One More Time:How Do You Motivate Employees?

One More Time: How Do You
Motivate Employees?

by Frederick Herzberg

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One More Time: How Do You
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1968

One More Time:

How Do You
Motivate Employees?

by Frederick Herzberg

When Frederick Herzberg researched the sources of employee motivation during
the 1950s and 1960s, he discovered a dichotomy that stills intrigues (and baffles)
managers: The things that make people satisfied and motivated on the job are dif-
ferent in kind from the things that make them dissatisfied.

Ask workers what makes them unhappy at work, and you’ll hear about an annoy-
ing boss, a low salary, an uncomfortable work space, or stupid rules. Managed
badly, environmental factors make people miserable, and they can certainly be de-
motivating. But even if managed brilliantly, they don’t motivate anybody to work
much harder or smarter. People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, chal-
lenge, and increasing responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-
seated need for growth and achievement.

Herzberg’s work influenced a generation of scholars and managers – but his
conclusions don’t seem to have fully penetrated the American workplace, if the
extraordinary attention still paid to compensation and incentive packages is
any indication.

Forget praise. How many articles, books, speeches, pact on the market for snake oil, but
Forget punishment. and workshops have pleaded plain- since the ideas expressed in it have been
Forget cash. tively, “How do I get an employee to tested in many corporations and other
You need to make do what I want?” organizations, it will help – I hope – to
their jobs more redress the imbalance in the afore-
interesting. The psychology of motivation is tre- mentioned ratio.
mendously complex, and what has been
unraveled with any degree of assurance “Motivating” with KITA
is small indeed. But the dismal ratio
of knowledge to speculation has not In lectures to industry on the problem,
dampened the enthusiasm for new I have found that the audiences are
forms of snake oil that are constantly usually anxious for quick and practical
coming on the market, many of them answers, so I will begin with a straight-
with academic testimonials. Doubtless forward, practical formula for moving
this article will have no depressing im- people.

Copyright © 2002 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 3

BEST OF HBR

What is the simplest, surest, and most psychologists have come to the rescue of I have a year-old schnauzer. When it
direct way of getting someone to do those who are no longer permitted to was a small puppy and I wanted it to
something? Ask? But if the person re- use negative physical KITA.“He took my move, I kicked it in the rear and it
sponds that he or she does not want rug away”;“I wonder what she meant by moved. Now that I have finished its obe-
to do it, then that calls for psychologi- that”; “The boss is always going around dience training, I hold up a dog biscuit
cal consultation to determine the rea- me”– these symptomatic expressions of when I want the schnauzer to move. In
son for such obstinacy. Tell the person? ego sores that have been rubbed raw are this instance, who is motivated–I or the
The response shows that he or she does the result of application of: dog? The dog wants the biscuit, but it is
not understand you, and now an expert I who want it to move. Again, I am the
in communication methods has to be Negative Psychological KITA. This one who is motivated, and the dog is
brought in to show you how to get has several advantages over negative the one who moves. In this instance all
through. Give the person a monetary physical KITA. First, the cruelty is not I did was apply KITA frontally; I exerted
incentive? I do not need to remind the visible; the bleeding is internal and a pull instead of a push. When industry
reader of the complexity and difficulty comes much later. Second, since it af- wishes to use such positive KITAs, it has
involved in setting up and adminis- fects the higher cortical centers of the
tering an incentive system. Show the
person? This means a costly training Have spiraling wages motivated people?
program. We need a simple way. Yes, to seek the next wage increase.

