Abstract:
This study looked at how motivation affected job satisfaction among public health workers at Pallisa Main Hospital. A cross-sectional study design using a quantitative methodology was used. Data were collected from 52 employees at Pallisa Main Hospital using a closed-ended survey tool to investigate the following objectives: (1) the impact of extrinsic motivation on job satisfaction of public health workers in Uganda; and (2) the impact of intrinsic motivation on job satisfaction of public health workers in Uganda. The Two Factor Theory, established by Frederick Herzberg in 1987, served as the foundation. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to generate frequency tables as well as perform reliability, validity, correlation, and regression studies. Extrinsic motivation explained 49.7% of the variance in job satisfaction, while intrinsic motivation explained 19.5%, indicating that both forms are important, but extrinsic motivation had a stronger predictive effect in this context. The study concludes that improving job satisfaction among public health workers requires a balanced approach that strengthens both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. While extrinsic factors provide the foundation for satisfaction, intrinsic factors sustain long-term engagement and commitment. The study extends Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory by demonstrating that in resource-constrained public health settings, hygiene factors (extrinsic motivation) can exert a stronger direct influence on satisfaction than motivator factors (intrinsic motivation). This suggests that in such environments, the motivational role of hygiene factors may be greater than originally proposed, indicating a context-specific adaptation of Herzberg’s model.
