One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees

One More Time:
How Do You Motivate
Employees?

by Frederick Herzberg

Harvard Business Review

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ONE MORE TIME: HOW DO YOU MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES? 87507
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HBR CLASSIC

One More Time:
How Do You Motivate
Employees?

by Frederick Herzberg

How many articles, books, speeches, and work- plexity and difficulty involved in setting up and ad-
shops have pleaded plaintively, “How do I get an ministering an incentive system. Show the person?
employee to do what I want?” This means a costly training program. We need a
simple way.
The psychology of motivation is tremendously
complex, and what has been unraveled with any Every audience contains the “direct action” man-
degree of assurance is small indeed. But the dismal ager who shouts, “Kick the person!” And this type
ratio of knowledge to speculation has not damp- of manager is right. The surest and least circumlo-
ened the enthusiasm for new forms of snake oil that cuted way of getting someone to do something is to
are constantly coming on the market, many of administer a kick in the pants – to give what might
them with academic testimonials. Doubtless this be called the KITA.
article will have no depressing impact on the mar-
ket for snake oil, but since the ideas expressed in it There are various forms of KITA, and here are
have been tested in many corporations and other or- some of them:
ganizations, it will help – I hope – to redress the im-
balance in the aforementioned ratio. Negative physical KITA. This is a literal applica-
tion of the term and was frequently used in the
‘Motivating’ with KITA past. It has, however, three major drawbacks: (1) it
is inelegant; (2) it contradicts the precious image of
In lectures to industry on the problem, I have benevolence that most organizations cherish; and
found that the audiences are anxious for quick and (3) since it is a physical attack, it directly stimu-
practical answers, so I will begin with a straightfor- lates the autonomic nervous system, and this often
ward, practical formula for moving people.
To mark the 65th birthday of the Harvard Business Re-
What is the simplest, surest, and most direct way view, it’s appropriate to republish as a “Classic” one of
of getting someone to do something? Ask? But if its landmark articles. Frederick Herzberg’s contribution
the person responds that he or she does not want to has sold more than 1.2 million reprints since its publica-
do it, then that calls for psychological consultation tion in the January-February 1968 issue. By some
to determine the reason for such obstinacy. Tell the 300,000 copies over the runner-up, that is the largest sale
person? The response shows that he or she does not of any of the thousands of articles that have ever ap-
understand you, and now an expert in communica- peared between HBR’s covers. Frederick Herzberg, Dis-
tion methods has to be brought in to show you how tinguished Professor of Management at the University of
to get through. Give the person a monetary incen- Utah, was head of the department of psychology at Case
tive? I do not need to remind the reader of the com- Western Reserve University when he wrote this article.
His writings include the book Work and the Nature of
Man (World, 1966).

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987 Copyright © 1987 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES

results in negative feedback – the employee may Why is it that managerial audiences are quick to
just kick you in return. These factors give rise to see that negative KITA is not motivation, while
certain taboos against negative physical KITA. they are almost unanimous in their judgment that
positive KITA is motivation. It is because negative
In uncovering infinite sources of psychological KITA is rape, and positive KITA is seduction. But it
vulnerabilities and the appropriate methods to play is infinitely worse to be seduced than to be raped;
tunes on them, psychologists have come to the res- the latter is an unfortunate occurrence, while the
cue of those who are no longer permitted to use former signifies that you were a party to your own
negative physical KITA. “He took my rug away”; “I downfall. This is why positive KITA is so popular:
wonder what she meant by that”; “The boss is al- it is a tradition; it is the American way. The organi-
ways going around me” – these symptomatic ex- zation does not have to kick you; you kick yourself.
pressions of ego sores that have been rubbed raw are
the result of application of: Myths About Motivation