Every audience contains the “direct brain with its inhibitory powers, it re- available an incredible number and va-
action” manager who shouts, “Kick the duces the possibility of physical back- riety of dog biscuits (jelly beans for hu-
person!” And this type of manager is lash. Third, since the number of psy- mans) to wave in front of employees to
right. The surest and least circumlo- chological pains that a person can feel get them to jump.
cuted way of getting someone to do is almost infinite, the direction and site
something is to administer a kick in the possibilities of the KITA are increased Myths About Motivation
pants – to give what might be called many times. Fourth, the person admin-
the KITA. istering the kick can manage to be Why is KITA not motivation? If I kick
above it all and let the system accom- my dog (from the front or the back), he
There are various forms of KITA, and plish the dirty work. Fifth, those who will move. And when I want him to
here are some of them: practice it receive some ego satisfaction move again, what must I do? I must kick
(one-upmanship), whereas they would him again. Similarly, I can charge a per-
Negative Physical KITA. This is a lit- find drawing blood abhorrent. Finally, son’s battery, and then recharge it, and
eral application of the term and was if the employee does complain, he or recharge it again. But it is only when
frequently used in the past. It has, how- she can always be accused of being para- one has a generator of one’s own that
ever, three major drawbacks: 1) It is in- noid; there is no tangible evidence of an we can talk about motivation. One then
elegant; 2) it contradicts the precious actual attack. needs no outside stimulation. One wants
image of benevolence that most orga- to do it.
nizations cherish; and 3) since it is a Now, what does negative KITA ac-
physical attack, it directly stimulates the complish? If I kick you in the rear (phys- With this in mind, we can review
autonomic nervous system, and this ically or psychologically), who is mo- some positive KITA personnel practices
often results in negative feedback – the tivated? I am motivated; you move! that were developed as attempts to in-
employee may just kick you in return. Negative KITA does not lead to moti- still “motivation”:
These factors give rise to certain taboos vation, but to movement. So:
against negative physical KITA. 1. Reducing Time Spent at Work.
Positive KITA. Let us consider moti- This represents a marvelous way of mo-
In uncovering infinite sources of psy- vation. If I say to you,“Do this for me or tivating people to work – getting them
chological vulnerabilities and the appro- the company, and in return I will give off the job! We have reduced (formally
priate methods to play tunes on them, you a reward, an incentive, more status, and informally) the time spent on the
a promotion, all the quid pro quos that job over the last 50 or 60 years until we
Frederick Herzberg, Distinguished Pro- exist in the industrial organization,” am are finally on the way to the “61⁄2-day
fessor of Management at the University I motivating you? The overwhelming weekend.” An interesting variant of this
of Utah in Salt Lake City, was head of the opinion I receive from management approach is the development of off-hour
department of psychology at Case West- people is,“Yes, this is motivation.” recreation programs. The philosophy
ern Reserve University in Cleveland when here seems to be that those who play
he wrote this article. His writings include
the book Work and the Nature of Man
(World, 1966).

4 harvard business review

One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?

