Analyzing Employee Motivation at KCB Bank using Herzberg's Theory

This case study examines the issue of employee motivation at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), focusing on the challenges the bank faced in retaining employees under the leadership of CEO Joshua N Oigara. The study applies Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory to understand the factors affecting job satisfaction and dissatisfaction among KCB employees. It explores how factors like achievement, responsibility, and recognition (motivators) and institutional politics, supervision, and working environment (hygiene factors) influenced employee morale and turnover rates. The analysis suggests implementing Herzberg's theory to address the bank's issues by improving both motivational and hygiene factors to enhance employee engagement and reduce turnover. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and resources for students.

Running Head: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Intrinsic motivation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Chosen contemporary issue: Employee Motivation
Employee motivation is a prevailing contemporary problem these days. Long work
hours, peer pressure, stress, alcohol dependence, office politics and limited opportunities lead
to a demotivated and equally unhappy workforce. These factors lead to a reduction in
productivity. Hence, the chosen issue is a contemporary issue.
Impacts of Chosen Contemporary Issue on Managers:
Employee engagement has been an important concern. The employee engagement
within an organization refers to the approaches that are implemented by the workplace
management. It ensures that the employees offer the best of their efforts towards the overall
development of the concerned organization. The employee engagement within the company
also helps in the development of commitment of the employees within the given organization
(Mone & London, 2018). If an employee is demotivated and not dedicated to his or her work,
this behavior affects the organization as a whole. Demotivated employees can be a major
concern for managers as the team productivity reduces. The team as a whole start suffering.
Sometimes such employees quit their jobs. Losing such employees become a problem for
managers. Losing an employee can heavily cost the company thereby increasing its expenses.
Thus, it is understood that high employee turnover can be considered as a major factor for
increasing organizational expenses.
Managers need to work on schemes to motivate such employees and improve their
work ethics. Motivated and involved employees help the organization to reach its goals. The
management of the multitude of the organizations operating within the international markets
tends to deal with the provide the employees of the organization with the needed motivation

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in order to arrest the high rate of the employee turnover (Albrecht et al., 2015). This, in turn,
would help in the retention of the experienced and effective workforce members within the
given organization thereby helping the concerned organization in the maintenance of the
various issues that might stem from the improper engagement of the employees within the
organization.
Life Case Illustrating the Chosen Issue in Practice:
This can be better understood with the help of a real-life case study of the Kenya
Commercial Bank (KCB) (Omollo & Oloko, 2015). This commercial bank was facing
challenges in retaining employees. Joshua N Oigara was appointed as the managing director
and CEO of KCB in 2013. Prior to this, he served as the CFO in the same bank.
Under his leadership, the employees felt demotivated and overworked. The employee
turnover rate of the Kenya Commercial Bank has been very high. The majority of the
employees of the bank have been dropping in their resignations on the grounds of being
extremely demotivated to deliver their duties towards the financial institution as well as the
clientele of the organization properly and efficiently. The concerned financial institution,
Kenya Commercial Bank in Migori County, has also been facing issues regarding the high
costs incurred for training and recruitment, increased governmental regulations, continuous
technological innovation in the highly competitive nature of the market where the bank has
been operating (Omollo and Oloko, 2015). In this fierce competition of human resources,
Oigara found it hard to stick to retain the top talents and motivate them by providing
recognition or through the reward management system. He was not able to motivate the
employees through his leadership skills.

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The popular Two-Factor Theory by Herzberg is used in the background for this
particular case to study the effect of job satisfaction and concerns of the employees of KCB.
Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory/Motivator-Hygiene discusses the factors concerning an
individual’s liking and disliking for the job. (Miner, 2015). Herzberg theory focuses on five
significant features that lead to workplace satisfaction. They include- achievement,
responsibility, job role, recognition, and advancement. Herzberg theory identifies institutional
politics, supervision, managerial approach, relationships, emoluments, and working
environment as major factors that could demotivate employees.
The Herzberg two-factor theory, commonly known as the dual-factor theory or the
Motivation-hygiene Theory was formulated by the celebrated American psychologist,
Frederick Herzberg in the year 1959 (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl & Maude, 2017). The theory
dealt with job satisfaction and the motivation among the employees who have been serving
within the various organizations active all over the world. The theory that was suggested by
the American psychologist states that the job satisfaction of the employees within the
organization depended upon to major factors, motivators or the satisfying factors and the
hygiene or the dissatisfying factors. The psychologist further clarifies the fact that the two
major factors that have been affecting the job satisfaction of the employees generally do not
belong to the category of polar opposites.
The propounder of the theory explains the relationship through the example of
payments that are considered to be an important factor affecting the job satisfaction of the
employee. The remuneration that is offered to the employee plays a huge role in motivating
the employees of the organization. However, the increase in the remuneration might not put
forth the satisfaction of the employees. The increase in the remuneration might not be the
factor that helps in motivating the employees of the organization in a proper manner (Cohen,

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2017). The increase in the remuneration of the employee might get rid of the dissatisfaction
of the employee, but it does not necessarily translate into the satisfaction of the employee.
Herzberg through his theory explains that four different situations might be faced by a given
business organization. The situation can be described through the combinations of hygiene
and the motivational factors. The ideal situation within the business organizations is found
with high hygiene and motivational factors present within the organization. In this situation,
the employees are observed to be highly motivated and have almost no complaints
(Holmberg, Caro & Sobis, 2018). The second situation finds high hygiene factors and low
motivational factors. This situation finds the employees to have a few complaints and have
not been motivated and tend to view their work as a means of earning funds. The third
situation finds high motivational and low hygiene factors. In this situation the employees
have been finding their work to be challenging but have been motivated; however, they bear
several issues regarding their remunerations and work environments (Hur, 2018). The fourth
situation finds the low nature of hygiene as well as motivational factors. During this situation,
the employees of the business organization are found to have been discussing a huge number
of issues and have not been motivated in the least bits. This is one of the worst possible
scenarios that a business organization might face.
In lieu of the above discussion, it might be stated that the Herzberg two-factor theory of
motivation might be implemented within the Kenya Commercial Bank in Migori County in
order to address the issues that the financial institution has been facing in the recent times.

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References
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015).
Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive
advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People
and Performance, 2(1), 7-35.
Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L., & Maude, P. (2017). Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life
Science Journal, 14(5), 12-16.
Cohen, E. (2017). Employee training and development. In CSR for HR (pp. 153-162).
Routledge.
Holmberg, C., Caro, J., & Sobis, I. (2018). Job satisfaction among Swedish mental health
nursing personnel: Revisiting the two‐factor theory. International journal of mental
health nursing, 27(2), 581-592.
Hur, Y. (2018). Testing Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation in the Public Sector: Is
it Applicable to Public Managers?. Public Organization Review, 18(3), 329-343.
Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational Behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and
leadership. Routledge.
Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.

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Omollo, P. A., & Oloko, M. A. (2015). Effect of motivation on employee performance of
commercial banks in Kenya: A case study of Kenya Commercial Bank in Migori
County. International journal of human resource studies, 5(2), 87-103.