Negative psychological KITA. This has several Why is KITA not motivation? If I kick my dog
advantages over negative physical KITA. First, the (from the front or the back), he will move. And when
cruelty is not visible; the bleeding is internal and I want him to move again, what must I do? I must
comes much later. Second, since it affects the higher kick him again. Similarly, I can charge a person’s
cortical centers of the brain with its inhibitory pow- battery, and then recharge it, and recharge it again.
ers, it reduces the possibility of physical backlash. But it is only when one has a generator of one’s own
Third, since the number of psychological pains that that we can talk about motivation. One then needs
a person can feel is almost infinite, the direction and no outside stimulation. One wants to do it.
site possibilities of the KITA are increased many
times. Fourth, the person administering the kick With this in mind, we can review some positive
can manage to be above it all and let the system ac- KITA personnel practices that were developed as at-
complish the dirty work. Fifth, those who practice it tempts to instill “motivation”:
receive some ego satisfaction (one-upmanship),
whereas they would find drawing blood abhorrent. 1. Reducing time spent at work. This represents
Finally, if the employee does complain, he or she a marvelous way of motivating people to work –
can always be accused of being paranoid; there is no getting them off the job! We have reduced (formally
tangible evidence of an actual attack. and informally) the time spent on the job over the
last 50 or 60 years until we are finally on the way to
Now, what does negative KITA accomplish? If I the “61⁄2-day weekend.” An interesting variant of
kick you in the rear (physically or psychologically), this approach is the development of off-hour recre-
who is motivated? I am motivated; you move! Neg- ation programs. The philosophy here seems to be
ative KITA does not lead to motivation, but to that those who play together, work together. The
movement. So: fact is that motivated people seek more hours of
work, not fewer.
Positive KITA. Let us consider motivation. If I
say to you, “Do this for me or the company, and in 2. Spiraling wages. Have these motivated people?
return I will give you a reward, an incentive, more Yes, to seek the next wage increase. Some me-
status, a promotion, all the quid pro quos that exist dievalists still can be heard to say that a good de-
in the industrial organization,” am I motivating pression will get employees moving. They feel that
you? The overwhelming opinion I receive from if rising wages don’t or won’t do the job, reducing
management people is, “Yes, this is motivation.” them will.

I have a year-old Schnauzer. When it was a small 3. Fringe benefits. Industry has outdone the most
puppy and I wanted it to move, I kicked it in the welfare-minded of welfare states in dispensing
rear and it moved. Now that I have finished its obe- cradle-to-the-grave succor. One company I know of
dience training, I hold up a dog biscuit when I want had an informal “fringe benefit of the month club”
the Schnauzer to move. In this instance, who is mo- going for a while. The cost of fringe benefits in this
tivated – I or the dog? The dog wants the biscuit, country has reached approximately 25% of the
but it is I who want it to move. Again, I am the one wage dollar, and we still cry for motivation.
who is motivated, and the dog is the one who
moves. In this instance all I did was apply KITA People spend less time working for more money
frontally; I exerted a pull instead of a push. When and more security than ever before, and the trend
industry wishes to use such positive KITAs, it has cannot be reversed. These benefits are no longer re-
available an incredible number and variety of dog wards; they are rights. A 6-day week is inhuman, a
biscuits (jelly beans for humans) to wave in front of 10-hour day is exploitation, extended medical cov-
employees to get them to jump. erage is a basic decency, and stock options are the

6 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987

salvation of American initiative. Unless the ante 7. Two-way communication. Management or-
is continuously raised, the psychological reaction dered morale surveys, suggestion plans, and group
of employees is that the company is turning back participation programs. Then both employees and
the clock. management were communicating and listening to
each other more than ever, but without much im-
When industry began to realize that both the eco- provement in motivation.
nomic nerve and the lazy nerve of their employees
had insatiable appetites, it started to listen to the The behavioral scientists began to take another
behavioral scientists who, more out of a humanist look at their conceptions and their data, and they
tradition than from scientific study, criticized man- took human relations one step further. A glimmer of
agement for not knowing how to deal with people. truth was beginning to show through in the writings
The next KITA easily followed. of the so-called higher-order-need psychologists.
People, so they said, want to actualize themselves.
4. Human relations training. Over 30 years of Unfortunately, the “actualizing” psychologists got
teaching and, in many instances, of practicing psy- mixed up with the human relations psychologists,
chological approaches to handling people have re- and a new KITA emerged.
sulted in costly human relations programs and, in
the end, the same question: How do you motivate 8. Job participation. Though it may not have been
workers? Here, too, escalations have taken place. the theoretical intention, job participation often be-
Thirty years ago it was necessary to request, came a “give them the big picture” approach. For
“Please don’t spit on the floor.” Today the same ad- example, if a man is tightening 10,000 nuts a day on
monition requires three “pleases” before the em- an assembly line with a torque wrench, tell him he
ployee feels that a superior has demonstrated the is building a Chevrolet. Another approach had the
psychologically proper attitude. goal of giving employees a “feeling” that they are
determining, in some measure, what they do on the
The failure of human relations training to produce job. The goal was to provide a sense of achievement
motivation led to the conclusion that supervisors or rather than a substantive achievement in the task.
managers themselves were not psychologically true Real achievement, of course, requires a task that
to themselves in their practice of interpersonal de- makes it possible.
cency. So an advanced form of human relations
KITA, sensitivity training, was unfolded. But still there was no motivation. This led to the
inevitable conclusion that the employees must be
5. Sensitivity training. Do you really, really un- sick, and therefore to the next KITA.
derstand yourself? Do you really, really, really trust
other people? Do you really, really, really, really co- 9. Employee counseling. The initial use of this
operate? The failure of sensitivity training is now form of KITA in a systematic fashion can be credited
being explained, by those who have become oppor- to the Hawthorne experiment of the Western Elec-
tunistic exploiters of the technique, as a failure to tric Company during the early 1930s. At that time,
really (five times) conduct proper sensitivity train- it was found that the employees harbored irrational
ing courses. feelings that were interfering with the rational oper-
ation of the factory. Counseling in this instance was
With the realization that there are only temporary a means of letting the employees unburden them-
gains from comfort and economic and interpersonal selves by talking to someone about their problems.
KITA, personnel managers concluded that the fault Although the counseling techniques were primi-
lay not in what they were doing, but in the employ- tive, the program was large indeed.
ee’s failure to appreciate what they were doing. This
opened up the field of communications, a whole The counseling approach suffered as a result of
new area of “scientifically” sanctioned KITA. experiences during World War II, when the pro-
grams themselves were found to be interfering
6. Communications. The professor of communi- with the operation of the organizations; the coun-
cations was invited to join the faculty of manage- selors had forgotten their role of benevolent listen-
ment training programs and help in making em- ers and were attempting to do something about the
ployees understand what management was doing problems that they heard about. Psychological
for them. House organs, briefing sessions, supervi- counseling, however, has managed to survive the
sory instruction on the importance of communica- negative impact of World War II experiences and
tion, and all sorts of propaganda have proliferated today is beginning to flourish with renewed so-
until today there is even an International Council phistication. But, alas, many of these programs,
of Industrial Editors. But no motivation resulted, like all the others, do not seem to have lessened the
and the obvious thought occurred that perhaps pressure of demands to find out how to motivate
management was not hearing what the employees workers.
were saying. That led to the next KITA.

