What Motivates People? (2 of 3)

Management Associates Culture, Employee Attitudes, Motivation

We previously explored research that Frederick Herzberg did on primary sources of workplace motivation —  things like achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, and growth and development. These findings are valuable in themselves, but Herzberg didn’t stop there.

He also asked employees to describe times they had been particularly dissatisfied, uninterested, and unengaged in their work. And as was the case in motivation, responses to this question tended to fall into a number of clearly defined categories.

Topping the list of primary sources of demotivation (what Herzberg somewhat inelegantly referred to as “hygiene factors”) were:

  1. Company policies and procedures. Red tape is irritating in the best of circumstances, but is particularly aggravating when it prevents us from doing work that is expected of us.  It is no wonder, then, that policies and procedures were cited as employees’ number-one source of demotivation.
  2. Supervision. Polling has consistently shown that employees quit managers far more often than they quit companies. It therefore comes as little surprise that poor supervisory practices were the second-most frequently mentioned source of workplace demotivation.
  3. Workplace relationships. Interactions with others exercise great influence over both our immediate mood and our longer-term disposition. Negative relationships — intimidating, antagonistic, frustrating, etc. — are therefore a powerful source of demotivation.
  4. Working conditions. Workplace conditions are a classic cause of discontent. Whether physical danger, onerous working hours, or inadequate equipment, adverse conditions are a perennial source of demotivation.
  5. Salary. Though salary is widely considered the fundamental reason people work (and is unquestionably necessary), money functions far more powerfully as a source of demotivation than motivation. Decreasing the size of an employee’s paycheck will invariably demotivate him or her. But increasing it will not, by itself, guarantee that any additional work will be done.

Demotivators are what cause employees to grumble, what cause them to quit their jobs or form unions. They therefore occupy the majority of leaders’ time and attention.

But even if a leader could create ideal policies and perfect workplace conditions, she would not have increased motivation. Employees might not be discouraged, but neither would they be motivated.

New policies, pay packages, and parking lots can remove sources of irritation, but they can’t create enthusiasm and commitment. They can’t, in other words, capture the human spirit.

This is important for leaders to understand, because removing negatives, although important, achieves only a state of neutrality. Achieving the excellence to which leaders aspire requires something more.

The third and final part of this series will explore how leaders can use the two facets of workplace motivation identified by Herzberg – motivators and demotivators – to build a workplace that cultivates employee commitment, drive, and ownership.