Application of motivation-hygiene theory to hospital pharmacists
Creators: name: Standish, Richard Carter
Publisher: name: University of Utah
Year: 2012
Subjects: Organization and Administration
Personnel Management

description: indicate that the pharmacists in this sample, regardless of how the results were analyzed and compared, has few motivators in their job.  Rather than using hygienes to increase satisfaction, more motivators should be added to the job.  An Orthodox Job Enrichment program is an alternative to explore.  Major sources of dissatisfaction identified in this sample were:  lack of feedback on communication from management, and lack of complete policy and procedure manuals, including personnel policies.  The feedback must be genuine.  Managers should praise the event, not the person and avoid using "atta boys" as feedback.  This type of feedback is perceived as evaluative and becomes another reward to strive for.  The lack of satisfaction among the pharmacists in this survey appeared to stem from a perceived lack of growth potential in their job.  The solution offered by Motivation-Hygiene Theory is referred to by Herzberg as Orthodox Job Enrichment (OJE).  After performing many sequence of events surveys, Herzberg identified the elements of a good job.  When these elements appear in the job, there is usually greater satisfaction among the workers.  Reports of shift rotation appeared in every hospital surveyed.  Job rotation and task variety are hygienes, working conditions, not motivators.  The way for managers to distinguish between hygiene and motivator factors is to consider how long the effect of a change in the factor will last or ask if the change affects how well people are treated or how well the people are utilized.  To improve motivation, the job content not the job context, has to be changed.  The theory states that managers need to utilize the pharmacists more effectively.  In the sample population, there were very few pharmacists who mentioned a working, or client relationship with a physician.  The physician's order is the one thing pharmacists depend upon to initiate the performance of a task.  Also, few pharmacists described an event when they felt satisfaction because they were recognized for a particular expertise within their own staff.  Both of these related elements are very important for satisfaction.  If a client relationship is established between the pharmacist and the physician(s) in a particular area, such as oncology or pediatrics, a direct line of communication is also established.  For example, if a problem arises in oncology with the administration of chemotherapeutic agents, the pharmacist and physician can meet together to solve the problem, rather than going through political channels as is often the case in hospitals with a well established medical staff.  The problem can be dealt with on a personal level.  Only the people affected by the problem solve the problem.  The arrangement also lends itself to three other elements.  If a pharmacist has established a client relationship in a specialty area, this pharmacist may concentrate his continuing education and learning in this area and become the staff expert.  The client relationship also provides better feedback to the pharmacist.  This feedback is also more spontaneous and less evaluative.  As the results of the survey indicate, feedback and knowledge of results were very important to pharmacist satisfaction.  Adding this series of motivators could do much to improve pharmacist satisfaction with his job.  One pharmacist in Hospital D was in such a position.  It has been observed that decentralized pharmacy service do much to facilitate the establishment of a client relationship among staff pharmacists.  These relationships need to be strengthened.  Incorporating these elements into a pharmacist's job could lead to a more satisfied and productive pharmacist.  According to Herzberg, all pharmacists should be given the opportunity to be in this type of position.  However, not all pharmacists may want to be motivated.  These individuals may be satisfied just doing their job and collecting their pay check.  OJE will not work on  these individuals.  When changing a job by adding motivators, such as implementing a new program or service, one must remember that performance and subsequent satisfaction are linked to ability.  For example, if a department wants to implement a pharmacokinetic program and the staff is unable to perform the necessary calculations, rather than being an achievement motivator and increasor  of satisfaction, it would serve as horizontal loading and would be a dissatisfier.  Some directors may believe that they have a satisfied staff because they have low staff turnover.  While it is true the low turnover can be a sign of a satisfied staff, it also may be due to low mobility in the local job market.  Turnover figures should be analyzed before using them as a absolute measure of satisfaction.  This hold true for other indicator of poor motivation, such as increasing error rates and absenteeism.  Because Motivation-Hygiene Theory is unique in the field of job attitudes, many people do not understand this complex theory of behavior.  People have difficulty understanding that hygiene and motivators are equally important in the job.  Many believe that because motivators lead to satisfaction and satisfaction is good, then motivators must be more important than hygienes.  This is not true.  As effective hygiene program to decrease the amount of dissatisfaction from the job environment is just as important as a job enrichment program that adds motivators to the job content.  Workers strive to increase satisfaction and decrease dissatisfaction at the same time.  According to Herberg, many managers employ the same techniques as animal trainers.  They use a reward to entice the employee to do a job.  Manager use the workers "pain" to move him to work.  Rather than increasing the size of the reward to increase satisfaction, managers should design a job that provides its own intrinsic reward to allow people to become motivated.  Managing motivated people may be more difficult than moving people.  In many job, managers are only checkers.  An Orthodox Job Enrichment program does not do away with managers, by delegating more responsibility to the employee, but eliminates the checking functions they perform.  In this manner, an Orthodox Job Enrichment program not only enriches the pharmacist's job, but the manager's job as well.  Motivation-Hygiene Theory and Orthodox Job Enrichment cannot be applied to all people or all jobs.  Some jobs are so boring, they should be automated, if possible.  However, pharmacy in not one of these jobs.  The dispensing aspect of pharmacy may be automated but pharmacist also provide service.  When managers use the elements of a good job to enrich the job of their staff, satisfaction and productivity have been shown to increase.  The sequence of events method is the most reliable way to identify factors within a job and its environment that lead to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.  Varying degrees of satisfaction and dissatisfaction are present in all jobs.  Managers are charged with the duty to increase productivity within their organization  the concepts Motivation-Hygiene Theory and Orthodox Job Enrichment are management tools that are available to help increase productivity by increasing job satisfaction and decreasing dissatisfaction.