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987 7

Exhibit I Factors affecting job attitudes as Factors characterizing 1,753 events
reported in 12 investigations on the job that led
Percentage to extreme satisfaction
frequency Factors characterizing 1,844 events
on the job that led
to extreme dissatisfaction

50% 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50%

Achieve-
ment
Recognition

Work itself

Responsibility

Advancement

Growth

Company policy
and administration

Supervision

Relationship with supervisor

Work conditions

Salary

Relationship with peers All factors All factors
contributing to contributing to
job dissatisfaction job satisfaction

Personal life

69 Hygiene 19

Relationship with subordinates

31 Motivators 81

Status

Security 80% 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80%
Ratio and percent

Since KITA results only in short-term move- attitudes is required before theoretical and practical
ment, it is safe to predict that the cost of these pro- suggestions can be offered. The theory was first
grams will increase steadily and new varieties will drawn from an examination of events in the lives of
be developed as old positive KITAs reach their sati- engineers and accountants. At least 16 other inves-
ation points. tigations, using a wide variety of populations (in-
cluding some in the Communist countries), have
Hygiene vs. Motivators since been completed, making the original research
one of the most replicated studies in the field of job
Let me rephrase the perennial question this way: attitudes.
How do you install a generator in an employee? A
brief review of my motivation-hygiene theory of job The findings of these studies, along with corrobo-
ration from many other investigations using differ-

