Herzberg, Fred(erick) (1923–2000)

US psychologist and management theorist who believed that ‘mental health is the core issue of our times’. After a distinguished career in clinical psychology and public health administration, he became a professor of management at the University of Utah School of Business in 1972.

An authority on motivation and the nature of work, he advocated using job enrichment as a motivator, famously separating out the conditions under which employees work into hygiene factors and motivation factors. His books The Motivation to Work (1959) and Work and the Nature of Man (1966), with their emphasis on self-development, have contributed to modern management practices that are used by companies around the world.

As part of his clinical research into motivation in the 1950s, he interviewed a group of about 200 engineers and accountants in Pittsburgh, asking them what they liked and disliked most about their work. He divided the motivational parts of work into two categories: firstly, those serving human needs (hygiene factors), such as salary and working conditions, which he identified as a principal cause of dissatisfaction in work; and secondly, those that he called true motivation (motivation factors), such as self-esteem, career development, and recognition, which he identified as the principal cause of job satisfaction.

Herzberg was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the son of immigrant Jewish parents. He served in the army during World War II and was posted to the Dachau Concentration Camp after its liberation. Having received a BS from City College of New York in 1946, he moved on to the University of Pittsburgh where he was awarded an MS in clinical and industrial psychology in 1949 and a PhD in 1950. He was the research director for the US Public Health Service at Pittsburgh from 1951 until his appointment as distinguished professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University in 1957. There he established the Department of Industrial Mental Health before joining the University of Utah in 1972.

In 1994 he received the Distinguished Services Award for the 1993–94 academic year from the Utah School of Business, and the Frederick Herzberg Visiting Lecture Series was established in his name. In 1995 he was recognized as the Cummins Engine Professor of Management. He was also a long-time contributing editor to the Industry Week magazine.