Maslow’s
Hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow was one of the most influential
psychologists of the twentieth century. His biggest contributions to psychology
were his contributions to humanistic psychology as well as his development of
the hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s career in psychology greatly predated the
modern positive psychology movement, but it might not look the same were it not
for him. He was a Classical Theorist who believed in the division of labour to
increase productivity. However Maslow brought in a new dimension that was
developed from Herbert Simon’s [1930] Bounded Rationality theory (Fiske and
Taylor 1991). Maslow highlighted that there were external factors that were not
intrinsic to the human being that also drove a human being to perform other
than just division of labour, specialisation and creating efficient work
processes.
"It is quite true that man lives by bread
alone — when there is no bread. But what happens to man’s desires when there is
plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled? At once other (and
“higher”) needs emerge and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate
the organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still
“higher”) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the basic
human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency"
[Maslow, 1943, p. 375]. In 1943 Maslow presented his Hierarchy of needs which
was initially a 5 staged pyramid. The Hierarchy of needs was arranged in such a
manner that the basic need was at the bottom of the pyramid whilst advanced or
higher order needs were at the apex of the pyramid.
According to Maslow the lower order needs had
to be satisfied first before higher order needs are satisfied. He argued that
an unsatisfied need becomes a motivator that encourages positive behaviour. He
also argued that once a need is satisfied and remains satisfied, it ceases to
be a motivator and a person is then motivated by the pursuit of achieving
higher order needs.
1. Physiological
The first need that Maslow identified was
physiological needs. These entailed food, air, water, shelter and sex. Maslow
argued that physiological needs were basic to human survival and every human
being seeks to satisfy these before other needs are satisfied. Maslow
postulates that human behaviour, productivity, is thus driven if the
achievement of a certain level of productivity will entail satisfaction of
physiological needs. Maslow thus argues that a person will increase
productivity to ensure they satisfy basic survival related needs.
2. Safety
After having satisfied the physiological
needs, Maslow argue that humans seek to satisfy their need for safety. This
entails being safe from harm and injury either at the workplace or from work
related activities. Maslow argues that this is a level of awareness whereby the
human being becomes conscious that even though they have to satisfy
physiological needs, they must satisfy the needs through safe practices. For
example when employees realise that even though a wage ensures that they can
eat meals and afford shelter, they have to be safe at their workplace as well
and not endanger their lives.
3. Love / Belonging
Having satisfied the physiological needs and
the Safety needs the human/ employee needs to satisfy the need for love and
belonging. This entails the need to belong and be accepted in organisations
either formal or informal that are related to the undertaking or interests of
the human being. For example the need for a human being to feel that they are
part of the company they work for and they are loved in the company they work
for and the department they work under.
4. Esteem
Maslow classified esteem needs into two
categories: (i) esteem for oneself (dignity, achievement, mastery,
independence) and (ii) the desire for reputation or respect from others (status,
prestige). Maslow indicated that the need for respect or reputation is most
important for children and adolescents and precedes real self-esteem or
dignity. This is exemplified in organisations through recognitions, long service
awards, achievement awards and employee of the month or year awards.
5. Self-Actualisation
Maslow stated that this entailed realizing
personal potential, self-fulfilment, seeking personal growth and peak
experiences. A desire “to become everything one is capable of becoming (Maslow,
1987, p. 64). This Maslow explained that it was achieving the best that one
could ever become. For example in Real Madrid Football Club, Zinedine Yazid
Zidane has achieved the highest levels both as a player and after retirement by
being a team captain and Club Manager respectively.
Abraham
Maslow was however fortunate enough that he lived long to see the various
criticisms that were levelled against his theory and rather than taking a
defensive stance he incorporated some of the criticisms to come up with a high
breed revised model that took cognisance of the new information in 1970. The
revised model is depicted below and the additional stages are also explained.
In his revised model of 1970 Maslow argued
that the bottom four needs are deficiency needs which are mainly sought by
those who lack whilst the top four are growth needs that are sought by those
who seek personal development and growth.
Cognitive Needs
Maslow described cognitive needs as the need
to acquire knowledge and understanding, satisfying curiosity, exploration, need
for meaning and predictability. This can be exemplified by organisational
training and development and provision of learning opportunities for employees
to satisfy their cognitive needs.