8 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES

ent procedures, suggest that the factors involved in They were asked what job events had occurred in
producing job satisfaction (and motivation) are sep- their work that had led to extreme satisfaction or ex-
arate and distinct from the factors that lead to job treme dissatisfaction on their part. Their responses
dissatisfaction. Since separate factors need to be are broken down in the exhibit into percentages of
considered, depending on whether job satisfaction total “positive” job events and of total “negative”
or job dissatisfaction is being examined, it follows job events. (The figures total more than 100% on
that these two feelings are not opposites of each both the “hygiene” and “motivators” sides because
other. The opposite of job satisfaction is not job dis- often at least two factors can be attributed to a sin-
satisfaction but, rather, no job satisfaction; and gle event; advancement, for instance, often accom-
similarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not panies assumption of responsibility.)
job satisfaction, but no job dissatisfaction.
To illustrate, a typical response involving achieve-
Stating the concept presents a problem in seman- ment that had a negative effect for the employee was,
tics, for we normally think of satisfaction and dis- “I was unhappy because I didn’t do the job success-
satisfaction as opposites – i.e., what is not satisfy- fully.” A typical response in the small number of
ing must be dissatisfying, and vice versa. But when positive job events in the company policy and ad-
it comes to understanding the behavior of people in ministration grouping was, “I was happy because the
their jobs, more than a play on words is involved. company reorganized the section so that I didn’t re-
port any longer to the guy I didn’t get along with.”
Two different needs of human beings are involved
here. One set of needs can be thought of as stemming As the lower right-hand part of the exhibit shows,
from humankind’s animal nature – the built-in drive of all the factors contributing to job satisfaction,
to avoid pain from the environment, plus all the 81% were motivators. And of all the factors con-
learned drives that become conditioned to the basic tributing to the employees’ dissatisfaction over
biological needs. For example, hunger, a basic biolog- their work, 69% involved hygiene elements.
ical drive, makes it necessary to earn money, and
then money becomes a specific drive. The other set Eternal triangle. There are three general philoso-
of needs relates to that unique human characteristic, phies of personnel management. The first is based
the ability to achieve and, through achievement, to on organizational theory, the second on industrial
experience psychological growth. The stimuli for the engineering, and the third on behavioral science.
growth needs are tasks that induce growth; in the in-
dustrial setting, they are the job content. Contrari- Organizational theorists believe that human
wise, the stimuli inducing pain-avoidance behavior needs are either so irrational or so varied and ad-
are found in the job environment. justable to specific situations that the major func-
tion of personnel management is to be as pragmatic
The growth or motivator factors that are intrin- as the occasion demands. If jobs are organized in a
sic to the job are: achievement, recognition for proper manner, they reason, the result will be the
achievement, the work itself, responsibility, and most efficient job structure, and the most favorable
growth or advancement. The dissatisfaction-avoid- job attitudes will follow as a matter of course.
ance or hygiene (KITA) factors that are extrinsic to
the job include: company policy and administra- Industrial engineers hold that humankind is
tion, supervision, interpersonal relationships, mechanistically oriented and economically moti-
working conditions, salary, status, and security. vated and that human needs are best met by attun-
ing the individual to the most efficient work pro-
A composite of the factors that are involved in cess. The goal of personnel management therefore
causing job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction, should be to concoct the most appropriate incen-
drawn from samples of 1,685 employees, is shown tive system and to design the specific working con-
in Exhibit I. The results indicate that motivators ditions in a way that facilitates the most efficient
were the primary cause of satisfaction, and hygiene use of the human machine. By structuring jobs in a
factors the primary cause of unhappiness on the job. manner that leads to the most efficient operation,
The employees, studied in 12 different investiga- engineers believe that they can obtain the optimal
tions, included lower level supervisors, profession- organization of work and the proper work attitudes.
al women, agricultural administrators, men about
to retire from management positions, hospital Behavioral scientists focus on group sentiments,
maintenance personnel, manufacturing supervi- attitudes of individual employees, and the organiza-
sors, nurses, food handlers, military officers, engi- tion’s social and psychological climate. This persua-
neers, scientists, housekeepers, teachers, techni- sion emphasizes one or more of the various
cians, female assemblers, accountants, Finnish hygiene and motivator needs. Its approach to person-
foremen, and Hungarian engineers. nel management is generally to emphasize some
form of human relations education, in the hope of in-
stilling healthy employee attitudes and an organiza-

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987 9

tional climate that is considered to be felicitous to Exhibit II ‘Triangle’ of philosophies of personnel
human values. The belief is that proper attitudes will management
lead to efficient job and organizational structure.
A
There is always a lively debate about the overall Industrial engineering
effectiveness of the approaches of organizational jobs
theorists and industrial engineers. Manifestly both
have achieved much. But the nagging question for B C
behavorial scientists has been: What is the cost in Organizational theory Behavioral science
human problems that eventually cause more ex- work flow attitudes
pense to the organization – for instance, turnover,
absenteeism, errors, violation of safety rules, Exhibit III Principles of vertical job loading
strikes, restriction of output, higher wages, and
greater fringe benefits? On the other hand, behav- Principle Motivators involved
ioral scientists are hard put to document much
manifest improvement in personnel management, A Removing some controls while Responsibility and personal
using their approach. A retaining accountability achievement
Responsibility and recognition
The three philosophies can be depicted as a trian- B Increasing the accountability
gle, as is done in Exhibit II, with each persuasion B of individuals for own work Responsibility, achievement, and
claiming the apex angle. The motivation-hygiene recognition
theory claims the same angle as industrial engi- C Giving a person a complete
neering, but for opposite goals. Rather than ration- C natural unit of work (module, Responsibility, achievement, and
alizing the work to increase efficiency, the theory C division, area, and so on) recognition
suggests that work be enriched to bring about effec-
tive utilization of personnel. Such a systematic at- D Granting additional authority to Internal recognition
tempt to motivate employees by manipulating the D employees in their activity; job
motivator factors is just beginning. D freedom Growth and learning

