Maslow (As cited by Koestner, 2021) states that in order to move to the next level of psychological development, a person must be satisfied in every way, and that the characteristics of human life are satisfied when they can take advantage of psychology from where they are today. The process of protection, love, respect, and self-verification throughout their lives. Many employers follow this theory to motivate their employees (As cited by Koestner, 2021). Further, he conceptualized a five-level hierarchy for human needs. Requirements are defined as internal states, and some of the outcomes appear attractive. According to Maslow, the origin of motivation is driven by needs (Robert, 2013). Motivation was defined as the desire to make high efforts to achieve certain goals. (Acevedo, 2018)
Figure 1.0 : Pyramid of Maslow's hierarchy of needs
(McLeod, 2020)
As per the figure 1.0, Maslow (as cited by Nyameh Jerome, 2013) has been categorized that needs in to three major segments as basic, psychological & self-fulfillment needs that might be applied to the performance of an organization and its employees. Moreover, Maslow theorized that the lower-level needs have to be satisfied before the next higher-level needs would motivate an employee (Armstrong, 2010)
Physiological needs - These are the basic requirements for human survival, such as the need for oxygen, food, water, and sex. According to Maslow, any other factor cannot motivate employees until they meet the above needs. (Armstrong, 2010).
Safety needs - These are the next in the hierarchy and the focus is on getting rid of physical injury and loss of employment, property, food or shelter protecting yourself from emotional despair (Kaur, 2013).
Social needs (Belongness & Love) - These are the needs that deal with the social aspect of man such as the need to belong and be accepted by others. It is the need for love, affection and acceptance as belonging to a group.
Esteem needs - Following the satisfaction of the need to belong and be accepted by others, Maslow defined the desire to be regarded in high regard by oneself and others as the next higher degree of need. It goes on to say that these needs are satisfied by power, prestige, position, and self-assurance. Internal esteem elements such as self-respect, autonomy, and accomplishments are included, as well as external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and attention (Abbah, 2014).
Self-actualization needs - In the hierarchy, this is the most important necessity. It is the desire to become the better version of themselves, to reach the other's full potential, and to accomplish something. It involves needs such as personal development, realizing one's full potential, and self-fulfillment. Abbah, (2014) has been explains that as employees should be recognized for their achievements.
Figure 2.0 – How to ensure the needs in work place – Maslow’s needs hierarchy
(Cited by Bhavikatti 2021)
I work for a reputed company in Sri Lanka that engages in infrastructure development & maintenance in the telecommunication sector. They are doing their level best to follow the Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory within the organization. To fulfill the physiological needs, tea, coffee & soft drinks vending machines are available in every work station & deploy the employees as per the duty rosters to ensure their relaxation since they are unable to interrupt their operations as telecommunication is an essential service in my country. Furthermore, all employees in my organization are covered by health insurance to ensure their safety and pay suitable salaries for all employees to meet their family needs. Especially in this pandemic situation, they paid the salaries of all staff without any deductions & ensured their safety by conducting the PCR test free of charge. To enhance the relationship between the employees & their families, my organization arranges two outdoor events per year, regularly in the new year season & at year's end by focusing on X-mas. Organize the award night every year by my organization to recognize the achievements of the employees and ensure their esteem needs as per maslow's needs hierarchy. In recruitment, my organization prioritizes the internal employees and gives them opportunities to face new challenges. Hence, many employees are self-actualized in my organization & always give their maximum to achieve the company's goals.
Video 1.0 : Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the Workplace
Video 1.0 illustrates how we should meet these needs in our workplace. Most successful organizations, however, have learned by experience that people are very responsive to praise and encouragement, expressed not only in words but also in action, to give their best effort to the organization (Dubnick,2003)
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is still important and relevant in today’s business & organizations. For every organization that seeks to achieve success and excellence, any attempt to shy away from practical application of the hierarchy of needs theory, will negatively affect the organizational culture, human resource management, and the performance of the employees. To achieve organizational excellence and create a good atmosphere, better work environment, and achieve the target at the right time, the drive and application of the theory is paramount. (Abbah, 2014)
However, while some research has shown support for Maslow’s theory, others has not been able to substantiate the idea of a need for a hierarchy that is considered to be influenced by Western culture, and thus cannot apply to all scenarios. (as cited by Jerome, 2013).
References
Abbah, M., 2014. Employee Motivation: The Key to
Effective Organizational Management in Nigeria. Journal of Business and
Management, 16(4).
Acevedo, A., 2018. A
Personalistic Appraisal of Maslow’s Needs Theory of Motivation: From
“Humanistic” Psychology to Integral Humanism. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(2).
Armstrong, M., 2010. Essential
Human Resource Management Practice, a Guide to People Management. New
Dilli: Kogan Page Ltd.
Bhavikatti, V. I.,
2021. EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND WORK PEFORMANCE IN. Journal of University of
Shanghai for Science and Technology,, 23(2), p. 473.
Dubnick, M. J., 2003.
ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE PROMISE OF PERFORMANCE: In Search of the
Mechanisms. Lisban, European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) ..
Jerome, N., 2013.
Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory; impacts and
implications on organizational culture, human resource and employee’s
performance. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3),
p. 41.
Maslow, A. H., 1943.
A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), pp.
380-396.
McLeod, S., 2020. www.simplypsychology.org.
[Online]
Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.htm
[Accessed 19 Augest 2021].
Robert, J. T., 2013.
Maslow and the Motivation Hierarchy: Measuring Satisfaction of the Needs. The
American Journal of Psychology, 126(2), pp. 155-77.