together, work together. The fact is that feels that a superior has demonstrated The behavioral scientists began to
motivated people seek more hours of the psychologically proper attitude. take another look at their conceptions
work, not fewer. and their data, and they took human re-
The failure of human relations train- lations one step further. A glimmer of
2. Spiraling Wages. Have these moti- ing to produce motivation led to the truth was beginning to show through
vated people? Yes, to seek the next wage conclusion that supervisors or managers in the writings of the so-called higher-
increase. Some medievalists still can be themselves were not psychologically order-need psychologists. People, so
heard to say that a good depression will true to themselves in their practice of they said, want to actualize themselves.
get employees moving. They feel that if interpersonal decency. So an advanced Unfortunately, the “actualizing” psy-
rising wages don’t or won’t do the job, form of human relations KITA, sensitiv- chologists got mixed up with the human
reducing them will. ity training, was unfolded. relations psychologists, and a new KITA
emerged.
3. Fringe Benefits. Industry has out- 5. Sensitivity Training. Do you really,
done the most welfare-minded of wel- really understand yourself? Do you 8. Job Participation. Though it may
fare states in dispensing cradle-to-the- really, really, really trust other people? not have been the theoretical intention,
grave succor. One company I know of Do you really, really, really, really coop- job participation often became a “give
had an informal “fringe benefit of the erate? The failure of sensitivity training them the big picture” approach. For ex-
month club” going for a while. The cost is now being explained, by those who ample, if a man is tightening 10,000 nuts
of fringe benefits in this country has have become opportunistic exploiters a day on an assembly line with a torque
reached approximately 25% of the wage of the technique, as a failure to really wrench, tell him he is building a Chevro-
dollar, and we still cry for motivation. (five times) conduct proper sensitivity let. Another approach had the goal of
training courses. giving employees a “feeling” that they
People spend less time working for are determining, in some measure, what
more money and more security than With the realization that there are they do on the job. The goal was to pro-
ever before, and the trend cannot be only temporary gains from comfort and vide a sense of achievement rather than
reversed. These benefits are no longer economic and interpersonal KITA, per- a substantive achievement in the task.
rewards; they are rights. A 6-day week sonnel managers concluded that the Real achievement, of course, requires
is inhuman, a 10-hour day is exploita- fault lay not in what they were doing, a task that makes it possible.
tion, extended medical coverage is a but in the employee’s failure to appre-
basic decency, and stock options are ciate what they were doing. This opened But still there was no motivation. This
the salvation of American initiative. up the field of communications, a new led to the inevitable conclusion that the
Unless the ante is continuously raised, area of“scientifically”sanctioned KITA. employees must be sick, and therefore
the psychological reaction of employ- to the next KITA.
ees is that the company is turning back 6. Communications. The professor of
the clock. communications was invited to join the 9. Employee Counseling. The initial
faculty of management training pro- use of this form of KITA in a systematic
When industry began to realize that grams and help in making employees fashion can be credited to the Haw-
both the economic nerve and the lazy understand what management was do- thorne experiment of the Western Elec-
nerve of their employees had insatiable ing for them. House organs, briefing ses- tric Company during the early 1930s. At
appetites, it started to listen to the be- sions, supervisory instruction on the that time, it was found that the em-
havioral scientists who, more out of a importance of communication, and all ployees harbored irrational feelings that
humanist tradition than from scientific sorts of propaganda have proliferated were interfering with the rational oper-
study, criticized management for not until today there is even an Interna- ation of the factory. Counseling in this
knowing how to deal with people. The tional Council of Industrial Editors. But instance was a means of letting the em-
next KITA easily followed. no motivation resulted, and the obvious ployees unburden themselves by talk-
thought occurred that perhaps man- ing to someone about their problems.
4. Human Relations Training. More agement was not hearing what the em- Although the counseling techniques
than 30 years of teaching and, in many ployees were saying. That led to the were primitive, the program was large
instances, of practicing psychological next KITA. indeed.
approaches to handling people have
resulted in costly human relations pro- 7. Two-Way Communication. Man- The counseling approach suffered as
grams and, in the end, the same ques- agement ordered morale surveys, sug- a result of experiences during World
tion: How do you motivate workers? gestion plans, and group participation War II, when the programs themselves
Here, too, escalations have taken place. programs. Then both management and were found to be interfering with the op-
Thirty years ago it was necessary to re- employees were communicating and lis- eration of the organizations; the coun-
quest, “Please don’t spit on the floor.” tening to each other more than ever, selors had forgotten their role of be-
Today the same admonition requires but without much improvement in mo- nevolent listeners and were attempting
three “pleases” before the employee tivation.

MOTIVATING PEOPLE january 2003 5

BEST OF HBR

to do something about the problems cost of these programs will increase theory was first drawn from an exami-
that they heard about. Psychological steadily and new varieties will be devel- nation of events in the lives of engineers
counseling, however, has managed to oped as old positive KITAs reach their and accountants. At least 16 other in-
survive the negative impact of World satiation points. vestigations, using a wide variety of pop-
War II experiences and today is begin- ulations (including some in the Com-
ning to flourish with renewed sophisti- Hygiene vs. Motivators munist countries), have since been
cation. But, alas, many of these pro- completed, making the original research
grams, like all the others, do not seem to Let me rephrase the perennial question one of the most replicated studies in the
have lessened the pressure of demands this way: How do you install a generator field of job attitudes.
to find out how to motivate workers. in an employee? A brief review of my
motivation-hygiene theory of job atti- The findings of these studies, along
Since KITA results only in short-term tudes is required before theoretical and with corroboration from many other
movement, it is safe to predict that the practical suggestions can be offered. The investigations using different proce-

Exhibit 1

Factors affecting job attitudes as reported in 12 investigations

Percentage 50% Factors characterizing 1,844 events on the job 0 Factors characterizing 1,753 events on the job
frequency that led to extreme dissatisfaction that led to extreme satisfaction

40 30 20 10 10 20 30 40 50%
achievement
Intrinsic motivators
recognition
work itself
responsibility
advancement
growth

company policy
and administration

supervision

relationship with supervisor

work conditions Total of all factors Total of all factors
contributing to job contributing to job
Hygiene factors
dissatisfaction satisfaction

salary Percentage frequency

relationship with peers 80% 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80%

31 Motivators 81

personal life

69 Hygiene 19

relationship with subordinates

status

security

6 harvard business review

One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?

