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##  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. HERZBERG'S               THEORY OF MOTIVATORS AND HYGIENE FACTORSHerzberg (1959)                     constructed a two-dimensional paradigm of factors affecting people's            attitudes about work. He concluded that such factors as company                 policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions,               and salary are hygiene factors rather than motivators. According to             the theory, the absence of hygiene factors can create job                       dissatisfaction, but their presence does not motivate or create                 satisfaction. 
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. MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDSIn            1954, Maslow first published "Motivation and Personality," which                introduced his theory about how people satisfy various personal                 needs in the context of their work. He postulated, based on his                 observations as a humanistic psychologist, that there is a general              pattern of needs recognition and satisfaction that people follow in             generally the same sequence. He also theorized that a person could              not recognize or pursue the next higher need in the hierarchy until             her or his currently recognized need was substantially or completely            satisfied, a concept called prepotency. Maslow's hierarchy of needs             is shown in Table 1. It is often illustrated as a pyramid with the              survival need at the broad-based bottom and the self-actualization              need at the narrow top. [Table 1 is at the end of                               Digest.] 
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. TCLP               STUDY IN RELATION TO HERZBERG'S THEORYAccording to Bellott and              Tutor (1990), the problems with Herzberg's work are that it occurred            in 1959--too long ago to be pertinent--and did not cover teachers.              They cite earlier research by Tutor (1986) with Tennessee Career                Ladder Program as a means of overcoming both those problems. TCLP               has three levels, the largest and beginning one of which (Level I)              has 30,000 members. Bellott and Tutor believe that the data from the            study clearly indicate that the Level I participants were as                    influenced by motivation factors as by hygiene factors (Table 2),               contrary to Herzberg's position that hygiene factors do not                     motivate. [Table 2 is at the end of Digest.] 
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. THE               STUDY AND MASLOW'S THEORYAccording to data from the TCLP survey,            the teachers at all three experience levels are less satisfied with             their personal achievement of esteem (a middle level need according             to Maslow) than with their achievement of self-actualization. These             results are summarized in Table 4. Therefore, it can be concluded               that self-actualization is a prepotent need for esteem. Two reasons             seem to account for this. First, self-actualization provides the                basis for self-esteem. Second, this self-actualized performance is              also the basis for reputation, the esteem of others. [Table 4 is at             the end of Digest.] CONCLUSIONAlthough Herzberg's paradigm of             hygiene and motivating factors and Maslow's hierarchy of needs may              still have broad applicability in the business world, at least one              aspect of each, salary as a hygiene factor (Herzberg) and esteem as             a lower order need than self-actualization (Maslow), does not seem              to hold in the case of elementary and secondary school teachers.                These findings may begin to explain why good teachers are being lost            to other, higher paying positions and to help administrators focus              more closely on the esteem needs of teachers, individually and                  collectively. REFERENCESBellott, F.K., & Tutor,                           F.D. (1990). "A Challenge to the Conventional Wisdom of Herzberg and            Maslow Theories." Paper presented at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting              of the Mid-South Educational Research Association. New Orleans,                 LA. 
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. 
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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??                                                                
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TABLE 2?? 
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:** ERIC 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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