The `hygiene-motivation' or `two factor' theory resulted from research with two hundred Pittsburgh
engineers and accountants. These people were asked what pleased and displeased them about their
jobs. From their responses, Herzberg concluded that man has two sets of needs:
lower level needs as an animal to avoid pain and deprivation
higher level needs as a human being to grow psychologically.
Some factors in the workplace meet the first set of needs but not the second and vice versa. The first
group of factors he called `hygiene factors' and the second, `motivators'.
Herzberg also coined the term `job enrichment', a technique which grew out of the hygiene-motivation
theory. Job enrichment involved including motivators in the design of jobs. In his famous Harvard
Business Review article (One more time: how do you motivate employees? published in 1968)
Herzberg also invented the acronym KITA (Kick In The Ass) to explain personnel practices such as
wage increases, fringe benefits and job participation which were developed as attempts to instil
motivation but are only short-term solutions