dures, suggest that the factors involved working conditions, salary, status, and company policy and administration
in producing job satisfaction (and mo- security. grouping was,“I was happy because the
tivation) are separate and distinct from company reorganized the section so
the factors that lead to job dissatisfac- A composite of the factors that are that I didn’t report any longer to the
tion. (See Exhibit 1, which is further ex- involved in causing job satisfaction and guy I didn’t get along with.”
plained below.) Since separate factors job dissatisfaction, drawn from samples
need to be considered, depending on of 1,685 employees, is shown in Exhibit 1. As the lower right-hand part of the
whether job satisfaction or job dissatis- The results indicate that motivators exhibit shows, of all the factors con-
faction is being examined, it follows were the primary cause of satisfaction, tributing to job satisfaction, 81% were
that these two feelings are not oppo- and hygiene factors the primary cause motivators. And of all the factors con-
sites of each other. The opposite of job of unhappiness on the job. The employ- tributing to the employees’ dissatisfac-
satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction ees, studied in 12 different investiga- tion over their work, 69% involved hy-
but, rather, no job satisfaction; and sim- tions, included lower level supervisors, giene elements.
ilarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction professional women, agricultural ad-
is not job satisfaction, but no job dis- ministrators, men about to retire from Eternal Triangle. There are three gen-
satisfaction. eral philosophies of personnel manage-
The opposite of job ment. The first is based on organiza-
Stating the concept presents a prob- tional theory, the second on industrial
lem in semantics, for we normally think dissatisfaction is not engineering, and the third on behavioral
of satisfaction and dissatisfaction as op- science.
posites; i.e., what is not satisfying must job satisfaction, but
be dissatisfying, and vice versa. But Organizational theorists believe that
when it comes to understanding the no job dissatisfaction. human needs are either so irrational or
behavior of people in their jobs, more so varied and adjustable to specific situ-
than a play on words is involved. management positions, hospital main- ations that the major function of per-
tenance personnel, manufacturing su- sonnel management is to be as prag-
Two different needs of human beings pervisors, nurses, food handlers, military matic as the occasion demands. If jobs
are involved here. One set of needs can officers, engineers, scientists, house- are organized in a proper manner, they
be thought of as stemming from hu- keepers, teachers, technicians, female reason, the result will be the most effi-
mankind’s animal nature – the built-in assemblers, accountants, Finnish fore- cient job structure, and the most favor-
drive to avoid pain from the environ- men, and Hungarian engineers. able job attitudes will follow as a matter
ment, plus all the learned drives that of course.
become conditioned to the basic bio- They were asked what job events had
logical needs. For example, hunger, a occurred in their work that had led to Industrial engineers hold that hu-
basic biological drive, makes it neces- extreme satisfaction or extreme dissat- mankind is mechanistically oriented
sary to earn money, and then money isfaction on their part. Their responses and economically motivated and that
becomes a specific drive. The other set are broken down in the exhibit into per- human needs are best met by attuning
of needs relates to that unique human centages of total “positive” job events the individual to the most efficient work
characteristic, the ability to achieve and, and of total “negative” job events. (The process. The goal of personnel manage-
through achievement, to experience figures total more than 100% on both ment therefore should be to concoct the
psychological growth. The stimuli for the “hygiene” and “motivators” sides most appropriate incentive system and
the growth needs are tasks that induce because often at least two factors can be to design the specific working condi-
growth; in the industrial setting, they attributed to a single event; advance- tions in a way that facilitates the most
are the job content. Contrariwise, the ment, for instance, often accompanies efficient use of the human machine. By
stimuli inducing pain-avoidance behav- assumption of responsibility.) structuring jobs in a manner that leads
ior are found in the job environment. to the most efficient operation, engi-
To illustrate, a typical response in- neers believe that they can obtain the
The growth or motivator factors that volving achievement that had a nega- optimal organization of work and the
are intrinsic to the job are: achieve- tive effect for the employee was, “I was proper work attitudes.
ment, recognition for achievement, the unhappy because I didn’t do the job suc-
work itself, responsibility, and growth cessfully.”A typical response in the small Behavioral scientists focus on group
or advancement. The dissatisfaction- number of positive job events in the sentiments, attitudes of individual em-
avoidance or hygiene (KITA) factors ployees, and the organization’s social
that are extrinsic to the job include: and psychological climate. This persua-
company policy and administration, sion emphasizes one or more of the var-
supervision, interpersonal relationships, ious hygiene and motivator needs. Its
approach to personnel management is
generally to emphasize some form of

