Herzberg and motivation – Kellogg’s
The Kellogg Company is the world’s leading producer of breakfast cereals. For more than 100 years, Kellogg’s has been a leader in health and nutrition. It has done this by providing consumers with a wide variety of food products. Kellogg’s was recently placed in the top 100 of the Best Companies to Work For list in The Sunday Times. Kellogg’s values and culture support its role as a good employer.
People spend a considerable part of their lives at work, so it is not surprising that they expect to be rewarded for and satisfied with the job that they do. Motivation is concerned with why people do things as well as what drives them to behave in a particular way. Understanding what motivates individuals is important in the workplace. Research suggests that motivated employees are happier at work. They get more satisfaction from their work, are absent less often, tend to be more loyal and work with more enthusiasm. This in turn encourages them to contribute more to the development of an organisation.
Herzberg felt that satisfied employees would be productive employees. Herzberg’s theory is sometimes called the two-factor theory. These factors are hygiene factors and motivators. Hygiene factors are often referred to as ‘dissatisfiers’. These are elements in the workplace that could make employees unhappy, such as excessive company bureaucracy or an autocratic working environment. Herzberg’s motivators (sometimes called ‘satisfiers’) are aspects of any workplace that give individuals job satisfaction. These include, for example, the level of responsibility of the job, promotion or recognition for effort and performance. Herzberg believed that businesses needed to ensure any negative impacts of hygiene factors were minimised in order to enable motivators to have their full effect. Kellogg’s has developed a number of motivating factors. These are designed to ensure that Kellogg’s is perceived as a good place to work and a desirable employer of choice. For example, Kellogg’s has a ‘Fit for Life’ programme offering employees access to fitness centres, free health checks and annual fitness assessments by healthcare specialists every spring. It also provides a ‘summer hours’ programme from May to September so if employees have worked a full week’s hours by noon on a Friday, they can finish work at that point. This means employees can adjust their working hours to balance their work against family or lifestyle commitments.
Awareness of motivating factors helps Kellogg’s to build a business that delivers consistently strong results. Other initiatives within the organisation include:
? flexitime, home working, part-time working and job sharing
? career breaks, parental leave, time off for dependents and maternity and paternity leave
? on-site gyms or subsidised access to local facilities.
Motivators within the Kellogg’s company reflect the different personal aspirations of staff. The working environment provides the opportunity to move forward and take on responsibilities. There is clear recognition and reward for performance. For example, the Kellogg’s sales team meets every Friday morning to share success stories of the week. Once a month it recognises individuals that have worked above and beyond the company’s values. Winners receive a range of awards ranging from cash prizes, vouchers or holiday entitlements.
Questions
1. What is motivation?
2. Describe Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of motivation.
3. Explain how Kellogg’s ensures Herzberg’s ‘motivators’ are provided for its employees.
4. Analyse the importance of having a motivated workforce.
Task
Interview – arrange a short interview with an employee, either of a local business or your school/college. Find out what things motivate them and make them feel satisfied with their work. Also, investigate the things that can make them feel frustrated and dissatisfied about their jobs. Do these fit into Herzberg’s Hygiene Factors and Motivators?
What have you learned?
Create a cartoon strip about motivating (or demotivating) employees which draws on your learning from the session on Herzberg and motivation. You can do this by hand or use appropriate software or app.
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