Herzberg, Motivational Theory and ATS

This is a follow up to the thread I posted regarding Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and the applicability to ATS.

In the Maslow thread the post was applicable to members and motivational charecteristics, however this thread is more an overview of motivation in the sense of the ATS site, its management and how that affects members and/or motivates them, and for this, Herzberg is more applicable, although it must be said that the two motivational theories are related and are often used in the business world in conjunction.

Herzberg's theory is about the hygiene factors needed to stop people from being demotivated and the factors which, if the hygiene factors are taken care of, will provide an environment to motivate people.

The hygiene factors included in the job environment encompass the company, its policies and its administration, the kind of supervision which people receive while on the job, working conditions interpersonal relations, salary, status and security. These factors do not lead to higher levels of motivation but without them there is dissatisfaction.

Herzberg's motivation theory involves what people actually do on the job. The motivators are achievement, recognition, growth or advancement and interest in the job.

Care has to be taken with processes and policies. Processes and policies which are in contradiction of people's motivators will depress motivation. A study of Herzberg dis-satisfiers reveals that administration and policy has the highest impact on motivation being a dis-satisfier on 36% of occasions. However, processes and policies which motivate individuals may not be aligned to an organisation's strategy and objectives.

Further, a robust performance management system that recognises and rewards people in a way that fits their motivators is necessary for developing an environment that allows individuals and groups to motivate themselves.

Developing an environment that improves employee's motivation is hard work. There is no one size fits all solution, as motivation is driven by "what's in it for me".

source

This can be applied equally to ATS as it can to business or marketing, in that the Herzberg satisfiers and dissatisfiers (motivators and hygiene) are relevant for the basic reason that members are motivated to post (or not) through the system of management on ATS.
By management, I mean how the site is run and the interaction of members with mods, admin etc.

Herzberg (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.

source

So then, it can be seen that in Herzbergs model ATS satisfies the needs of its members, for the most part and in a broad context and that the analogy of employees to members can be viewed as relevant in this instance.
Because otherwise, nobody would post



Note, other motivational theories are applicable as analogies and can be found simply by googling motivational theory

[edit on 25/9/2007 by budski]