Herzberg Motivation-Hygiene Fallacy in Measuring Levels of Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction

Abstract

Job satisfaction is an attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is gratified by or fulfilled in his/her job. It is an
affective or emotional response toward various facets of one’s job. The meaning of job satisfaction implies that job satisfaction
is not a unitary concept. Rather a person can be relatively satisfied with one aspect or factor of his /her job and dissatisfied with
another aspect or factor. Hertzberg et al. (1959) developed the Motivation-Hygiene Theory in which they proposed that the opposite of satisfaction was not dissatisfaction. Because there are two separate facets of satisfaction and dissatisfaction: motivators and hygiene factors. In simple words, they proposed that a person who is 80% satisfied over his/her job is not 20% dissatisfied, because motivators and hygiene factors separately contribute to satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The present study uses the Lexicographic Model to measure the level of overall job satisfaction and overall level of job dissatisfaction including the
contribution of each motivating factor and hygiene factors of 300 female workers in different garments factories in Dhaka City
In a meaningful cardinal index instead of ordinal measurement. To apply the Lexicographic Model, the present study uses the mean score of relative importance (MSRI) method, developed by the present author in 1983, to identify the relative weights of each motivating and hygiene factor. The present study finds, contrary to Herzberg et al. that the opposite of satisfaction is indeed dissatisfaction. That is, if a person is 60% satisfied with his/her job, then s/he must be dissatisfied by 40%. We can call it “Herzberg Motivation-Hygiene Fallacy”.