MOTIVATING PEOPLE january 2003 7

BEST OF HBR

human relations education, in the hope merely enlarges the meaninglessness trained correspondents was quite com-
of instilling healthy employee attitudes of the job. Some examples of this ap- plex and challenging. But almost all in-
and an organizational climate that is proach, and their effect, are: dexes of performance and job attitudes
considered to be felicitous to human were low, and exit interviewing con-
values. The belief is that proper atti- • Challenging the employee by in- firmed that the challenge of the job ex-
tudes will lead to efficient job and orga- creasing the amount of production ex- isted merely as words.
nizational structure. pected. If each tightens 10,000 bolts
a day, see if each can tighten 20,000 A job enrichment project was initi-
There is always a lively debate con- bolts a day. The arithmetic involved ated in the form of an experiment with
cerning the overall effectiveness of the shows that multiplying zero by zero still one group, designated as an achieving
approaches of organizational theorists equals zero. unit, having its job enriched by the
and industrial engineers. Manifestly, principles described in Exhibit 2. A
both have achieved much. But the nag- • Adding another meaningless task control group continued to do its job
ging question for behavioral scientists to the existing one, usually some rou- in the traditional way. (There were also
has been: What is the cost in human tine clerical activity. The arithmetic here two “uncommitted” groups of corre-
problems that eventually cause more ex- is adding zero to zero. spondents formed to measure the so-
pense to the organization–for instance, called Hawthorne effect – that is, to
turnover, absenteeism, errors, violation • Rotating the assignments of a num- gauge whether productivity and atti-
of safety rules, strikes, restriction of out- ber of jobs that need to be enriched. tudes toward the job changed artificially
put, higher wages, and greater fringe This means washing dishes for a while, merely because employees sensed that
benefits? On the other hand, behavioral then washing silverware. The arithmetic the company was paying more atten-
scientists are hard put to document is substituting one zero for another zero. tion to them in doing something dif-
much manifest improvement in person- ferent or novel. The results for these
nel management, using their approach. • Removing the most difficult parts
of the assignment in order to free the
The motivation-hygiene theory sug- worker to accomplish more of the less
gests that work be enriched to bring
about effective utilization of personnel. In attempting to enrich certain jobs, management
Such a systematic attempt to motivate often reduces the personal contribution of employees
employees by manipulating the moti- rather than giving them opportunities for growth.
vator factors is just beginning. The term
job enrichment describes this embryonic challenging assignments. This tradi- groups were substantially the same as
movement. An older term, job enlarge- tional industrial engineering approach for the control group, and for the sake
ment, should be avoided because it is amounts to subtraction in the hope of of simplicity I do not deal with them
associated with past failures stemming accomplishing addition. in this summary.) No changes in hy-
from a misunderstanding of the prob- giene were introduced for either group
lem. Job enrichment provides the op- These are common forms of horizon- other than those that would have been
portunity for the employee’s psycho- tal loading that frequently come up in made anyway, such as normal pay
logical growth, while job enlargement preliminary brainstorming sessions of increases.
merely makes a job structurally bigger. job enrichment. The principles of ver-
Since scientific job enrichment is very tical loading have not all been worked The changes for the achieving unit
new, this article only suggests the prin- out as yet, and they remain rather gen- were introduced in the first two months,
ciples and practical steps that have re- eral, but I have furnished seven useful averaging one per week of the seven
cently emerged from several successful starting points for consideration in motivators listed in Exhibit 2. At the end
experiments in industry. Exhibit 2. of six months the members of the
achieving unit were found to be out-
Job Loading. In attempting to enrich A Successful Application. An exam- performing their counterparts in the
certain jobs, management often reduces ple from a highly successful job enrich- control group and, in addition, indicated
the personal contribution of employees ment experiment can illustrate the dis- a marked increase in their liking for
rather than giving them opportunities tinction between horizontal and vertical their jobs. Other results showed that the
for growth in their accustomed jobs. loading of a job. The subjects of this achieving group had lower absenteeism
Such endeavors, which I shall call hori- study were the stockholder correspon- and, subsequently, a much higher rate
zontal job loading (as opposed to verti- dents employed by a very large corpo- of promotion.
cal loading, or providing motivator fac- ration. Seemingly, the task required of
tors), have been the problem of earlier these carefully selected and highly Exhibit 3 illustrates the changes in
job enlargement programs. Job loading

8 harvard business review

One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?