The term job enrichment describes this embry- E Making periodic reports Responsibility, growth, and
onic movement. An older term, job enlargement, E directly available to the advancement
should be avoided because it is associated with past E workers themselves rather
failures stemming from a misunderstanding of the E than to supervisors
problem. Job enrichment provides the opportunity
for the employee’s psychological growth, while job F Introducing new and more
enlargement merely makes a job structurally big- E difficult tasks not previously
ger. Since scientific job enrichment is very new, E handled
this article only suggests the principles and practi-
cal steps that have recently emerged from several G Assigning individuals specific
successful experiments in industry. G or specialized tasks, enabling
G them to become experts
Job loading. In attempting to enrich certain jobs,
management often reduces the personal contribu- Ⅺ Rotating the assignments of a number of jobs that
tion of employees rather than giving them opportu- need to be enriched. This means washing dishes for
nities for growth in their accustomed jobs. Such en- a while, then washing silverware. The arithmetic is
deavors, which I shall call horizontal job loading (as substituting one zero for another zero.
opposed to vertical loading, or providing motivator Ⅺ Removing the most difficult parts of the assign-
factors), have been the problem of earlier job en- ment in order to free the worker to accomplish more
largement programs. Job loading merely enlarges of the less challenging assignments. This traditional
the meaninglessness of the job. Some examples of industrial engineering approach amounts to sub-
this approach, and their effect, are: traction in the hope of accomplishing addition.
Ⅺ Challenging the employee by increasing the
amount of production expected. If each tightens These are common forms of horizontal loading
10,000 bolts a day, see if each can tighten 20,000 that frequently come up in preliminary brainstorm-
bolts a day. The arithmetic involved shows that ing sessions of job enrichment. The principles of
multiplying zero by zero still equals zero. vertical loading have not all been worked out as yet,
Ⅺ Adding another meaningless task to the existing and they remain rather general, but I have fur-
one, usually some routine clerical activity. The
arithmetic here is adding zero to zero.

10 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES

nished seven useful starting points for considera- Exhibit IV Shareholder service index in company
tion in Exhibit III. experiment
Three-month cumulative average
A successful application. An example from a
highly successful job enrichment experiment can il- Performance index
lustrate the distinction between horizontal and ver- 100
tical loading of a job. The subjects of this study were
the stockholder correspondents employed by a very Achieving
large corporation. Seemingly, the task required of 80
these carefully selected and highly trained corre-
spondents was quite complex and challenging. But 60
almost all indexes of performance and job attitudes Control
were low, and exit interviewing confirmed that the
challenge of the job existed merely as words. 40

A job enrichment project was initiated in the 20
form of an experiment with one group, designated
as an achieving unit, having its job enriched by the 0
principles described in Exhibit III. A control group Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept
continued to do its job in the traditional way.
(There were also two “uncommitted” groups of cor- Six-month study period
respondents formed to measure the so-called
Hawthorne Effect – that is, to gauge whether pro- certainty after their newly granted responsibilities.
ductivity and attitudes toward the job changed arti- In the third month, however, performance im-
ficially merely because employees sensed that the proved, and soon the members of this group had
company was paying more attention to them in reached a high level of accomplishment.
doing something different or novel. The results for
these groups were substantially the same as for the Exhibit V shows the two groups’ attitudes toward
control group, and for the sake of simplicity I do not their job, measured at the end of March, just before
deal with them in this summary.) No changes in the first motivator was introduced, and again at the
hygiene were introduced for either group other than end of September. The correspondents were asked
those that would have been made anyway, such as 16 questions, all involving motivation. A typical
normal pay increases. one was, “As you see it, how many opportunities do
you feel that you have in your job for making
The changes for the achieving unit were intro- worthwhile contributions?” The answers were
duced in the first two months, averaging one per scaled from 1 to 5, with 80 as the maximum possi-
week of the seven motivators listed in Exhibit III. ble score. The achievers became much more posi-
At the end of six months the members of the tive about their job, while the attitude of the con-
achieving unit were found to be outperforming trol unit remained about the same (the drop is not
their counterparts in the control group, and in addi- statistically significant).
tion indicated a marked increase in their liking for
their jobs. Other results showed that the achieving How was the job of these correspondents restruc-
group had lower absenteeism and, subsequently, a tured? Exhibit VI lists the suggestions made that
much higher rate of promotion. were deemed to be horizontal loading, and the actu-
al vertical loading changes that were incorporated
Exhibit IV illustrates the changes in performance, in the job of the achieving unit. The capital letters
measured in February and March, before the study under “Principle” after “Vertical loading” refer to
period began, and at the end of each month of the
study period. The shareholder service index repre-
sents quality of letters, including accuracy of infor-
mation, and speed of response to stockholders’ let-
ters of inquiry. The index of a current month was
averaged into the average of the two prior months,
which means that improvement was harder to ob-
tain if the indexes of the previous months were low.
The “achievers” were performing less well before
the six-month period started, and their performance
service index continued to decline after the intro-
duction of the motivators, evidently because of un-