Agreed with the argument relevant to Maslow’s hierarchy. But it is debated by many people that Maslow hierarchy is not pointing major point of people motivations. Flower in 2014 said that Maslow’s hierarchy approaches to lower level of people satisfaction and it didn’t consider major higher-level needs of people, specifically, self-actualization, improvement in workplace conditions and safety. Also he mentioned healthy environment is the decent thing but individuals can experience higher level of motivation anytime, anywhere other than these lower-level needs(Flower, 2014). Maslow considered narrow segment of people needs and there is no proper way to measure employee satisfactory level since how satisfied of one level is effected to next level of the hierarchy (Kunchala, 2017).
ReplyDeleteYes, agreed. Iguisi (2009), emphasis that Maslow’s satisfaction theory demonstrates what motivate employees further, stimulate and reinforce the behavior. Organization need to know where employees are on the Maslow’s need pyramid in order to motivate them (Robbins, 2001).
DeleteAgreed while adding further proposing several changes to Maslow's original model (Kenrick, 2010).This new model not only connects contemporary psychological developments (e.g., evolutionary and positive psychology), but it also presents a number of broader empirical problems for future investigation.”While the original hierarchy contained five levels, this revised version included seven and revised hierarchy of human motives, building on theoretical and empirical developments at the interface of evolutionary biology, anthropology, and psychology (Kenrick, 2010).
ReplyDeleteYes, agreed. Deriving from the hierarchy of needs by Maslow, content theories of job satisfaction revolve around employees’ needs and the factors that bring them a reasonable degree of satisfaction (Saif et al., 2012).
DeleteAgreed. Maslow (1943) initially stated that individuals must satisfy lower level deficit
ReplyDeleteneeds before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. However, he
later clarified that satisfaction of a needs is not an “all-or-none” phenomenon,
admitting that his earlier statements may have given “the false impression that
a need must be satisfied 100 percent before the next need emerges” (1987, p.
69)
Yes, agreed. As per the Harpaz (1990), ordering level of the needs may be varied upon the priorities of the employees.
DeleteI agree with you Nuwan. Even though Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is one of the fundamental theories in motivation, there are some more criticisms in regards to the application of this theory. According to Kaur (2013) one of the main criticisms is that needs of people may not arise as per an order. Another criticism is that it is not applicable to all the situations related to people and needs and wants cannot be completely fulfilled as they grow.
ReplyDeleteYes, agreed. Nadler & Lawler (1979), argued the same that the theory makes the following unrealistic assumptions about employees in general that; all employees are alike, all situations are alike and that and there is only one best way to meet needs.
DeleteAccording to Greenberg & Baron 2003 p.195, the greatest value of Maslows need theory lies in the practical implications it has for every management of organizations
ReplyDeleteThank you. Maslow's point of view is very helpful in understanding the needs of the staff and determining how to meet their needs. His theory suggests that managers to recognize that deprived needs may have a negative impact on attitudes and behaviors, as well as providing opportunities to meet demand. May have a positive incentive effect(McGrath and Bates, 2017)
DeleteThe theory and application have been very well illustrated. As per Wahbe (1976), it is noteworthy to point that the theory has been criticized based on lack of empirical support and insufficient operationalization of the concepts for a discussion.
ReplyDeleteYes, agreed. However, there are criticisms that he has missed the social connection where several researchers were believed that without social connection there is no survival physically as well as emotionally (Rutledge, 2011).
DeleteYes of course. It appears that Maslow theory is still being used today in organizations to determine the required factor to motivate employees. According to Maslow, there are five levels that need to satisfy one by one. If one level of motivation starts to decrease, the employer must need to put more power to influence employees for the need at the next stage up the hierarchy (Obiekwe, 2016).
ReplyDeleteYes. Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so only would like consider about the drawbacks of this theory. From a scientific perspective there are numerous problems with this particular approach. First, it could be argued that biographical analysis as a method is extremely subjective as it is based entirely on the opinion of the researcher.
Delete(Mansary, 2019) also stated that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory One of the first and best-known content theories to describe why people have dissimilar needs at diverse times is Abraham Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory discovered in the late 1943 and formulated in 1954. He revealed five basic classes of human needs and positioned them in a hierarchy. Maslow hypothesized that everybody has five basic needs that create a need hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteYes. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is applied in psychology as well as in business, and it helps to understand what motivates people. The pyramid has five needs, and according to Maslow’s theory, a person does not feel needs above unless the needs in the bottom have been satisfied. (Jerome, 2013)
DeleteYes Nimna, According to Smith & Cronje (1992), the way Maslow’s theory is explained relies on the fact that people want to increase what they want to achieve in life and their needs are prioritized according to their importance.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with you. Further, according to the Abraham Maslow (1943) organization should concern many thigs such as prolific scholar in the areas of psychology, sociology, and organizational behavior. Through the employee satisfaction, organization get more benefits in the future.
ReplyDeleteThank you. However, there are criticisms that he has missed the social connection where several researchers were believed that without social connection there is no survival physically as well as emotionally (Rutledge, 2011).
Deletewhen we talking about basic needs Organization must provide reasonable salary to employee to fulfill their main requirement .If the organization fail to give good wedges, result will be less performance and employee not going to give their maximum contribution (Ozguner and Ozguner, 2014).
ReplyDeleteAgreed with your arguments. The theory assumes that all people experience these needs in the same order, failing to recognize cultural and individual differences. In collectivist societies, for example, social needs may be considered more important than physiological needs ( Malcom, 2017).
DeleteYes Agree Nuwan, as per Patterson (2017), Understanding this hierarchy can help individuals determine whether the needs are met at workplace and how it can better meet the needs of the team
ReplyDelete