Editing Frederick Herzberg

{{Short description|American psychologist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2015}}
{{Infobox person
|name       = Frederick Herzberg
|image      =
|caption    =
|birth_name = Frederick Irving Herzberg
|birth_date = {{birth date|1923|04|18}}
|birth_place= [[Lynn, Massachusetts]], U.S.<ref name="desnews20000122">{{cite news |url=https://www.deseret.com/2000/1/22/19487056/obituary-frederick-irving-herzberg |title=Obituary: Frederick Irving Herzberg |work=[[Deseret News]] |date=January 22, 2000 |access-date=October 26, 2023}}</ref>
|death_date = {{death date and age|2000|01|19|1923|04|18}}
|death_place= [[Salt Lake City, Utah]], U.S.<ref name="desnews20000122"/>
|alma_mater = {{plainlist|
* [[City College of New York]]
* [[University of Pittsburgh]]
 }}
|spouse     = {{marriage |Shirley Bedell |1944}}
}}
'''Frederick Irving Herzberg''' (April 18, 1923 – January 19, 2000<ref name="desnews20000122"/>) was an American [[psychologist]] who became one of the most influential names in business management.<ref name="Biography - Frederick I. Herzberg (1923-2000)">{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/generalbusiness/herzberg.html |title=Biography - Frederick I. Herzberg (1923-2000) |publisher=Western University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130710155515/http://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/generalbusiness/herzberg.html |archive-date=July 10, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref name="F. I. Herzberg, 76, Professor And Management Consultant" /> He is most famous for introducing [[job enrichment]] and the [[motivator–hygiene theory]]. His 1968 publication "One More Time, How Do You Motivate Employees?" had sold 1.2 million reprints by 1987 and was the most requested article from the ''[[Harvard Business Review]]''.<ref name="Herzberg1987">{{cite journal |title=One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? |journal=Harvard Business Review |first=Frederick |last=Herzberg |volume=65 |issue=5 |date=September–October 1987 |oclc=23349159}} (''note: the reference to sales numbers is in the abstract written by the editors.'')</ref>{{rp|109–120}}

==Personal life==
Herzberg was born in 1923 in [[Lynn, Massachusetts]], to Gertrude and Lewis Herzberg, who were [[Lithuanian Jewish]] immigrants. He was brought up in New York City,<ref name="desnews20000122" /> and enrolled at the [[City College of New York]] in 1939. He did not finish his studies as he enlisted in the army. In 1944 he married Shirley Bedell, who later became a [[pediatrician]].

During his military service Herzberg was involved in the relocation of internees from the [[Dachau Concentration Camp]] after its liberation. His experience with this work, where he "realized that a society goes insane when the sane are driven insane", has been seen as central to the development of his working philosophy.<ref name=archive />

He finally finished his studies and graduated from the City College of New York in 1946. He then decided to move to the [[University of Pittsburgh]] where he earned a master's degree in science and public health. He completed a Ph.D. at Pittsburgh focused on [[electric shock therapy]]. He has a son, Mark, who currently ({{asof|2013|lc=y}}) lives in West New York.<ref name="F. I. Herzberg, 76, Professor And Management Consultant">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/01/business/f-i-herzberg-76-professor-and-management-consultant.html |title=F. I. Herzberg, 76, Professor And Management Consultant |work=[[The New York Times]] |first=Barnaby J. |last=Feder |date=February 1, 2000 |access-date=November 18, 2013}}</ref>

==Research==
Herzberg started his research on organizations in the 1950s. He worked at the [[University of Utah]], where he remained until he retired. Prior to his move to [[Utah]] in 1972,<ref name="desnews20000122" /> Herzberg was professor of management at [[Case Western Reserve University]], where he established the Department of Industrial Mental Health.

His research into the motivation to work was jointly published with Bernard Mausner and Barbara B. Snyderman,<ref name=book /> and his own ''Work and the Nature of Man'' was published in 1966.<ref>Herzberg, F. H., ''Work and the Nature of Man'', New York: The World Publishing Company, 1966, cited by Stead (1972)</ref>

In his lifetime, Herzberg had consulted for many organizations as well as for the United States and other foreign governments. 

