FREDERICK HERZBERG

BORN

April 18th ,1923, Lynn, MA

LIVED IN Salt Lake City, Utah

COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH– PHD PSYCHOLOGY

UNIVERSITY
ATTENDED

LOCATION OF PROFESSOR AT CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY IN CLEVELAND

COMPLETED
RESEARCH

ORGANIZATIONS Interviewed two hundred American engineers and accountants from nine
WORKED IN TO companies in the Pittsburgh area.
DEVELOP THEORY

PEOPLE OF Abraham Maslow, Douglas Mcgregor, Chris Argyris

INFLUENCE

MAJOR THEORY(S) Motivation – Hygiene Theory or Two-factor theory

MAJOR He suggested that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are produced by
CONTRIBUTION different work factors.
 SUMMARY OF McGregor contended that managerial decisions and actions to motivating
THEORY employees are based on a set of assumptions about human nature and
human behavior. Grounded in this hypothesis, McGregor develop Theory X
and Theory Y as a means to describe the impact and implications such
assumptions would have on the work environment, production, and the
ability to effectively motivate a workforce. He asked the question, “What is
your assumptions about the most effective way to manage people?”
Theory X
Assumptions:
1. The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will
avoid it if he can.
a. Deeply rooted in the punishment of Adam and Eve thus
management must work to counteract the human tendency to avoid work.

2. Because of his human characteristic of dislike of work, most

people must be coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with
punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the
achievement of organizational objectives.
a. Offering rewards will not overcome the human character to
motivate employees to work so that punishment is the primary means for
motivation.

3. The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid

responsibility, has relatively little ambition, wants security above all.
a. McGregor argues that, although managers may publicly
acknowledge the value of employees, privately they maintain that
employees will not self-direct unless driven to do so.
Themes of Theory X:
- Theory X assumptions are limiting and prevent seeing the
potential of what could be accomplished.
- Theory X assumptions mechanizes managerial approaches to
managing human behavior and that any new managerial approaches that
are based on Theory X will always lead to the same dynamic and outcome
results (Note: here he address his concerns of engineering management –
which he would later became frustrated that his own theory would be used
as another “new”, cookie cutter strategy and not the bases for further
innovated thinking).
- Theory X also holds that direction and control is through the
exercise of authority.
Theory Y
Assumptions:
1. The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural
as play or rest.
a. McGregor suggests that the dislike of work is not inherent and

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 employees might find work to create either satisfaction or punishment.

2. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only
means for bringing about effort toward organizational objectives.
a. Employees will self-direct and demonstrate self-control to make
contributions toward objectives that he is committed to.

3. Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated

with their achievement.
a. Rewards that satisfy the most pressing needs of the employee can
be a result of achieving organizational efforts, e.g., ego and self-
actualization

4. The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not

only to accept but to seek responsibility.
a. Avoidance of work and responsibility is a byproduct of work
experiences not inherent characteristics.

5. The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination,

ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is
widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

6. Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual

potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.

Themes of Theory Y:
- Theory Y holds that limits of human collaboration is not based on
human nature but management’s ingenuity in discovering how to realize
the potential represented by human resources – placing the responsibility
on management.
- Theory Y supports the Principle of Integration: the creation of
conditions such that the members of the organization can achieve their
own goals best by directing their efforts toward the success of the
enterprise. The organization will be more effective in achieving its
economic objectives if adjustments are made, in significant ways, to the
needs and goals of its members.
- Theory Y opens up a range of possibilities for new managerial
policies and practices. Accepting the assumptions of Theory Y promotes
innovation and to discover new ways of organizing and directing human
effort. (Note: McGregor is inviting the development of different and
innovative managerial approaches to motive employees, Not that Theory Y
is the answer).
- Theory Y is not the opposite of Theory X but instead an entirely
different approach.

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 Fundamental beliefs:
- Human needs are based on a hierarchy (the most basic human
needs will predominate human drive until it is met. Once met, they will
move on to satisfy the next level of human need). As such, a satisfied need
is no longer a motivator for employees’ behavior. (Note: this is important
when determining the best incentive to motivate employees to meet the
organizational demands. Factory workers may be better motivated by an
increase in pay; whereas, a medical doctor may be better motivated by self-
esteem and professional recognition. In those situations, an increase in pay
but a lack of autonomy to pursue professional status may demotivate the
medical doctor. This is, McGregor argued, only a reflection of the lack of
opportunity to fulfill this need and not based on an inherent character to
underperform).

- McGregor does not argue that punishment should never be

utilized to motivate employees but it is not the most optimal approach to
use. Instead, McGregor suggested that, because management had satisfied
the lower, more basic needs of physiological and safety (by increasing pay
and benefits) management has inadvertently diminished their ability to
use rewards, incentives, or punishment as a motivator. If there are no
opportunities to seek out the next level of need, employees will be
inappropriately motivated and demotivated to achieve the organizational
goals. (Note: this may somewhat explain why the different generations are
motivated differently. Having more of their physical and security needs met
early in life, they may be more apt to seek out employment and become
motivated to achieve the organization’s goals if the motivation is more
directed to social belonging or esteem). “We can improve our ability to
control only if we recognize that control consists in selective adaption to
human nature rather than in attempting to make human nature confirm to
our wishes.”
Control vs. Influence:
- Assumptions of pervious conventional organizational and
managerial theory were based on the belief that authority is central,
indispensable means of managerial control.
- Authority is one of several forms of social influence or control
(physical coercion, persuasion, and professional help – dependent by
means of the authority of knowledge).
- The success of any form of social influence or control ultimately
depends upon altering the ability of others to achieve their goals or satisfy
their needs.
- Influence can only occur when there is some degree of
dependence of the one party on the other. If there is no dependence there
is no opportunity to control.
Limitations of authority:
- The social and political environment of unionization and
unemployment benefits decreased dependence of employees on

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 management.
- Increase in countermeasures, e.g., sabotage organizational
objectives, restrict output, low standard of performance, etc.
- Relationships between management and employees in modern
industrial organizations requires a high degree of interdependence.
- Dependent relationships are sensitive ones. (Note: dependent
relationships are emotionally charged and may lead to rebelliousness).
- Authority is an inappropriate method of control if management’s
purpose is to influence behavior toward the achievement of organizational
objectives.
- When influencing others is not impacted by the more or less
authority then other means of influence must be sought out. (Note: “When
power and authority are believed to coextensive the losing authority is
seen as losing the power to control, which is a misleading assumption”).
McGregor challenged older paradigms of organizational management
- The conventional principles were derived primarily from the study of
models (military and church) which differ in important respects from
modern industrial organizations. (Note: McGregor argues there are no
universal principles common to all forms of organization).
- Classical organization theory suffers from “ethnocentrism”: It ignores the
significance of the political, social, and economic milieu in shaping
organizations and influencing managerial practice. (Note: classical theory
is views organizations from their own perspective believing they are the
correct or superior perspective).
- Underlying the principles of classical organization theory are a number of
assumptions about human behavior which are at best only partially true.
(Note: McGregor believed that theories on human behavior, i.e., Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs, had advanced providing more insight that previous
theories that organization theory build assumptions on).

REFERENCES

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