ERIC Identifier: ED421486
Publication Date: 1997-07-00
Author: Gawel, Joseph E.
Source: Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation Washington DC.
Herzberg's Theory of Motivation and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. ERIC/AE Digest.
Among various behavioral theories long generally believed and embraced by American business are those of Frederick Herzberg and Abraham Maslow. Herzberg, a psychologist, proposed a theory about job factors that motivate employees. Maslow, a behavioral scientist and contemporary of Herzberg's, developed a theory about the rank and satisfaction of various human needs and how people pursue these needs. These theories are widely cited in the business literature.
In the education profession, however, researchers in the '80s raised questions about the applicability of Maslow's and Herzberg's theories to elementary and secondary school teachers: Do educators, in fact, fit the profiles of the average business employee? That is, do teachers (1) respond to the same motivators that Herzberg associated with employees in profit-making businesses and (2) have the same needs patterns as those uncovered by Maslow in his studies of business employees?
This digest first provides
brief outlines of the Herzberg and Maslow theories. It then
summarizes a study by members of the Tennessee Career Ladder
Program (TCLP). This study found evidence that the teachers in the
program do not match the behavior of people employed in business.
Specifically, the findings disagree with Herzberg in relation to the
importance of money as a motivator and, with Maslow in regard to the
position of esteem in a person's hierarchy of needs.
In contrast, he determined from the data that the motivators were elements that enriched a person's job; he found five factors in particular that were strong determiners of job satisfaction: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, and advancement. These motivators (satisfiers) were associated with long-term positive effects in job performance while the hygiene factors (dissatisfiers) consistently produced only short-term changes in job attitudes and performance, which quickly fell back to its previous level.
In summary, satisfiers describe a
person's relationship with what she or he does, many related to the
tasks being performed. Dissatisfiers, on the other hand, have to do
with a person' relationship to the context or environment in which
she or he performs the job. The satisfiers relate to what a person
does while the dissatisfiers relate to the situation in which the
person does what he or she does.
According to various literature on motivation,
individuals often have problems consistently articulating what they
want from a job. Therefore, employers have ignored what individuals
say that they want, instead telling employees what they want, based
on what managers believe most people want under the circumstances.
Frequently, these decisions have been based on Maslow's needs
hierarchy, including the factor of prepotency. As a person advances
through an organization, his employer supplies or provides
opportunities to satisfy needs higher on Maslow's pyramid.
The survey asked classroom teachers, "To what extent did salary influence your decision to participate in the (TCLP) program?" Teachers responded using a scale of from 1 (little influence on deciding to participate in the program) to 7 (large influence). The results for the four highest-average items, shown in Table 3, indicate that at all three levels teachers viewed salary as a strong motivating factor, easily the most important of 11 of Herzberg's hygiene factors on the survey. [Table 3 is at the end of Digest.]
On Herzberg's five
motivation factors, achievement ranked as the most important one.
However, the overall conclusion drawn from the research is that
salary was the single most important influence on the teachers'
decisions to participate in TCLP, regardless of level in the
organization. Further, actual salary increases ranged from $1000 to
7000 per year. The teachers perceived the amount of salary increase
to be tied to achievement and the other motivation factors.
Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B.B. (1959). The Motivation to Work (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and Personality (2nd ed.). New York: Harper and Row.
Tutor, F. D. (1986). The Relationship between Perceived Need Deficiencies and Factors Influencing Teacher Participation in the Tennessee Career Ladder. Doctoral dissertation, Memphis State University, Memphis, TN.
This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract RR93002002. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or the U.S. Department of Education. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this ERIC/AE Digest. ##TABLE 1??
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS??
Level Type of Need Examples??
1 Physiological Thirst, sex, hunger??
2 Safety Security, stability, protection??
3 Love & Belongingness To escape loneliness, love and be?? loved, and gain a sense of?? belonging??
4 Esteem Self-respect, the respect of?? others??
5 Self-actualization To fulfill one's potentialities??
DISTRIBUTION OF MOTIVATION AND HYGIENE TENDENCIES?? AMONG TEACHERS AT THE VARIOUS CAREER LADDER LEVELS (FROM BELLOTT?? AND TUTOR)??
Tendency Level I II III Total??
Motivation 71 101 149 321??
Hygiene 70 11 24 105??
Total 141 112 173 426??
Title: Herzberg's Theory of Motivation and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. ERIC/AE Digest.
Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073);
Available From: Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, 210 O'Boyle Hall, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064; phone: 800-464-3742.
Descriptors: Career Ladders, Elementary Secondary Education, Industrial Psychology, Job Satisfaction, Motivation, Needs, State Programs, Teachers
Identifiers: ERIC Digests, Herzberg (Frederick), Maslow (Abraham), Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, Tennessee Career Ladder Program
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