performance, measured in February and Steps for Job Enrichment words have never left industry; the sub-
March, before the study period began, stance has just been rationalized and
and at the end of each month of the Now that the motivator idea has been organized out. Words like “responsibil-
study period. The shareholder service described in practice, here are the steps ity,”“growth,”“achievement,” and “chal-
index represents quality of letters, in- that managers should take in instituting lenge,” for example, have been elevated
cluding accuracy of information, and the principle with their employees: to the lyrics of the patriotic anthem for
speed of response to stockholders’ let- all organizations. It is the old problem
ters of inquiry. The index of a current 1. Select those jobs in which a) the in- typified by the pledge of allegiance to
month was averaged into the average vestment in industrial engineering does the flag being more important than con-
of the two prior months, which means not make changes too costly, b) attitudes tributions to the country – of following
that improvement was harder to obtain are poor, c) hygiene is becoming very the form, rather than the substance.
if the indexes of the previous months costly, and d) motivation will make a
were low. The “achievers” were per- difference in performance. 6. Screen the list to eliminate any hor-
forming less well before the six-month izontal loading suggestions.
period started, and their performance 2. Approach these jobs with the con-
service index continued to decline after viction that they can be changed. Years 7. Avoid direct participation by the
the introduction of the motivators, of tradition have led managers to be- employees whose jobs are to be en-
evidently because of uncertainty after lieve that job content is sacrosanct and riched. Ideas they have expressed previ-
their newly granted responsibilities. In the only scope of action that they have ously certainly constitute a valuable
the third month, however, performance is in ways of stimulating people. source for recommended changes, but
improved, and soon the members of this their direct involvement contaminates
group had reached a high level of 3. Brainstorm a list of changes that the process with human relations hy-
accomplishment. may enrich the jobs, without concern giene and, more specifically, gives them
for their practicality. only a sense of making a contribution.
Exhibit 4 shows the two groups’ atti- The job is to be changed, and it is the
tudes toward their job, measured at 4. Screen the list to eliminate sugges- content that will produce the moti-
the end of March, just before the first tions that involve hygiene, rather than vation, not attitudes about being in-
motivator was introduced, and again actual motivation. volved or the challenge inherent in set-
at the end of September. The corre- ting up a job. That process will be over
spondents were asked 16 questions, all 5. Screen the list for generalities, such shortly, and it is what the employees will
involving motivation. A typical one as “give them more responsibility,” that
was,“As you see it, how many opportu- are rarely followed in practice. This
nities do you feel that you have in your might seem obvious, but the motivator
job for making worthwhile contribu-
tions?” The answers were scaled from Exhibit 2
1 to 5, with 80 as the maximum possi-
ble score. The achievers became much Principles of vertical job loading
more positive about their job, while the
attitude of the control unit remained Principle Motivators involved
about the same (the drop is not statis-
tically significant). A. Removing some controls while retaining Responsibility and personal
accountability achievement
How was the job of these correspon- Responsibility and recognition
dents restructured? Exhibit 5 lists the B. Increasing the accountability of individuals
suggestions made that were deemed to for own work Responsibility, achievement,
be horizontal loading, and the actual and recognition
vertical loading changes that were in- C. Giving a person a complete natural unit Responsibility, achievement,
corporated in the job of the achieving of work (module, division, area, and so on) and recognition
unit. The capital letters under “Princi- Internal recognition
ple” after “Vertical Loading” refer to the D. Granting additional authority to employees
corresponding letters in Exhibit 2. The in their activity; job freedom Growth and learning
reader will note that the rejected forms
of horizontal loading correspond closely E. Making periodic reports directly available Responsibility, growth,
to the list of common manifestations to the workers themselves rather than to and advancement
I mentioned earlier. supervisors