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987 11

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES

Exhibit V Changes in attitudes toward tasks in vator words have never left industry; the substance
company experiment has just been rationalized and organized out. Words
Changes in mean scores over six-month like “responsibility,” “growth,” “achievement,”
period and “challenge,” for example, have been elevated to
the lyrics of the patriotic anthem for all organiza-
Job reaction mean score tions. It is the old problem typified by the pledge of
60 allegiance to the flag being more important than
contributions to the country – of following the
55 form, rather than the substance.
Achieving
6. Screen the list to eliminate any horizontal
50 loading suggestions.

45 7. Avoid direct participation by the employees
whose jobs are to be enriched. Ideas they have ex-
40 pressed previously certainly constitute a valuable
Control source for recommended changes, but their direct
involvement contaminates the process with hu-
35 man relations hygiene and, more specifically, gives
them only a sense of making a contribution. The
March September job is to be changed, and it is the content that will
produce the motivation, not attitudes about being
Time between surveys involved or the challenge inherent in setting up a
job. That process will be over shortly, and it is what
the corresponding letters in Exhibit III. The reader the employees will be doing from then on that will
will note that the rejected forms of horizontal load- determine their motivation. A sense of participa-
ing correspond closely to the list of common mani- tion will result only in short-term movement.
festations I mentioned earlier.
8. In the initial attempts at job enrichment, set
Steps for Job Enrichment up a controlled experiment. At least two equivalent
groups should be chosen, one an experimental unit
Now that the motivator idea has been described in in which the motivators are systematically intro-
practice, here are the steps that managers should take duced over a period of time, and the other one a con-
in instituting the principle with their employees: trol group in which no changes are made. For both
groups, hygiene should be allowed to follow its nat-
1. Select those jobs in which (a) the investment in ural course for the duration of the experiment. Pre-
industrial engineering does not make changes too and post-installation tests of performance and job
costly, (b) attitudes are poor, (c) hygiene is becom- attitudes are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness
ing very costly, and (d) motivation will make a dif- of the job enrichment program. The attitude test
ference in performance. must be limited to motivator items in order to di-
vorce employees’ views of the jobs they are given
2. Approach these jobs with the conviction that from all the surrounding hygiene feelings that they
they can be changed. Years of tradition have led might have.
managers to believe that the content of the jobs is
sacrosanct and the only scope of action that they 9. Be prepared for a drop in performance in the ex-
have is in ways of stimulating people. perimental group the first few weeks. The change-
over to a new job may lead to a temporary reduction
3. Brainstorm a list of changes that may enrich in efficiency.
the jobs, without concern for their practicality.
10. Expect your first-line supervisors to experi-
4. Screen the list to eliminate suggestions that in- ence some anxiety and hostility over the changes
volve hygiene, rather than actual motivation. you are making. The anxiety comes from their fear
that the changes will result in poorer performance
5. Screen the list for generalities, such as “give for their unit. Hostility will arise when the employ-
them more responsibility,” that are rarely followed ees start assuming what the supervisors regard as
in practice. This might seem obvious, but the moti- their own responsibility for performance. The su-
pervisor without checking duties to perform may
then be left with little to do.

After successful experiment, however, the super-
visors usually discover the supervisory and man-

12 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987

Exhibit VI Enlargement vs. enrichment of correspondents’
tasks in company experiment

Horizontal loading suggestions Vertical loading suggestions Principle
rejected adopted
G
Firm quotas could be set for letters to be answered Subject matter experts were appointed within each unit B
each day, using a rate which would be hard to reach. for other members of the unit to consult with before A
seeking supervisory help. (The supervisor had been an-
The secretaries could type the letters themselves, as swering all specialized and difficult questions.) D
well as compose them, or take on any other clerical
functions. Correspondents signed their own names on letters. A
(The supervisor had been signing all letters.) C
All difficult or complex inquiries could be channeled to B, E
a few secretaries so that the remainder could achieve The work of the more experienced correspondents was
high rates of output. These jobs could be exchanged proofread less frequently by supervisors and was done
from time to time. at correspondents’ desks, dropping verification from
100% to 10%. (Previously, all correspondents’ letters
The secretaries could be rotated through units handling had been checked by the supervisor.)
different customers, and then sent back to their own
units. Production was discussed, but only in terms such as
“a full day’s work is expected.” As time went on, this
was no longer mentioned. (Before, the group had been
constantly reminded of the number of letters that need-
ed to be answered.)

