Testing Herzberg's Motivation Theory in a Comparative Study of U.S. and Korean Public Employees

Abstract

A ‘science’ of human behavior in the public administrative setting depends on our ability to formulate, test, and validate generalizations concerning such behavior in differing societies and cultures. This research note is an example of an effort to test one highly regarded theory of workplace motivation — Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory— beyond the single U.S. setting. The results from among both Korean and American public employees suggest Herzberg's two-factor theory of job motivation applies with equal force in both national settings.