DUAL FACTOR THEORY'S SIGNIFICANCE IN MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES FOR

SERVICE INDUSTRY IN CENTRAL SWITZERLAND

Robert Gordon University - Business and Hotel Management School

BA Hotel and Hospitality Management Course

BS 3149 Research Methods for Business Students

Module coordinator: Mr. Behroor Zandi

Submission date: 8th April 2015

Student ID No.: 1509348

Word Count: 2083

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1. Topic:- Dual factor theory for motivating employees of service industry in central
Switzerland

2. Question:- What is the significance of the dual factor theory while motivating employees
in a hotel or restaurant with respect to other methods of motivation?

3. Journal Articles:

ANKLI, R. E., PALLIAM, R., (2012). Enabling a motivated workforce: exploring the sources of
motivation. Development and Learning in Organizations, 26(2), pp.7 - 10

ESKILDSEN, J.K., KRISTENSEN, K., and WESTLUND, A.H., (2004). Work motivation and
job satisfaction in the Nordic countries. Employee Relations, 26(2), pp.122 – 136

JOGULU, U. D and PANSIRI, J., (2011). Mixed methods: a research design for management
doctoral dissertations. Management Research Review, 34(6), pp.687 - 701

JONES, N.B. and LLOYD, G.C., (2005). Does Herzberg's motivation theory have staying
power? Journal of Management Development, 24(10), pp.929 - 943

PASWAN, A.K., PELTON, L.E and TRUE, S.L., (2005). Perceived managerial sincerity,
feedback‐seeking orientation and motivation among front‐line employees of a service
organization. Journal of Services Marketing, 19(1), pp.3 - 12

WHEELER, A.R., BUCKLEY, M.R., (2001). Examining the motivation process of temporary
employees: A holistic model and research framework. Journal of Managerial Psychology,
16(5), pp.339 – 354.

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4. Rationale

The main focus of the researcher is to analyse what type of motivation styles are
most prominent in the service industry in Central Switzerland, particularly the impact of
Fredrick Herzberg’s dual factor theory. Every service industry demands a team of staff
members who are not only talented, witty and hardworking, but also have the desire to push
the extra mile for the betterment of the establishment and further increasing the
establishment's customer satisfaction rate. The latest norm is to hire underpaid employees
and extract maximum amount of energy at work from them, negating the necessity to hire
more number of employees. Every company formulates strategy to reduce costs and
increase profit, however, one must not forget that by increasing the efficiency of employees
and encouraging them to increase productivity and performance is one of the most beneficial
tactic both financially and psychologically for an employer and employee(Ankli and Palliam
2012). Generally, an approximate of 40% of the total expenditure or recurring costs for any
establishment is of labour or staff members, deeming that cost cutting is vital in these areas.
However, these employees can be trained to not perform at their 100%, but 150% by giving
in a higher amount of effort than they normally would. Motivation is an important element for
any organization searching for optimum and more productive candidates for the specific
position that has to be taken care of. A very famous way of motivating employees is to offer a
higher salary, however, this goes against the basic characteristics of Fredrick Herzberg's
dual factor theory, which revolves around hygiene and motivation factors. Hygiene factors
stand for all the benefits, materialistic desires and needs, work environment and other such
factors, while the motivator is the inner voice from an employee that fuels their desire to
outperform, such as the opportunity and proper knowledge to perform(Eskildsen, Kristensen
and Westlund 2004). However, Maslow suggests that after an employee has met the 5 basic
needs, then only they are able to perform at a higher level.

Being a part of an establishment that works in this particular field, it is extremely

difficult to organize and train staff members of the same country or continent, as diversity is a
necessity in this field. Therefore, an employer must also acknowledge the different ethics,
beliefs and traditions of his staff in order to understand more in detail regarding the
motivation techniques being applied to the(Jogulu and Pansiri 2011). A one size fits all
strategy may lead to be catastrophic here. Moreover, the method of imparting or explaining
work attributes is vital as it is critical for an employee to understand what the company they
are working for aims at and what are their beliefs, values and strategy to go about it. Hence,
a corporate philosophy is a key player helping align the goals and objectives of employees.
Having this key player in hand, strategies can be formulated and tasks can be delegated in
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order to achieve the maximum potential of the employees and increase their productivity,
which will further improve the outcome of the company.

Part time or temporary workers pose to be a very challenging group of employees

who are not only hard to motivate, but also stand as a hurdle in the progress of a
company(Paswan, Pelton and True 2005). These part time workers can solely be motivated
via hygiene or materialistic factors such as offering a higher salary, a larger number of days
off, more benefits and other such features or job characteristics. Certain such companies
would be the global fast food chains and certain low budget global hotels as well. Either way,
the hotel must motivate employees and try to sustain them for the betterment of the
company, as having a motivated work force has its own advantages such as the following:-

 Highly responsible and diligent workers

 Increase in the overall work atmosphere and morale of the employees
 Generation of revenue at a higher profit margin
 Increase in customer retention and satisfaction rates

The dual factor theory is one of the most famous ways of motivation employees, with
certain others also paving the way such as Maslow's Pyramid of Hierarchical needs, the SD
theory, basic job rotation and enrichment techniques and undisputedly the authentic raise in
the salary method. Nevertheless, the researcher is keen on developing this project around
Fredrick Herzberg's dual factor theory, which is an interesting mix of materialistic desires and
the ability to outperform; helping companies to motivate their employees at a much more
efficient rate. Herzberg's theory simply states hygiene factors playing a balancing role with
the motivation factors(Jones and Lloyd 2005). The hygiene factors can be considered as
increase in salary, less working hours, an extended leave, work environment, benefits and
features of the job and other such aspects. Nevertheless, these are unbalanced and their
effect is not permanent without the intervention of motivators. Motivators are described by
Herzberg as the factors that provide an employee the opportunity to feel more motivated.
This arises in the form of three simple steps, the first step is to possess the ability to deliver
100% guest satisfaction, for say, the second step would be to search and obtain an
opportunity to try to satisfy a customer's needs and the last step involves a feedback, which
may not always be from another person. However, Maslow's pyramid of needs follows
different levels of needs that have to be met prior to being motivated(Wheeler and Buckley
2001). The first set of needs comprise of physiological needs, second are the safety and
security needs, love and belonging being the third with self-actualization being the successor
and self-esteem being the last level.