Outgoing mail went directly to the mailroom without go-
ing over supervisors’ desks. (The letters had always
been routed through the supervisors.)

Correspondents were encouraged to answer letters in a
more personalized way. (Reliance on the form-letter ap-
proach had been standard practice.)

Each correspondents was held personally responsible for
the quality and accuracy of letters. (This responsibility
had been the province of the supervisor and the
verifier.)

agerial functions they have neglected, or which Ⅺ Those who have still more ability eventually will
were never theirs because all their time was given be able to demonstrate it better and win promotion
over to checking the work of their subordinates. For to higher level jobs.
example, in the R&D division of one large chemical Ⅺ The very nature of motivators, as opposed to hy-
company I know of, the supervisors of the laborato- giene factors, is that they have a much longer term
ry assistants were theoretically responsible for effect on employees’ attitudes. Perhaps the job will
their training and evaluation. These functions, have to be enriched again, but this will not occur as
however, had come to be performed in a routine, frequently as the need for hygiene.
unsubstantial fashion. After the job enrichment
program, during which the supervisors were not Not all jobs can be enriched, nor do all jobs need
merely passive observers of the assistants’ perfor- to be enriched. If only a small percentage of the
mance, the supervisors actually were devoting their time and money that is now devoted to hygiene,
time to reviewing performance and administering however, were given to job enrichment efforts, the
thorough training. return in human satisfaction and economic gain
would be one of the largest dividends that industry
What has been called an employee-centered style and society have ever reaped through their efforts at
of supervision will come about not through educa- better personnel management.
tion of supervisors, but by changing the jobs that
they do. The argument for job enrichment can be summed
up quite simply: if you have employees on a job, use
Concluding Note them. If you can’t use them on the job, get rid of
them, either via automation or by selecting some-
Job enrichment will not be a one-time proposi- one with lesser ability. If you can’t use them and
tion, but a continuous management function. The you can’t get rid of them, you will have a motiva-
initial changes should last for a very long period of tion problem.
time. There are a number of reasons for this: Reprint 87507
Ⅺ The changes should bring the job up to the level
of challenge commensurate with the skill that [See Retrospective Commentary on following page.]
was hired.

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987 13

Retrospective Commentary

I wrote this article at the height of getting intrinsic rewards out of in- ward in motivation is personal
the attention on improving employ- teresting and challenging work. growth, people don’t need to be re-
ee performance through various warded incrementally. I write a
(contrived) psychological approach- While the immediate behavioral book – a big accomplishment. Then
es to human relations. I tried to re- results from movement and motiva- I write an article – a lesser accom-
dress industrial social scientists’ tion appear alike, their dynamics, plishment, but nevertheless an addi-
overconcern about how to treat which produce vastly different long- tion to my personal growth.
workers to the neglect of how to de- term consequences, are different.
sign the work itself. Movement requires constant rein- For this article, I invented the
forcement and stresses short-term acronym KITA (kick in the ass) to de-
The first part of the article distin- results. To get a reaction, manage- scribe the movement technique. The
guishes between motivation and ment must constantly enhance the inelegance of the term offended
movement, a distinction that most extrinsic rewards for movement. If I those who consider good treatment a
writing on motivation misses. get a bonus of $1,000 one year and motivating strategy, regardless of the
Movement is a function of fear of $500 the next, I am getting extra re- nature of the work itself. In this plain
punishment or failure to get extrin- wards both years, but psychological- language I tried to spotlight the ani-
sic rewards. It is the typical proce- ly I have taken a $500 salary cut. mal approach to dealing with human
dure used in animal training and its beings that characterizes so much of
counterpart, behavioral modifica- Motivation is based on growth our behavioral science intervention.
tion techniques for humans. Motiva- needs. It is an internal engine, and
tion is a function of growth from its benefits show up over a long peri- The article’s popularity stems in
od of time. Because the ultimate re- great part from readers’ recognition

Figure A How the hygiene-motivator factors affect
job attitudes in six countries
All factors contributing to
All factors contributing to job satisfaction
job dissatisfaction

Percentage 100% 80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100%
61 39 8 92

Japan 66
86
India 70 30 34 85
South Africa 72 28
Zambia 86 20 62
Italy 31 67
Israel 69 40 15
60 12

