MGT 501 – Employee Motivation
Raeford University

One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? - Summary

Herzberg (2003) presented an article that discussed the concept of motivation with regards to employees. Initially the idea of direct motivation, known as KITA or “a kick in the pants” (Herzberg, p. 87) was addressed. KITA was then broken down into three forms: negative physical, negative psychological, and positive KITA. Essentially KITA was more closely equated to movement than motivation; where the receiver moved and/or reacted to the motivation placed upon them from another (Herzberg).

The article then explained why KITA was not motivation. Provided were the nine different “positive KITA personnel practices that were developed as attempts to instill ‘motivation’” (Herzberg, 2003, p. 87). Herzberg then discussed his motivation-hygiene theory with the concept that “the opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction but, rather, no job satisfaction; and similarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not job satisfaction, but no job satisfaction” (Herzberg, p. 89). His theory culminated into the lists of the intrinsic motivators and extrinsic hygiene factors that satisfaction was measured by.

Next, the article talked about the eternal triangle of three different personnel management philosophies. One was based on organizational theory; one based on industrial engineering and one on behavioral science (Herzberg, 2003). From these philosophies and the motivation-hygiene theory, the ideas of job enrichment and job enlargement were reviewed. These concepts were closely associated with job loading. Generally, horizontal job loading related to job enlargement and vertical job loading was associated to job enrichment. The seven principles of vertical job loading were then provided which showed how to seek out job enrichment.