In educational systems, job satisfaction and employee motivation are foundational to organizational sustainability. This study, drawing on Herzberg’s two-factor theory, analyzes the narrative The School Principal by Jalal Al-e Ahmad—a text that reflects the lived experience of a principal confronting dysfunctional educational structures and offers a basis for reinterpreting human resource concepts within Iran’s cultural context.

The central question is how Herzberg’s theory can be applied through literary narrative to examine factors contributing to job dissatisfaction and motivation in educational settings. The study identifies hygienic factors (e.g., administrative corruption, injustice, structural violence) and motivational factors (e.g., responsibility, empathy, meaningfulness of professional role) embedded in the text.

Using a qualitative, interpretive, and comparative methodology, data were extracted through library research and narrative content analysis. Findings indicate that the dominance of hygienic factors leads to chronic dissatisfaction and psychological erosion, while intrinsic motivation—though present in the protagonist—fails against systemic dysfunction. The principal’s resignation emerges as an ethical and meaning-driven act in response to institutional failure.

The study concludes that literary narrative can serve as experiential data for organizational theory, elevating Herzberg’s framework from a functional to a humanistic, cultural, and critical level—enabling the localization of HR concepts within Iran’s narrative and cultural landscape