This two-factor theory relates directly to the shift that occurred in worker values between the modern and postmodern eras. In essence, the modern era was one in which Herzberg’s hygiene factors were prevalent. A modern worker is motivated by the receipt of money (or food or shelter) on a regular basis, and by adequate working conditions. Trade unions were originally established at the start of the modern era to secure these hygiene needs, given that employers were no longer beholden to the paternalistic concerns that dominated their relationship with workers during the premodern era. The postmodern era, by contrast, is one in which Herzberg’s motivating factors have become more prevalent—especially as unions have become more successful in ensuring that the hygiene factors are in place.
Certainly, one of the major challenges facing labor unions during the early years of the postmodern era is the shift in emphasis from hygiene to motivating factors. Contemporary unionization has shifted from an emphasis on basic security and survival needs, to an emphasis on worker involvement in corporate decision-making and to the restructuring of jobs into more meaningful units of production.[lxv] Salary, work conditions and related hygiene factors are critical; however, they are no longer sufficient to meet the changing needs of contemporary workers.
The modern-day psychological contract is built on the assumption that work is performing primarily to meet needs that are external to the work itself. We are paid in money or various forms of psychological capital (e.g. self-esteem) for work that is not inherently worthwhile. We redesign the work environment in order to motivate the worker and bring the worker more fully into the decision-making processes regarding work, without considering whether or not there is an implicit motivating force in the job itself. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi speaks of the autotelic (self-rewarding and self-directing) properties of many jobs and notes that physicians, accountants, rock musicians, and teachers often find their work to be inherently gratifying and need no outside motivator to keep them involved, happily, in what they now do.[lxvi] Such factors are central elements in Herzberg’s motivating factor. The notion of psychological contract may seem quite foreign to these autotelically driven men and women who want only to be left alone to do their work, or want nothing more from the organization than the resources that are needed to perform their work.
Csikszentmihalyi further suggests that most of us, whether we are in self-satisfying jobs or not, spend most of our life looking for and attempting to replicate settings in which we find these self-satisfying (flow) experiences. We may do our boring job in order to obtain the money to perform our autotelic work (gardening, rock-climbing, dancing), in which case, the psychological contract is still an appropriate concept. Yet, even in this situation, we would be foolish to cease our search for ways in which the worker will find his or her current job autotelic rather than just a means to finding autotelic experiences in other settings.
A survey of employee needs at a high-tech firm in the San Francisco Bay Area revealed that the number one training need was in the area of rock climbing. Number two was woodwork. Several years before, employees suggested that knowledge about new scientific developments in their field is of highest priority. This no longer seems important. Has the work in this company become less autotelic such that workers are looking elsewhere (rock climbing, woodwork) for their gratification? Is it just because the employees are now older and less enamored with their new technologies or has the company lost some essential drawing power?
The leader of another high-tech firm speaks of the currency of his company as “title and money; the only thing we seem to value. The number of people reporting to us is [our] measure of success.” The challenge for the leaders of the first high tech firm is to find ways to reclaim the interests of their employees and to identify future problems and projects that will be as inherently interesting and gratifying as rock-climbing and woodwork. The leader of the second high tech firm must find something that will excite his employees other than position or salary. The employees in both of these organizations do not need a new psychological contract. They need more interesting work. Such a notion about work and about the motivation to work will lead contemporary organizations from the modern perspective to a post-modern perspective that is revolutionary.
