Effective School Management

partner. Very exceptionally, an individual will shun all company, but such
‘hermits’ are extremely rare. They may, like saints, have reached the level
of self-transcendence.
The interesting thing is that when dealing with people with whom we work,
most of us have a tendency to behave as though the needs of others, particularly our
subordinates, are at the lower levels.
‘I look for satisfaction in my job but the rest of the staff are concerned only
about physical conditions, being treated kindly, not being asked to work
hours which are unreasonable, being given appropriate recognition of their
status.’ This is the same sort of phenomenon as was illustrated by the
questionnaire on page 1. Furthermore, the staff themselves often reinforce
our beliefs by complaining about precisely those things we have just
mentioned.
The two views of work – one asserting that people seek fulfilment through
work, and the other suggesting that they seek only to satisfy lower-level
needs – are neatly described by Douglas McGregor (1985). McGregor called
the two conflicting assumptions about the nature of work Theory X and
Theory Y.
THEORY X AND THEORY Y
Those managers who adopt ‘Theory X’ believe that
(1) work is inherently distasteful to most people;
(2) most people are not ambitious, have little desire for responsibility and
prefer to be directed;
(3) most people have little capacity for creativity in solving problems;
(4) motivation occurs only at the physiological and security levels; and

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MOTIVATING PEOPLE
2 9
(5) most people must be closely controlled and often coerced to achieve
organization objectives.
‘Theory Y’ managers, on the other hand, believe that
(1) work is as natural as play, if the conditions are favourable;
(2) control of one’s own work activities is often indispensable in achieving
organizational gains;
(3) the capacity for creativity in solving organizational problems is widely
distributed in the population;
(4) motivation occurs at the social, ego and self-realization levels as well as at
the physiological and security levels; and
(5) people can be self-directed and creative at work if properly led.
FREDERICK HERZBERG
Herzberg (1975) put to the practical test, through a series of experiments
conducted with widely differing groups of workers, the sort of thinking
developed by Maslow and McGregor.
One of his best-known experiments consisted of asking people to think of
three occasions when they had felt very satisfied in their work and three
occasions when they had felt dissatisfied. He then asked them to categorize
the causes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction under a number of headings.
Finally he recorded for all the individuals in the group the frequency with
which each category had been noted as a cause of satisfaction or
dissatisfaction. A typical result is shown in Figure 3.2.
From these findings, Herzberg drew some important conclusions:
(1) The things which make people happy at work are not simply the
opposites of the things which make them unhappy, and vice versa. The
two sets of things are different in kind. You will not make people satisfied,
therefore, simply by removing causes of dissatisfaction.
(2) The things that make people dissatisfied are related to the job
environment. The things that make people satisfied on the other hand are
related to the job content.
(3) While those who have a satisfying job may have a higher tolerance of
dissatisfiers, the dissatisfying factors can be so strong that the job
becomes intolerable.
(4) Managers must therefore be concerned with ensuring both that causes of
dissatisfaction are removed and that opportunities for satisfaction are
increased  – that, in Herzberg’s terms, the job is ‘enriched’. It is in this
latter respect that managers usually fail. Instead of using the real
‘motivation’ which comes from a satisfying job, they use rewards and
threats.
Herzberg calls the environmental factors which are capable of causing
unhappiness the ‘hygiene’ factors because he believes that these have to be

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3 0
EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
reasonably well ‘cleaned up’ as a prerequisite for satisfaction. Among the
hygiene factors are
(1) organizational policies and administration;
(2) management;
(3) working conditions;
(4) interpersonal relationships; and
(5) money, status and security.
The work content factors which lead to happiness Herzberg calls the
‘motivators’, and these are as follows: