MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS THEORY
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model (Figure1) of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological (food and clothing), safety (job security), love and belonging needs (friendship), esteem, and self-actualization (McLeod, 2020).
Figure 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
(Source - McLeod, 2020)
This hierarchy defines that physiological needs take precedence over all other needs (Niemela, 2014). Abraham Maslow beautifully explained in his theory that human motivation has a hierarchical structure which he is calling as needs hierarchy theory. According to Maslow’s theory, everyone has needs (Jerome, 2013). The needs and preferences of the employees differ from each other, and thus it is necessary to evaluate the challenges involved with the implementation of an effective method for encouraging the staffs to work with the organization (Schulze & Steyn, 2003).
Physiological needs
Rondinelli (1993) stated while quoting International Labor Organization (ILO) that the basic needs consist of two components of minimum family requirements for consumption which include adequate food, shelter, household equipment and furnishing as well as clothing; and essential community services such as water, health services, sanitation, educational services and public transport services in the society. Essentially, some needs help to keep people alive in the society. Such needs are must to be fulfilled in order of the survival of the human race. (Joshi, 2011).
I am working for a leading organization in the IT industry and they provide lunch and tea with snacks. Other than that they also provide transport for the employees when necessary and insurance facilities. Because of these benefits people like to get job offers from my organization and the employees also get motivated to give their maximum to the organization.
Safety needs
Once an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied, the needs for security and safety become salient. People want to experience order, predictability and control in their lives. These needs can be fulfilled by the family and society (e.g. police, schools, business and medical care) (McLeod, 2020).Santrock (2011) stated that the emphasis of safety needs on an ensuring survival of people in such a situation as protection from war and crime. Hope and Timmel (1995) remarked that when human beings are really frightened by social or physical disturbance that they do not concentrate on anything else other than their safety Security and human security which come under this type of needs (Pereira, de Campos and Camarini, 2012).
As an example, Aruma (2016) stated that the high rate of insecurity of lives and property occasioned by insurgency of Boko Haram as an armed rebellious group against the constituted authorities of Federal Republic of Nigeria in North East geopolitical zone of Nigeria presents a serious challenge to community development in the affected part of the county. This unsecured environment for community development to thrive in North East geopolitical zone of Nigeria has remained in this unsecured state since 2011 or thereabout when Boko Haram insurgency began its terrorist activities in Nigeria.
Love and belongingness needs
Mulwa (2008) remarked that when once people feel reasonably safe, that is when they tend to worry about belonging to a social group where they can love and be loved in the society. Anyanwu et.al (1985) clearly stated that love and belonging indicate the need to be a part of a group such as family, group of colleagues in a workplace, friendship, social group among others in the society. Human beings strives for stronger relations such as friendship, family when they become socially stable (Andrew, 1991). To meet these needs organizations encourage employees participation in social events such as picnics, organizations bowling (Kaur, 2013).
As an example in my company, they organize annual events like annual trip with all the family members of the employees, year end parties and team outings. Because of these things most of the employees have become friends and they have bonded like a family.
Esteem needs
Onah (2015) asserts that when people achieve their social needs, they focus attention on such matters as reputation, recognition, self-esteem and prestige or self-worth, self-respect, status, among others that give people strong confidence to participate in activities that will certainly improve their living conditions in their various communities in the society.
Self-Actualization needs
Onah (2015) perceives self-actualization as self-fulfillment, the need to develop a person’s full potential in order to enable him or her to become the best that he or she is capable of being in the society. Under this achieving one’s full potential, includes creative activities which are the part of self- actualization (Pereira, de Campos and Camarini, 2012).
Figure 2 : Eight staged Maslow's Motivational Model
(Source - McLeod, 2020)
Changes to the original five-stage model are highlighted and include a seven-stage model and an eight-stage model; both developed during the 1960s and 1970s. Following video explains more about the expanded Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory.
Video 1: Expanded Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory
(Source - McLeod, 2020)
According to Bledow et al. (2011), Maslow theory has the advantage of describing the needs of human psychology at every aspect of working life. The organization can understand several phases of the psychology of the employees which is in the above discussion. The level of importance of those needs can be understood by the employer in order to know the basic demands of the employees.
Reference
Anyanwu, C.N. Omolewa, M.A. Adeyeri, C.L.K. Okanlawon, A.B. & Siddiqui, A.A. (1985), Adult Education and Community Development, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books (Nig.) Ltd.
Aruma, E.O. (2016), ‘Human Resource Development from the Perspective of Adult Education’, In P.E. Itari (Ed.) International Journal of continuing Education and Development Studies (IJCEDS) Volume 3 Issue No 1, Calabar: Department of continuing Education and Development Studies, University of Calabar.
Bledow, R. Schmitt, A. Frese, M. & Kuhnel, J. (2011), ‘The Affective Shift Model of Work Engagement,’ Journal of Applied Psychology,96, pp. 1246– 57.
Hope, A. & Timmel, S. (1995), Training for Transformation Books 1 to 3, A Handbook for Community Workers, Gweru: Mambo Press.
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, pp. 39-45.
Joshi, V. (2011), Leadership and Personality Development, Symbiosis center for distance learning, Pune.
Kaur, A. (2013), Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory, Applications and Criticisms Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, ISSN 2248-9878 Volume 3, Number 10 (2013), Research India Publications, pp. 1062.
Kenrick, Griskevicius, Neuberg & Schaller, (2011), Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations,
Maslow, A.H. (1943), ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, 50(4), pp. 370-96.
Mcleod, S. (2020), Simply Physiology, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Viewed on 22 April 2021, <https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html>
Mulwa, F.W. (2008), ‘Demystifying Participatory Community Development’, Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa.
Niemela, P. & Kim, S. (2014), ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’, In Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research, Springer Netherlands, pp. 3843-6.
Onah, F.O. (2015), ‘Human Resource Management’ 4th(ed), Enugu:John Jacob’s Classic Publishers Ltd.
Pereira, V. de Campos, G. and Camarini, G. (2012), Maslow’s Theory of Motivation, Hierarchy of Needs, Results from Construction Operational Workers in São Paulo City, Brazil, AMM, pp. 174-177, pp. 2339-2342.
Rondinelli, D. (1993), Development Projects as Policy Experiments, An Adaptive Approach to Development Administration 2nd(ed), London: Methuen.
Santrock, J.W. (2011), Educational Psychology Fifth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Schulze, S. & Steyn, T. (2003), Educators’ motivation, Differences related to gender, age and experience, Acta Academica, 35 (3), pp. 138-60.
Agree with you Indeevari. Maslow’s ideas are very helpful for understanding the needs of people at work and for determining what can be done to satisfy them. His theory advises managers to recognize that deprived needs may negatively influence attitudes and behaviors (Ozguner & Ozguner, 2014).
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Maslow’s theory disputes that humans have a chain of needs, some of which must be met before they can turn their attention towards others. Certain universal needs are the most pressing while more acquired emotions are of secondary importance (Horne, 2019).
DeleteThank you Indeevari for sharing valuable article on Maslows Hierachy of Needs, Addition to your article the hierarchy is usually shown as ranging through five main levels from the lowest need being physiological, through safety needs, love needs and esteem needs to the highest level of needs being self-actualization. This theory states that when a lower need is satisfied, it is no longer a strong motivator and hence the demand for the next higher need becomes dominant and the individual’s attention is turned towards satisfying this higher need. It states that only unsatisfied needs motivate an individual (Osabiya & Joseph, 2015).
ReplyDeleteYes, In addition Maslow theory five needs were originally enlisted and later he replaced self-actualization needs with cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization needs, and self-transcendent needs. Further classified the first four needs as deficiency or lower needs and the latter four as being or higher needs (D’Souza, 2018).
DeleteThank you Indeevari for the informative article shared. Agreed that ,needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up (McLeod, 2020).
