Application of Maslow’s Hierachy in Needs Essay Example

the validity and utility of this theory have raised many controversies over the years. On one hand, Maslow's theory is very intuitive (Heylighen, 1992), easy to understand and apply. Being one of the most enduring theories of behavioral science, Maslow's “Hierarchy of Needs” holds high face validity. On the other hand, many questioned the validity and applicability of the theory (Wahba ; Bridwell, 1976. McCarth ; Perreault, 1984).

Some claimed that Maslow's theory has been used without adequate scientific evidence (Soper, Milford & Rosenthal, 1995). There are studies that show support or partial support of the theory (Lawler & Porter, 1967. Ghiselli & Johnson, 1970. Manning & Curtis, 1988. Benson & Dundis, 2003. Barling 1976. Hall & Nougaim, 1968. Porat, 1977. Reiss & Havercamp 2005), while some found no evidence to support the theory (Hall & Nougaim, 1968. Lawler & Suttle, 1972). The purpose of our paper is to revisit Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, review its critiques and evaluate its applications.

Our paper is to examine whether Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory is a valid theory of motivation. Maslow and Maslow's theory Biographical Sketch Abraham Maslow is generally recognized as the foremost founder of humanistic psychology. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1908. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. Growing up in a non-Jewish neighborhood and not being close to his parents, Maslow spent his childhood in loneliness and misery (Hergenhahn, 2005). He grew up in libraries among books and without friends (Hall, 1968). Maslow's relationship with his mother was bitter (Hoffman, 1988).

So, it is interesting that he got the motivation for his work in humanistic psychology from his hatred of his mother (Lowry, 1979).

Maslow attended City College of New York and did research at Columbia University afterwards. From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. He taught at Bradeis University from 1951 to 1969 and then became a resident fellow at Laughlin Institute, Berkley, CA. In 1970, he died of a heart attack. Maslow's primary contribution to psychology is his “hierarchy of needs” theory. Basic structure of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a content theory of motivation. Content theories study the factors within the person or things that motivate people (Gibson, 1994). His hierarchy of needs model identified five basic human needs and then five need categories were constructed in an ascending hierarchical order according to their importance for survival and their power to motivate people. They are physiological needs, safety needs, love needs, esteem needs, and the need for self-actualization.

The essential idea of Maslow's theory is that people are motivated to behave by unsatisfied eeds; once a certain need is relatively satisfied, it no longer motivates. Instead, it activates the next higher level need (Maslow, 1954). A person is deficiency motivated before he or she reaches the level of self-actualization. Once a person's basic needs are satisfied, he or she becomes motivated by the higher level or abundance needs. In 1943, Maslow published his first conceptualization work. His major work, Motivation and Personality, was published in 1954. In 1970, he published a revision to his original need theory. Inspiration for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory is a simple and intuitive theory. His model is based on observations of self-actualizers and analysis of biographies of well-known

figures (Hjelle ; Ziegler, 1976). Maslow theorized human beings have the innate tendency to seek self-actualization (Maslow, 1971). He views human beings are benign in nature. Eckerman (1968) generalizes that self-actualization for a person involves doing one's best in addition to inventiveness, creativeness, and ingenuity. Self-actualization is the capstone of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

To self-actualize is to reach the peak of one's potential. Maslow's studies shift from traditional psychologists' work of studying dysfunctional people, mental diseases and the negative side of human behaviors to studies on the positive side of human behaviors. His focus is to understand people who are working toward self-actualization, attempt to learn how they think and learn what motivates them. His model is to exhibit how a mature, happy, and healthy person behaves. Maslow's (1954:14) states, “... health is not simply the absence of disease or even the opposite of it.

Any theory of motivation that is worthy of attention must deal with the highest capacities of the healthy and strong person as well as with the defensive maneuvers of crippled spirits”. When Maslow lived in New York during the 1930s and 1940s, he came to know many prominent European scholars including Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Margaret Mead and Max Wertheimer, founder of Gestalt psychology. Maslow also befriended with the famous anthropologist Ruth Benedict around the same time. Maslow was very much inspired by Ruth Benedict and Max Wertheimer, whom he admired both professionally and personally.

He began his informal study of healthy people by observing them, taking notes and trying to analyze what made them such outstanding human beings (Hergenhahn, 2005). Besides studying his personal friends and acquaintances, Maslow's selected

people groups also included public figures living and dead such as Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Eakins and Walt Whitman, among others. However, Maslow's subjects shared a common characteristic that they all showed considerable evidence of self-actualization (Hjelle ; Ziegler, 1976).

They were all psychologically healthy individuals by Maslow's definition. His study of these people serves as the foundation for Maslow's lifetime research of optimal psychological health and human potential. Application of Maslow's theory Maslow's theory in business Maslow's theory (1954) was originally applied as a general theory of psychological motivation. However, the usefulness of its theoretical model was adopted by organizational theorist, McGregor (1960), who applied Maslow's theory in the work place (Blackler ; Williams, 1971).

And later on, the “hierarchy of needs” theory has been adapted and incorporated into applications in many areas in business (Shoura ; Singh, 1998. ). Workplace management In the management field, it is an effective approach to understand motivation. A very difficult task in an organization is motivating employees in a way that produces mutual benefits for both employees and the organization. An effective motivational model can lead to an employee's job satisfaction and achievement of organizational goals (Lyon, Ivancevish and Donnelly, 1970).

Maslow (1971:185) stated: “If you are unhappy with your work, you have lost one of the most important means of self-fulfillment. ” Employees are not likely to seek higher-level gratifications till their lower level needs are relatively met. Thus, his model has been extensively accepted in management science (Roberts, 1982). Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory helps managers make workplaces more responsive to workers' specific needs. Maslow refers to this approach as Eupsychian management on

the basis of his hierarchy of needs theory (Maslow, 1965).

Dye, Mills and Weatherbee (2005) pointed out that management theorists and practitioners should keep in mind that self-actualization is the desired state of psychological well-being. Merely focusing on meeting employees' lower level needs for greater performance does not automatically push employees upward to reach their full potential. Therefore, management should be cautious not to rely on only meeting lower level needs because doing so may restrict employee's growth into higher levels. For example, Maslow's theory can be used in human resource management in medical workplaces.

Medical professionals usually are well paid, however, not all nurses and doctors go into and stay in the healthcare industry with the same commonly assumed motivator -- monetary incentive. It will be more productive for managers and administrators to understand the need that care providers bring to their professions and motivate them from Maslow's perspective (Carpenito-Moyet, 2003. Benson & Dundis, 2003). A good retention strategy for departments of nursing is to offer different incentives depending on where the nurse is on Maslow's hierarchy.

Monetary incentive is effective to motivate nurses working to meet their lower level needs; paid vacation, flexible schedules or future opportunities for further education may be more satisfying incentives for those who are at higher levels of Maslow's hierarchy. Marketing Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory has made influential impact on marketing. Maslow's theory has been written into many marketing textbooks as a principle of understanding human needs (Husted, Varble & Lowry, 1989; Stanton & