Understanding herzberg's motivating factors theory in 1960, frederick herzberg constructed a two-dimensional paradigm of factors that affect people's work attitudes according to herzberg's theory, motivators are job factors that cause employees to be productive and that give them satisfaction. conversely, hygiene factors (or maintenance factors) are factors that can cause dissatisfaction if they are , missing but they do not necessarily motivate employees if they are increased herzberg's study asked workers to rank various job-related factors in order of importance relative to motivation. the question was, "what creates enthusiasm for workers and makes them work to their full potential? " fourteen factors were identified. factors receiving the most votes all clustered around job content. herzberg also found that workers did not consider factors related to the job environment to be motivators; in particular, pay was not a factor. workers felt that the absence of good pay, job security, and friendly supervisors could cause dissatisfaction, but their presence did not motivate employees to work harder, they just provided satisfaction and contentment in the work situation. herzberg concluded that certain factors, which he called motivators, made employees productive and gave them satisfaction. herzberg called other elements of the job hygiene factors (or maintenance factors). these related to the job environment and could cause dissatisfaction if missing but would not necessarily motivate employees if increased