Quality of supervision The quality of supervision was also very well rated by the organization. It can easily be guessed, after reading the comments of supervisors, that the supervisors' feedback serves the purpose of instruction without discouraging the employees. The supervision has been rated by the employees as fair and well-observed. Furthermore, employees have also admitted that they have learned a lot due to the highly professional quality control. Especially, the designers and developers seem very confident in giving the credit of their enhancement in the productivity to their supervisors, who kept a keen eye to inspect each and every bit and thus not only ensuring the quality of the product, but also enabling the professional growth and the technological skills of the developers. It is the usual phenomenon at Soft Tech that whenever the team leader and any other senior manager or supervisor comes to know about some new technology or innovation in the field, he shares it with his sub-ordinates in the weekly learning sessions. Working conditions The working conditions at Soft Tech are really sophisticated and conducive. Since the business analysts and system analysts have more thinking tasks, which require various skills like brain storming etc, they are provided with the necessary equipments and fixtures such as white board, conference tables, huge flip charts etc. The work of a interface designer has more to do with the aesthetics and artistic skills, his room is tried to be made very creative and colorful. Software development is something that required the developer to sit in front of the computer and working for hours and hours, which ultimately make them very tired in a very short time. So they are provided with the laptops so that they can move with entire work with no efforts, this movement form here and there keeps the person fit. All this results in higher performance, as a result of reduced job dissatisfaction. It can be asserted with so much confidence because, this was not the case two years back, but when Soft Tech started to provide the enabling working environment, the overall job satisfaction increased many folds. Base wage or salary The base salary is competitive to that of other software houses. This has resulted in lower employee turnovers and ultimately higher productivity resulting from the increasing experience of the staff. Relationships with peers At Soft Tech the relationship with the peers is encouraged. There is an informal environment, but without compromising the professionalism. This leads to increased relationships between peers, which results in the knowledge sharing and building synergies that helps to reduce any element of dissatisfaction with the organization or job among employees. Relationships with subordinates Usually, at workplace, it is easier to build a relationship with the peers; however, in many cases, it is difficult to build relationships between the bosses and the subordinates. (Hall, 1982) This results in the communication gap and the subordinates feel scared to share any problem that they face at work with their managers. Same was the case with Soft Tech few years back. Realizing this, the management introduced various events of social gatherings like football match, picnic etc. At these moments, even the bosses who used to look very strict were informal and this helped to reduce the fear and ultimately the communication gap between the employees and the bosses reduced. This initially increased the number of complaints regarding work environment or grievances but after some time, when these issues were solved, a friendly working environment came into being, which is considered as one of the most important reasons of the reduction in job satisfaction and employee turnover. Job Security Security is also one of the essentials to reduce the employee dissatisfaction. (White, 1982) At Soft Tech the employees are although initially given the job on the contract basis for three months. But once they show their abilities, there are made permanent. It may be argued that since they are given the job on the basis of contract, it may reduce their satisfaction initially. However, the rate of making the contract based employees permanent is above ninety percent. This very statistics is an encouraging factor for the contract based employees. To sum up, we can say that the various factors that create job dissatisfaction are very minimal. The situation was not same two years back, however, once various steps were taken, that were aimed to reduce the job-dissatisfaction, the very aim was also achieved. This fact is evident form decreasing employee turn-over and increasing productivity. MOTIVATION FACTORS: Achievement All the tasks at Soft Tech are project based, thus the deadlines are crucial. When an employee completes his task even a day earlier, it on the whole impacts the efficiency of the project. Thus, when an employee completes his due task earlier, it is considered his achievement and all similar achievements are the part of the key performance indicators (KPI) of the employees. Recognition The achievements of staff are recognized in two manners. One is on immediate basis; while the other is on annual basis. On immediate basis, the employees those employees who do some achievement, like completing some project in time or getting an external award on the project; the name of the concerned employee or team is written on a prominent board hung on the wall, called "Achiever's Corner" for one month. On the annual basis, various awards are given such as the 'team of the year', 'analyst of the year', 'developer of the year', 'emerging star' etc. Moreover, various monetary benefits are given. Those who have made extra ordinary achievements are sent on vacations to places like Hawaii etc. Responsibility When a person is empowered and given some responsibilities, he feels that the task assigned to him is significant and he is himself significant to the organization that is why the responsibility is given. This feeling increases the motivation. At Soft Tech the employees are given the tasks Advancement There are very perfect chances of advancement at Soft Tech. There is a defined ladder of advancement, which is based on the performance level, having objective performance indicators, and experience. This ladder is followed uptil the tactical level management. For strategic management, there are no fixed criteria, nor it is essential that every one who has certain level of experience and certain level of education and expertise, will be made the manager. This is due to the fact that there are very few tactical level management posts. However, because of the defined ladder system, at least till tactical level, the employees are motivated for the advancement. Growth Various opportunities are provided for the academic and professional growth; for example, study leaves, increment and promotion on acquiring advanced degree, weekly learning sessions by the experienced team leaders which are aimed to knowledge sharing etc. All these measure leads to make the employee think, if company care for me so much, I should also work in the best interest of Soft Tech. To sum up, the motivation factors such as incentives, chances of growth and recognition of achievements increases the employee's job satisfaction. The only missing parameter was the absence of promotion criteria at the strategic level, which may lead to de motivation among the senior most tactical level employees and this lack of satisfaction, may translate to the lower rungs of ladder. BIBLIOGRAPHY Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., & Osborn, R. (2002). University of Phoenix Organizational Behavior. New York: Wiley. Harris, O., & Hartman, S. (2002). Organizational Behavior. New York: Best Business Books. Tosi, H., Rizzo, J., & Mero, N. (2000). Managing Organizational Behavior. Oxford: Blackwell Business. Miner, J., (1988). Organizational Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies. Philip, K., & Duncan, P. (1982). Current Topics in Organizational Behavior Management. New York: Haworth Press. Luthans, F., (2006). Organizational Behavior. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Parks, S., & Simpson, R. (2007). Classic Readings in Organizational Behavior. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing. Szilagyi, A., & Wallace, M. (1983). Organizational Behavior and Performance. Glenview: Scott, Foresman. Ritchie, J., & Thompson, P. (2002). Organization and People: Readings, Cases, and Exercises in Organizational Behavior. Belmont: West Pub. Co. White, D., (1982). Contemporary Perspectives in Organizational Behavior. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Hall, D., (1982). Experiences in Management and Organizational Behavior. New York: Wiley. Read More