ReplyDeleteTrue. The deficiency needs are the lower four levels in Maslow’s hierarchy which are decreasing motivation as the needs are met, however, the growth needs which is self-actualization would increase the motive to do more as the needs are met, as per Boeree (2006)
DeleteExactly Indeevari,The lowest level is Physiological needs, food, water, shelter and clothing, when people fulfill that needs go to Security needs(second level), person needs to feel safe in a society and in organization,thrid level is love and belonging needs, people need to receive and give love and have good friendships, fourth level is Esteem needs, It is people need to have self-respect & appreciation based on their achievement, Highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy is need of Self-actualization, the progress of this need based on the satisfaction of the other four levels(Faizul, Aminul&Shamimul, 2014).
ReplyDeleteAgree. The needs are interrelated, additionally, the satisfaction of lower level needs would influence an individual to pursue higher level of needs, as satisfaction of lower needs facilitate the possibilities to reach higher level needs according to McLeod (2007).
DeleteGood Writing Indeevari, The principal of this theory is that when one need is satisfied, its importance reduces and the strength of the next level increases. (Latham & Pinder 2005).
ReplyDeleteThank you Eranda, Pophal, (2002) also explains, in reality each of the needs on the hierarchy are, to a certain degree, inter-related. while an individual strive to earn a good wage, they also concerned with job stability, getting along with co-workers and being recognized for their achievements. and to a certain extend the needs will be continuously changing in real-life circumstances.
Deleteagreed with your points Indeewari, adding to it Maslow’s hierarchy of needs includes five levels of needs and argues that individuals will act only to meet their higher needs when their lower needs are met. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is seen as the basis of many later developed theories for motivation. Herzberg’s two-factor theory transforms Maslow’s needs into two areas of need as hygiene factors and motivation factors (Eren, 2003, Koçel, 2014).
ReplyDeleteAgree. Aruma and Hanachor(2017) say, psychologically human mind is not getting satisfied easily and once an individual expectation is fulfilled another set of expectations are inclined to set. Hence, an organization needs to introduce different kind of motivational factors to keep the employees motivated (Aruma and Hanachor,2017).
DeleteAn insightful read. Companies need to pay special attention to address the needs of employees during this pandemic. Hence, with relevance to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, companies should meet their needs such as physiological need with physical health with continuous screening for COVID-19, safety need with providing personal protective equipment, belonging need with social support program using technology to reduce anxiety, self-esteem need with adequate supervision and training to develop and self-actualization need by providing additional opportunities to grow (Weiss & Li, 2020).
ReplyDeleteIndeed, As per Connell (2020), the pandemic has tested the pyramid and this changed how we view Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. When the first tier is disrupted it was difficult to start with, but when the second tier was affected, life became somewhat tougher. The Safety Need was pushed to the limit, as people were anxious about finances and their job security. Many companies were shut, people went on ‘furlough’ indefinitely and many jobs have been lost. Not only that, the scarcity of PPE, for our frontline staff became a bone of contention, as people deserve to feel safe at work. But there simply wasn’t enough to protect our workforce.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing a valuable and attractive piece of theory, yet I suggest that,Maslow’s needs hierarchy has an intuitive appeal and has been very popular. But it has not been verified by empirical research such as that conducted by Wahba & Bridwell (1979), and it has been criticized for its apparent rigidity – different people may have different priorities and the underpinning assumption that everyone has the same needs is invalid. It is difficult to accept that needs progress steadily up the hierarchy and Maslow himself expressed doubts about the validity of a strictly ordered hierarchy. But he did emphasize that the higher-order needs are more significant (Armstrong, 2014).
Yes of course Gagana, But nonetheless and regardless of the heavy criticism levied at the hierarchy of need theory, Kaur (2013), believed that this theory has a made a significant contribution in the field of organisational behaviour and management especially in the area of employee motivation and remains attractive to both researchers and managers alike. The incorporation of the need theory into the work environment today could be as a result of the contributions made so far by Maslows Hierarchy of need theory.
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