F. Introducing new and more difficult tasks
not previously handled

G. Assigning individuals specific or specialized
tasks, enabling them to become experts

MOTIVATING PEOPLE january 2003 9

BEST OF HBR

be doing from then on that will deter- vorce employees’ views of the jobs they After successful experiment, however,
mine their motivation. A sense of par- are given from all the surrounding hy- the supervisors usually discover the
ticipation will result only in short-term giene feelings that they might have. supervisory and managerial functions
movement. they have neglected, or which were
9. Be prepared for a drop in perfor- never theirs because all their time was
8. In the initial attempts at job en- mance in the experimental group the given over to checking the work of their
richment, set up a controlled experi- first few weeks. The changeover to a subordinates. For example, in the R&D
ment. At least two equivalent groups new job may lead to a temporary re- division of one large chemical company
should be chosen, one an experimental duction in efficiency. I know of, the supervisors of the labo-
unit in which the motivators are sys- ratory assistants were theoretically re-
tematically introduced over a period of 10. Expect your first-line supervisors sponsible for their training and evalu-
time, and the other one a control group to experience some anxiety and hostil- ation. These functions, however, had
in which no changes are made. For both ity over the changes you are making. come to be performed in a routine, un-
groups, hygiene should be allowed to The anxiety comes from their fear that substantial fashion. After the job en-
follow its natural course for the dura- the changes will result in poorer per- richment program, during which the
tion of the experiment. Pre- and post- formance for their unit. Hostility will supervisors were not merely passive ob-
installation tests of performance and arise when the employees start assum- servers of the assistants’ performance,
job attitudes are necessary to evaluate ing what the supervisors regard as their the supervisors actually were devoting
the effectiveness of the job enrichment own responsibility for performance. their time to reviewing performance
program. The attitude test must be lim- The supervisor without checking du- and administering thorough training.
ited to motivator items in order to di- ties to perform may then be left with
little to do.

Exhibit 3 achieving Exhibit 4

Employee performance Change in attitudes toward tasks
in company experiment in company experiment

Three-month cumulative average Mean scores at begining and end of six-month period
100 60
I control
80 I achieving
55
Shareholder service index
Job reaction mean score 50
60
control 45

40 40

20 35 September
March

0 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept
10 Six-month study period

harvard business review

One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?

What has been called an employee- Exhibit 5
centered style of supervision will come
about not through education of super- Enlargement vs. enrichment of correspondents’ tasks
visors, but by changing the jobs that in company experiment
they do.
Horizontal loading suggestions rejected
•••
Job enrichment will not be a one-time Firm quotas could be set for letters to be answered each day, using
proposition, but a continuous manage- a rate that would be hard to reach.
ment function. The initial changes
should last for a very long period of The secretaries could type the letters themselves, as well as compose
time. There are a number of reasons them, or take on any other clerical functions.
for this:
All difficult or complex inquiries could be channeled to a few
• The changes should bring the job up secretaries so that the remainder could achieve high rates of output.
to the level of challenge commensurate These jobs could be exchanged from time to time.
with the skill that was hired.
The secretaries could be rotated through units handling different
• Those who have still more ability customers and then sent back to their own units.
eventually will be able to demonstrate
it better and win promotion to higher Vertical loading suggestions adopted Principle
level jobs. G
Subject matter experts were appointed within each unit
• The very nature of motivators, as op- for other members of the unit to consult before seeking
posed to hygiene factors, is that they supervisory help. (The supervisor had been answering all
have a much longer-term effect on em- specialized and difficult questions.)
ployees’ attitudes. It is possible that the
job will have to be enriched again, but Correspondents signed their own names on letters. B
this will not occur as frequently as the (The supervisor had been signing all letters.)
need for hygiene.
The work of the more experienced correspondents was proofread A
Not all jobs can be enriched, nor do less frequently by supervisors and was done at the correspondents’
all jobs need to be enriched. If only a desks, dropping verification from 100% to 10%. (Previously, all
small percentage of the time and money correspondents’ letters had been checked by the supervisor.)
that is now devoted to hygiene, however,
were given to job enrichment efforts, the Production was discussed, but only in terms such as “a full day’s D
return in human satisfaction and eco- work is expected.” As time went on, this was no longer mentioned.
nomic gain would be one of the largest (Before, the group had been constantly reminded of the number
dividends that industry and society have of letters that needed to be answered.)
ever reaped through their efforts at bet-
ter personnel management. Outgoing mail went directly to the mailroom without going over A
supervisors’ desks. (The letters had always been routed through
The argument for job enrichment can the supervisors.)
be summed up quite simply: If you have
employees on a job, use them. If you Correspondents were encouraged to answer letters in a more C
can’t use them on the job, get rid of personalized way. (Reliance on the form-letter approach had
them, either via automation or by se- been standard practice.)
lecting someone with lesser ability. If
you can’t use them and you can’t get rid Each correspondent was held personally responsible for the B, E
of them, you will have a motivation quality and accuracy of letters. (This responsibility had been
problem. the province of the supervisor and the verifier.)

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MOTIVATING PEOPLE january 2003 11