Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

According to Maslow (1970), an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met. He was a psychologist and he introduced the Mslow's hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow's initial concept included only one growth need that is up to self-actualization position. Self-actualized people can be categorized by their characters as follows;

1. Much focused to problems;

2. Can be easily motivated on appreciation of life;

3. Concerns very much on personal growth

4. Abilities are more focused on experiences.

Maslow later realize some of the issues and came up with new new layers by introducing the growth related to self fulfillment of needs. Mainly he identified two of the first growth needs, in the figure 1 depicted as self fulfillment needs as part of the more general level of self actualization (Maslow & Lowery, 1998) and another level which is beyond the general level mainly focused on the growth focusing on the highest expectations in the self-actualization (Maslow, 1970).

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory has not been able to considered as a great deal of support with respect to specific areas of concepts it proposes. The model defined by Maslow is concerned more on effectiveness in describing the different types of behaviours of highly successful individuals who are are having a very good potential in growth need strength because employees who are different to the idea of increasing their growth will not realize any physiological reaction to their jobs.
(Greenberg & Baron, 2003)

Friedlander (1966, p 143) carried out on his surveys targeting a cross-section of the working population in Los Angeles, posited “background factors, altitudes and aspirations affects workers needs, expectations and situation assessment”.

Also he made a further argument by mentioning that the theory makes the following unrealistic assumptions

• all employees considered as in a similar platform.
• all situations considered of employment are similar.
• there is one and only one best way to meet the needs which are clearly mentioned.

Another criticism to the Maslow's view was published by Basset-Jones & Lloyd (2004, p 961). They presented that in general circumstances, the Maslow's needs of theory related to employees satisfaction. In Simple words feeling of employees to take credits for the needs met and needs not met is a measurement of employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

References:

Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.

Basset-Jones, N. & Lloyd, G.C. (2005), “Does Herzbergs Motivational Theory have staying power”? Journal of Management Development, Vol.24, No.10, pp. 57-56

Friedlander, F. (1966) “Motivation to work and Organisational Performance”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 143-152.

Greenberg J & Baron A.R (2003) “Behaviour in Organisations”, Prentice Hall, Vol. 8, pp.195-197