Herzberg's papers, covering his work from the 1950s to the 1990s, are held in the special collections archive at the University of Utah. The bulk of the material in the collection dates from the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name=archive>[[Orbis Cascade Alliance]], [https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv73168 Frederick Herzberg papers, 1950-1995], accessed 18 September 2023</ref>

==Motivator–hygiene theory==
{{main|Two-factor theory}}
Herzberg is often considered to be a pioneer in the theory of motivation.<ref name=met /> According to his motivator–hygiene theory, also known as the ''[[two-factor theory]]'' of job satisfaction, people are influenced by two sets of factors: hygiene or maintenance factors, and motivators.<ref name=met>Wirral Met College, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070513082656/http://www.wmc.ac.uk/flm/text_version/section02.html Introduction to Management - Motivation], archived on 13 May 2007, accessed on 13 February 2025</ref> The idea behind this distinction is that hygiene factors will not motivate, but if they are not there, they can lower motivation. These factors could be anything from clean toilets and comfortable chairs, to a reasonable level of pay and [[job security]]. The theory deals with satisfaction and dissatisfaction in jobs which are not affected by the same set of needs, but instead occur independently of each other. Herzberg's theory challenged the assumption that "dissatisfaction was a result of an absence of factors giving rise to satisfaction".<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Does Herzberg's motivation theory have staying power? |journal=Journal of Management Development |last1=Bassett-Jones |first1=Nigel |last2=Lloyd |first2=Geoffrey C. |volume=24 |issue=10 |pages=929–943 |date=2005 |doi=10.1108/02621710510627064}}</ref>

Motivational factors will not necessarily lower motivation, but can be responsible for increasing motivation. These factors could involve job recognition, potential for promotion or even the work in itself.<ref name=book>{{cite book |title=The Motivation to Work |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=New York |first1=Frederick |last1=Herzberg |first2=Bernard |last2=Mausner |first3=Barbara B. |last3=Snyderman |edition=2nd |year=1959 |isbn=0-471-37389-3}}</ref>

Herzberg (1987) describes the growth factors (or ''motivators'') as "achievement, recognition for achievement, the work itself, responsibility, and growth or advancement", which are intrinsic.<ref name="Herzberg1987" />{{rp|13}} Intrinsic factors include "orientations toward money, recognition, competition, and the dictates of other people, and the latter includes challenge, enjoyment, personal enrichment, interest, and [[self-determination]]".<ref name="Stead1972">{{Cite journal |title=Berlo's Communication Process Model as Applied to the Behavioral Theories of Maslow, Herzberg, and McGregor |journal=The Academy of Management Journal |first=Bette Ann |last=Stead |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=389–394 |date=September 1972 |jstor=254868}}</ref> The hygiene factors (or dissatisfaction-avoidance), which are extrinsic to the job, are "company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, working conditions, salary, status, and security".<ref name="Herzberg1987" /> This extrinsic factor "refers to doing something because it leads to a distinct outcome, something external you expect to receive, and the latter refers to doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, an internal reward."<ref name="Stead1972" />

==See also==
* [[Hawthorne effect]], which sheds light on the difficulties of measuring motivation.
* [[Motivation]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |title=International Management: Culture, Strategy, and Behavior |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=Boston |first1=Richard M. |last1=Hodgetts |first2=Fred D. |last2=Luthans |first3=Jonathan P. |last3=Doh |edition=6th |date=2006 |isbn=0-07-296108-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalman0000hodg }}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Frederick Herzberg}}
* {{cite journal |url=http://www.facilitif.eu/user_files/file/herzburg_article.pdf |title=One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? |journal=Harvard Business Review |first=Frederick |last=Herzberg |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=53–62 |date=January–February 1968 |oclc=219963337 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222035006/http://www.facilitif.eu/user_files/file/herzburg_article.pdf |archive-date=February 22, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}
* {{cite journal |url=http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=5&n=11 |title=Herzberg's Theory of Motivation and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs |journal=Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation |first=Joseph E. |last=Gawel |volume=5 |issue=11 |date=1997 |access-date=February 21, 2015 |archive-date=April 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418031201/https://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=5&n=11 |url-status=dead }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Herzberg, Frederick}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:American business theorists]]
[[Category:University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health alumni]]
[[Category:Case Western Reserve University faculty]]
[[Category:Jewish American social scientists]]
[[Category:Motivation theorists]]
[[Category:University of Utah faculty]]
[[Category:Public administration scholars]]
[[Category:20th-century  American  economists]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]