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 Being aware of the fact that human resource is the most expensive asset of any
organization, the researcher is keen upon analysing the factors and theories that are most
prevalent for employee motivation.

5. Aim:- The aim of this research paper is to examine whether the dual factor theory of
motivation is effective while motivating employees of service industry in Central Switzerland

6. Objectives:-

1. To explore the different prevalent theories and methods of employee motivation along
with the significance
2. To understand the functionality and effectiveness of dual factor theory while
motivating employees in Central Switzerland
3. To analyze the application of other theories of motivation in Central Switzerland

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 7. METHODOLOGY

The researcher will be analysing and collecting both primary and secondary sorts of
data collection method in order to bring forth a more diverse result and design the outcome in
a more credible manner. The researcher will be interviewing the management of Jail Hotel to
gain concrete evidence regarding the application of the dual factor theory or any other
prevalent method of employee motivation. Moreover, the researcher will also be distributing
surveys to the employees of most of the service centred establishments in Switzerland to
enhance the perception of dual factor theory. Due to the fact that this topic is still under
examination and is based on serious issues of the global labour force, it is categorised under
a realism philosophy. In order to narrow down to a few selected prevalent theories of
employee motivation, the researcher skimmed through several journal articles regarding
these theories and had included only a few of the most prevalent and renown theories,
leading to the conclusion that this study belongs to a deductive approach. Qualitative
analysis generally revolved around online materials of research and interviews, while
quantitative counterpart was derived from the surveys being distributed in Central
Switzerland such as Zug, Zurich, Lucerne and Emmen. Since the researcher aims at deriving
conclusion of the surveys from employees of a service related establishment, it will be titled
as a non-probability sampling technique, exclusively because it targets only a particular
group of people in the vicinity. Being known that work force is the most expensive asset of a
company, which is further increased at an exponential rate in most of the developed
countries such as Switzerland, increase in productivity is the utmost important goal for an HR
manager. Therefore, the researcher would like to analyse further regarding this matter.

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 8. DRAFT QUESTIONS

My name is Dheeraj Sharma and I am a part of the Business and Hospitality Management
School in Luzern, an extension of the Benedict School. I am conducted a small survey and
would be ,more than pleased to request for your precious time in filling in the survey
regarding my topic ' Dual factor theory for motivating service industry employees'. The
answers will be anonymous and used for the sole purpose of research at an academic level.

Questionnaire

Factors that help you motivate during work?

Name: Age:

Sex:

Nationality: American African European Asian Other

1) With 1 being least and 4 being most, what is your satisfaction rate regarding your job?

a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4

2) When determining a job, which of the following factors are undertaken initially?

a. Pay b. Work hours c. Workload d. Benefits

3) Which of the following empower you the most?

a. Amount of pay b. Working atmosphere c. New and challenging work d. Length

of work contract

4) What is your average salary?

a. Less than 4000CHF b. Between 4001 and 5500CHF c. 5500CHF or more

5) Out of the dual factor and Maslow’s theory of motivation, which impresses you the most
and why?

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

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6) Define the tasks accomplished daily at your work place

a) Sufficient b) Challenging c) Stressful d) Hectic

7) Which conditions at work motivate you the most?

____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

8) Kindly tick the appropriate choice that apply

Statement Highly Motivational No effect De- Highly De-

Motivational Motivational Motivational
Relationship
with the
superiors

Knowledge of
work being
dealt with

Co-operative
team
High payroll

Enriched job

Challenging
work
environment

Ability to learn
and develop
skills
A satisfactory
job

Thank you for your time and participation

Questionnaire 2
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Which theory is the most dominative and exercised when motivating employees?

Age:

Sex: Nationality:

Respected Sir/Madam, I, Dheeraj Sharma, am a student of Benedict School, Luzern,

and would like some precious time of yours in order to aid me with the following question
regarding a simple research project. Thanks for your assistance

1) Do you believe that a balanced motivation technique is more efficient rather than a
boost in salary or other work benefits?

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

2) What is your opinion regarding Fredrick Herzberg’s dual factor theory of motivation?

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

3) What type of motivation technique is applicable to your establishment and what were
the outcomes of it?

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

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 4) What would you recommend other establishments to perform in order to boost
employee motivation?

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your time and participation

9. ACTION PLAN
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 The following chart exhibits the path followed by the author between the dates of 11th
of April 2015 and 27th of June while progressing through the research project’s completion.
The following is a rough estimate.

TASK 11/04 25/04 05/05 15/05 25/05 01/06 10/06 17/06 26/06
Introduction -------- -------

Obtaining the ------- -------

information
Enhancement ------- -------
of the project
Distribution of ------- -------
Questionnaire
Gathering -------
and analysing
the findings
Categorizing ------- -------
and sorting
out the report
in a
diplomatic
manner
Analysing the -------
results

Finishing -------
touches of
the project
Conclusion -------
and mock of
the project
Proof reading -------

10. RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS

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 In order to gather relevant information regarding this topic, the researcher had to go
through various online websites and credible materials such as Google scholar, Emerald
insight website which is an online journal article hub and various other books and print
materials. Furthermore, the author also used the printing services provided by the BHMS
school in Baselstrasse 57 for printing out the project.

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