An Empirical Test of Herzberg's Two-Factor Motivation Theory

Employee motivation is one of the most popular topics in management and organizational psychology studies. In this direction, several motivational theories have been developed over the past 70 years. However, the universal validity of these motivational theories is controversial. One of these motivational theories is Herzberg's Two Factor motivation theory. The theory suggests two mains distinctions in employee motivation (i.e., motivation factors and hygiene factors). Motivation factors are achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth. Hygiene factors are company policy and administration, supervision, relationship with supervisor, working conditions, salary, and relationship with peers, personal relationship, relationship with subordinates, status, and security. According to Herzberg's Two Factor motivation theory, the presence of hygiene factors does not increase motivation, but a lack of hygiene factors leads to dissatisfaction. The absence of motivation factors leads to a decrease in motivation, and the presence of motivation factors increase motivation. In this study, it is aimed to test Herzberg's Two Factor motivation theory empirically. In this context, quantitative research has been designed to test the theory and a total of 162 white-collar municipal employees participated in the study from Turkey. The theory was tested by two separate approaches. The first was the use of a Likert scale in parallel with the studies conducted to test the twofactor motivation theory of Herzberg. The other was the percentage distribution approach, in which the role of each factor in the theory is determined as a percentage to test how important they are in employee motivation. According to the results, Herzberg's two-factor theory was supported to some extent, and factors such as salary, company policy and administration, and work conditions, which are considered as hygiene factors according to Herzberg's two-factor theory, were found to be important motivating factors. Whereas factors such as responsibility, recognition, and growth were found to have less motivator role than as they are supposed in Herzberg's two-factor motivation theory. In addition, it was found that as the average monthly income of employees increased, the motivator role of "salary" factor decreased. The findings of the study were discussed, and some future research directions were suggested.