Application of the Motivation-Hygiene Theory to Nurse Educators
A study by McKee (1974) attempted to determine
the applicability of Herzberg's two-factor theory to a
sample of 43 nurse faculty teaching in baccalaureate
programs in New England. The methodology was the same
one used by Herzberg in the original study. Analysis of
the data revealed that for this sample, job satisfaction
and job dissatisfaction were on different continua.
Achievement, recognition, and possibility of growth
emerged as sources of satisfaction. College policy and
administration, interpersonal relationships with supervisor,
and factors in personal life were significantly
related to job dissatisfaction. McKee found that many
of the dissatisfying incidents described by the faculty
members were related to curriculum change.
Jamann (1974) used a modification of the Friedlander
Scale to identify sources of job satisfaction
and job dissatisfaction among 495 nurse-facuity members
employed by 30 colleges and universities. Significant
differences were found between sources of job satisfaction
and job dissatisfaction. Certain factors functioned
as satisfiers, while others functioned as
dissatisfiers. The factors most significantly associated
with satisfaction were the work itself, achieve ment, interpersonal relationships with co-workers,
security, challenging assignment, and use of best abilities.
College policy and administration and effect of
the job on home life were significantly associated with
job dissatisfaction.
In a study of nurse educators, Marriner and Craigie
(1977) found that subjects tended to be dissatisfied
with those job characteristics that they considered to
be the most important, and tended to be satisfied with
those characteristics that they did not consider important.
Therefore, a job characteristic may have seemed
more important to a subject if it was presently a source
of dissatisfaction for the subject. In the Maslow
framework, the researchers concluded that a highly selfactualized
subject was concerned about responsibility
and achievement, a moderately self-actualized subject
was concerned about recognition or congeniality of
colleagues, while a poorly self-actualized subject
was concerned about salary and office space.