A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Engineering, School of Civil Engineering

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005

Four objectives are accomplished in this dissertation. The first objective is to test Herzberg's theory using a replication of Herzberg's methodology in the construction industry. The second objective is to test methodological validity of the theory by comparingg results from the replication interview with the results from a questionnaire survey designed specially for theory testing. The third objective is to use effects of factors satisfaction on employees' performance into factors grouping process. The fourth objective is to find the relationship between factor satisfaction by project team members with project performance in terms of time, cost, and quality. The target population of this study are engineers and foremen in construction sites in the Bangkok area. A sample of 125 site staffs from 40 construction sites participated in critical incident interviews for objective 1. Results from the interviews were used for the questionnaire design for objectives 2, 3, and 4. A sample of 344 site staffs from 42 construction sites in the Bangkok area returned valid questionnaires. The result of a replication of Herzberg's critical incident interview on construction professionals shows some differences from the result of Herzberg's study (1959). This result shows strong evidence that the theory does not have situational validity in the Thai construction industry. The result of second objective shows that some factors from the questionnaire did not appear the same as in the results from the interview. In addition, some differences are found among samples of project engineers, site engineers, senior foremen, and junior foremen in the questionnaire result. The result of the third objective shows that the effect of level of satisfaction on overall job satisfaction is not necessarily the same as its effects on performance, organizational commitment, and attendance. On the fourth objective, the effects of satisfaction level on project performance are different from the result at the individual level and also different from Herzberg's result. Based on the result of this study, motivation and hygiene factors are regrouped into 4 groups namely, performance-related, technical-related, position-related, and feeling-related factors according to their characteristics