Aesthetic Needs
This is the need of appreciation and search
for beauty, balance and form. The endeavour to satisfy this need is exemplified
the great lengths organisations go to ensure that their premises are
beautified, offices of senior management are nice looking and some even send
their top management to company paid vacations.
Transcendence Needs
This level is where by an individual who has
already attained self-actualisation now seeks to help others attain
self-actualisation. Examples of individuals who attained this stage of include
Muhammad of the Islam Religion, Jesus Christ of the Christian Religion, Siddhartha
Gautama of the Buddhism Religion, Strive Masiiwa of Econet Wireless and Bill
Gates of Microsoft. It should be noted that for one to be in a position to
attain or seek to attain the Transcendence stage, that individual should in his
or her own right have achieved the self-actualisation that he or she now seeks
others to achieve. It is also important to note that most people who have
reached or who seek to reach the transcendence stage are or were founding and
leading members of their various organisations
Applicability to Organisations in general and
Zimbabwe in particular
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is highly
applicable to Zimbabwean organisations. Looking at some of Zimbabwe’s largest
mining and farming organisations the first this they establish are houses for
their employees. Mining and farming conglomerates like Tongaat Hullet Zimbabwe,
Zimplats, Mimosa Mining Company, Tanganda Tea Company, Unki Platinum, Shabanie
and Mashaba Mines, to mention but a few have constructed houses for their
employees. This is to ensure that the physiological need of shelter is met.
Organisations have now also incorporated the
need to ensure safety of employees in the organisations. Safety, Health and
Welfare departments are now present in almost all heavy industrial
organisations in Zimbabwe. This is aimed at ensuring that employees’ need of
safety is satisfied. If the need of safety is not satisfied then employees
would work just enough to satisfy the physiological need and avoid further
effort as it would increase their exposure to the harmful situations.
Internationally there is a statute by the International Standardisation
Organisation (ISO) namely OHSAS 45001 of 2007. Tongaat Hullet Zimbabwe is
situated in the Zimbabwean lowveld which is infested by mosquitoes and they
spray for mosquitoes in the area they operate to ensure the safety from malaria
of their employees. This is a demonstration of an organisation seeking to meet
the safety needs of its employees in Zimbabwe.
Criticisms
Cultures differ and the preferences of people
differ across cultures. And even in the same cultural context, human beings are
not a homogeneous being that is likely to behave in a similar fashion. Thus to
argue that the need to satisfy need in a particular order of importance will
stimulate an increase in productivity might not be overly factually correct.
The second criticism is that not everyone is altruistic.
Even though other people might achieve self-actualisation they might not
necessarily be willing or eager to help others to become self-actualised. In
most dictatorships it can be established that rulers of those dictatorships are
individuals who have achieved self-actualisation but because of fear of being
overthrown they do not seek to empower others but rather seek to be a one true
centre of power and knowledge. Examples of such individuals include Julius
Caesar, Shaka Zulu, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Saddam
Hussein who all belong(ed) to political organisations.
Whereas it is argued that some self-actualise
and never transcend, the opposite also hold true that some transcend without
having self-actualised. In social dynamics there are people who fail to reach
the best of their potential ostensibly due to the bounded rationality theory.
These people claim to have had limited time to make decisions, lacked proper
information and did not make a right decision in the end. However such people
at times turn to the younger generation to try and mentor them to become the
best of what they could be. This usually holds true in sporting disciplines.
Religious figures like Monks, Priests and Popes also set out on a path to teach
others to self-actualise despite the fact that some of their lower order needs
might not have been met. Thus these people would have already reached the
transcendence stage despite not having satisfied other lower stages.
Conclusion
Given the above analysis one could argue that
even though Maslow’s hierarch of needs theory has loopholes and weaknesses when
one attempts to use it in the understanding of organisations, its inputs are of
vast importance and utility in the Zimbabwean context. Given such an analysis
it is apparent that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory was an important
contribution to Neo-Classical Theory and it provides an important insight in
the understanding of employees’ behaviour with regards to productivity provided
all other factors of production are held constant.
Reference
List
1. Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. [1991].
Social Cognition (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
2. ISO 45001 Whitepaper: A new International
Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems" (PDF).
BSIgroup.com. British Standards Institution. Retrieved 09-03-2018.
4. McLeod S. [2017]
https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html Retrieved 09-03-2018
5. Maslow, A. H. [1987]. Motivation and
personality (3rd ed.). Delhi, India: Pearson Education.