38

33

Hygiene Motivators

that KITA underlies the assumed Figure B Sensory ingredients of job enrichment
benevolence of personnel practices.
If I were writing “One More Time” Direct Control
in 1987, I would emphasize the im- feedback over
portant, positive role of organiza- resources
tional behaviorists more than I did
in 1968. We can certainly learn to New learning
get along better on the job. Reduced
workplace tension through conge- Feeling Client Feeling
nial relations is a necessary ingredi-
ent of a pleasant environment. Direct Product Self-
communi- Unique expertise scheduling
The second part of the article de- cations
scribes my motivation-hygiene theo- authority
ry. It suggests that environmental
factors (hygienes) can at best create Personal
no dissatisfaction on the job, and accountability
their absence creates dissatisfaction.
In contrast, what makes people hap-
py on the job and motivates them are
the job content factors (motivators).
The controversy surrounding these
concepts continues to this day.

While the original 12 studies were
mostly American (they also included
Finnish supervisors and Hungarian
engineers), the results have been

Figure C Client relationships in an Air Force function

Engineers Manager
Supervisor
Material Sheet Test
inventory metal Avionics pilot
clerk mechanic mechanic

Damage Scheduler Line
evaluator mechanic
Support shop
personnel

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES

Retrospective Commentary (continued)

replicated throughout the world. A hires). The motivator factor “respon- U.S. companies during the 1980s
sampling of recent foreign investiga- sibility” translates into a number of have often serendipitously produced
tions, which the reader can compare ingredients: self-scheduling, author- job enrichment. With fewer employ-
with the first American studies de- ity to communicate, control of re- ees performing the same tasks, some
tailed in Exhibit I in “One More sources, and accountability. Finally, job enrichment was inevitable. But
Time,” appears in Figure A. The sim- the motivator factors “advance- the greater efficiency of enriched
ilarity of the profiles is worth noting. ment” and “growth” translate into jobs ultimately leads to a competi-
the central dynamic of new learning tive edge and more jobs.
The 1970s was the decade of job leading to unique expertise. The
enrichment (discussed in the third feeling of satisfaction is also indicat- Today, we seem to be losing
part of the article), sometimes called ed as a dynamic of learning from ground to KITA. It’s all the bottom
job design or redesign by opponents clients and products. line, as the expression goes. The
of the motivation-hygiene theory. work ethic and quality of worklife
Since the first trial-and-error studies The key to job enrichment is nur- movement have succumbed to the
at AT&T, experience has produced ture of a client relationship rather pragmatics of worldwide competi-
refinements of the procedures for job than a functional or hierarchical re- tion and the escalation of manage-
enrichment and the goals for achiev- lationship. Let me illustrate with a ment direction by the abstract fields
ing it. I like to illustrate them in the diagram of relationships in an air- of finance and marketing – as op-
wheel shown in Figure B. plane overhaul project carried out posed to production and sales, where
for the U.S. Air Force (Figure C). The palpable knowledge of clients and
This diagram reflects my convic- avionics mechanic’s external client products resides. These abstract
tion that the present-day abstraction is the test pilot, and although he re- fields are more conducive to move-
of work has shut out feelings from the ports to his supervisor, his supervi- ment than to motivation. I find the
job content. Finance, for example, sor serves him. The sheet metal me- new entrants in the world of work
has become the focus of attention in chanic and the line mechanic serve on the whole a passionless lot intent
most businesses, and nothing is more the avionics mechanic. And so on on serving financial indexes rather
abstract and devoid of feeling. Part of back into the system. than clients and products. Motiva-
the blame can be laid to electronic tion encompasses passion; move-
communication, which promotes de- By backing into the system, you ment is sterile.
tachment and abstraction. Job enrich- can identify who serves whom – not
ment grows out of knowing your who reports to whom – which is crit- To return to “One More Time”: I
product and your client with feeling, ical in trying to enrich jobs. You don’t think I would write it much
not just intellectually. identify the external client, then the differently today, though I would in-
core jobs, or internal client jobs, serv- clude the knowledge gained from
With reference to the motivator ing that client. You first enrich the recent job enrichment experiments.
ingredients discussed in the 1968 core jobs with the ingredients shown The distinction between movement
article, “recognition for achieve- in Figure B and then enrich the core and motivation is still true, and mo-
ment” translates into “direct feed- jobs that serve these internal clients. tivation-hygiene theory is still a
back” in Figure B. The wheel in Fig- framework with which to evaluate
ure B shows this feedback to come During the 1970s, critics predicted actions. Job enrichment remains the
chiefly from the client and product that job enrichment would reduce key to designing work that moti-
of the work itself, not from the su- the number of employees. Ironically, vates employees.
pervisor (except in the case of new the restructuring and downsizing of

16 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1987