Last week I shared how to motivate your teams, and promised we'd revisit the subject. The second half to this topic is to understand just what causes job dissatisfaction and how job enrichment can contribute to the motivation you seek. The Motivation Hygiene Theory suggests that factors involved in producing motivation and job satisfaction are completely separate from the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction. Let me explain.

Motivational factors, as discussed last week , are intrinsic to the job and include achievement, recognition for achievement, the work itself, responsibility, and growth or advancement. Spoiler: these are highly correlated to job enrichment! Conversely, the dissatisfaction factors that are extrinsic to the job include company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, working conditions, salary, status, and security.

We often think if something isn't satisfactory, it's dissatisfactory. This theory, however, offers a distinct separation between the two, noting the factors that cause job satisfaction, and completely different factors that cause job dissatisfaction. The latter are known as "hygiene factors."

I thought to myself, what is the benefit of knowing the nuances between intrinsic motivation and external hygiene factors? I think it's not only for the edification of the manager - there are many factors which can be altered - but understanding these areas can help managers know where to dedicate their time and which battles are worth picking. Here's a list of job dissatisfaction contributors that managers should seek to remedy (reference step 1).

At a glance, company policy and administration caused the most dissatisfaction in the hygiene factor scale (followed by supervision, AKA not getting along with supervisors), while extreme satisfaction came from achievement, and close behind that, recognition. Alleviating job dissatisfaction does not equate to motivation! Hence the need for job enrichment.

The motivation-hygiene theory suggests that work be enriched to bring about effective utilization of personnel. The next key word that we need to take note of is job enrichment: job enrichment provides the opportunity for the employee's psychological growth. [Note: job enrichment is not to be confused with job enlargement. The latter actually defines making the job structurally bigger, and can decrease motivational factors.]

If you're facing motivational issues on your team, think about ways a job can be enriched; approach the topic with the underlying belief the jobs can be changed (the only other resolve is sustained unhappiness and underperformance); review your ideas to ensure there aren't any hygiene suggestions -- influencing motivation is more sustainable; eliminate any horizontal loading suggestions. [An example of horizontal loading is something like "challenge the employee to double their output each day." This doesn't motivate, this hinders.] Use this list to guide your plan for influencing motivation.

Here is a synopsis of Herzberg's principles of "vertical job loading" which contribute to job enrichment, and consequently motivation, from his primary research:

Give a person a complete unit of work -- associated motivational factors are responsibility, achievement, and recognition
Grant additional authority, providing job freedom -- associated motivational factors are responsibility, achievement, and recognition
Increase accountability of individuals for own work -- associated motivational factors are responsibility and accountability
Introduce new and more difficult tasks not previously handled -- associated motivational factors are growth and learning
Assign individuals specific or specialized tasks, enabling them to become experts -- associated motivational factors are responsibility, growth, and advancement

We don't want to confuse hygiene factors with what actually causes motivation (the list you just read) since the very nature of motivators, as opposed to hygiene factors, is they have a longer-term effect on employees' attitudes.

If you sense your team is suffering from motivational deficits, get brainstorming!