lop effective strategies to promote desirable organizational outcomes through the enhancement of motivation and job satisfaction (Blegan, 1993). Researchers then oriented studies toward the identification of the specific factors that affected job satisfaction and could motivate individuals within organizational environments (Locke, 1983). This body of work has come to be known as content theories of motivation and job satisfaction (Scott, 1992).
Maslow (1954) dealt with motivation through the theory of the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy divided human needs into higher and lower orders. The lower order needs are primary, such as food, shelter, sex, and physical security, while the higher order needs involve affiliation, love for others, and self actualization. When the lower order needs are absent in the life of an individual, the satisfaction of those needs become the center of the individual's life. In most modern societies, however, the primary needs are satisfied. Thus, real motivationùespecially within organizational structuresùresults from individual desires to satisfy their higher order needs (Maslow, 1966).
Maslow (1954) recognized the significance of lower order needs as motivators, yet contended that, in modern societies, these needs were generally met. Thus, it was Maslow's contention that other means had to be employed to motivate individual within organizational structures. Specifically, factors had to be introduced that would enhance an individual's opportunity to attain self actualization.
Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman (1959) developed the two factor model of motivation that is often confused with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The two factor model divided the factors involved in an individual's organizational life into hygiene factors and motivation factors. Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two factor model are not identical. Herzberg (1966) included such factors as compensation, worki...