HUMAN NEEDS AND MOTIVATOR-HYGIENE THEORY
When discussing human needs, an unquestionable significant milestone is the famous hierarchy theory put forth by Maslow ( 1954), the father of humanistic psychology. The hierarchy theory suggests five levels of human needs: physiological, safety and security, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Physiological needs include everything to keep the human body alive, such as water, food, oxygen, appropriate environmental temperatures, sleep or rest, excretions, and healthcare. Safety and security needs represent those items that can help an individual avoid his or her fear and anxiety, such as financial insurance, a safe neighborhood, career stability, and security protection. Love and belonging needs include those things that eliminate loneliness, such as good friends, offspring, a significant other, and social relationships. In the hierarchy theory, esteem needs include those items that people need to feel noticed and important for their meaning of life; these needs include social status, reputation, appreciation of others, glory, attention from others, achievement, independence, freedom, mastery, and confidence. Finally, self-actualization is the highest level of human needs in the classic hierarchy theory. Once people have completely met all the needs from the lower level, they can demand self-actualization. Maslow's examples of people who were truly self-actualizing include Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Adams, William James, Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Spinoza, and Alduous Huxley. Thus, self-actualization seems like a standard of being a glorious person, not a human need. Similarly, the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius said that a great man is a person looking for triumph of the self without fear or anxiety (Tsai, 2001).
Unlike Maslow, Frederick Herzberg tried to look for human needs at the vocational level in another way (Jones, George, &Hill, 2000). Herzberg surveyed 203 engineers and accountants in Pittsburgh and established the motivator-hygiene theory (Herzberg et al., 1959), pointing out that the needs for people at the vocational level can be identified by two separate groups: motivators and hygiene needs (King, 1970). According to the motivatorhygiene theory, Herzberg (1969) suggested that hygiene needs can not bring true happiness to people in their vocational environment; only motivators can truly stimulate people to work hard and enjoy their jobs (Herzberg, 1976, 1984). Hygiene needs include organizational policy, salary, relationships with co-workers, job benefits, working conditions, traffic during the commute, relationships with subordinates, career stability, relationships with the supervisor, guaranteed retirement fund, and so on; meanwhile, motivators include personal growth, passion for the job, social responsibility, opportunity for advancement, and the feeling of achievement. One of the biggest arguments of the motivator-hygiene theory is that people usually confuse money with a primary motivator (Daft, 2003); if money only means the buying power, it should not be considered a primary motivator. On the contrary, money could be a primary motivator in the vocational environment if it represents not only buying power, but also a symbol of achievement at work. People seek hygiene needs such as salary in a vocational environment because they are unsatisfied without these needs; however, these needs can not truly motivate people to work hard.
The concern for people's well-being at work could similarly apply to adult students participating in continuing education programs. It is common for people to get paid for work but not for learning. However, if currency is not considered as the only form of payment, it is possible to suggest that people gain social-economic payments from continuing education programs. According to the anticipated benefits theory, adult students understand their reasons for participating in continuing education programs and expect social-economic payments for their learning process (Tough, 1980). Another myth is that people work to get paid while learning is a criterion to survive in modern society. In fact, people need to learn numerous skills and gain new knowledge from continuing education for their survival in today's globalized economic society. Clearly, numerous similarities exist between people's well-being at work and adult students' participation in education. At work, people establish relationships with their supervisors; adult students establish relationships with their teachers. In addition, workers must follow organizational policy, while adult students must obey institutional rules when participating in continuing education programs. From the continuing education program management's perspective, the motivator-hygiene theory seems to be an appropriate method for describing adult students' participation in continuing education programs for the current study. Although the quality requirement of continuing education program management differs between motivators and hygiene needs of adult participators, the program managers need to identify beneficial information to use their limited resources effectively to improve continuing education programs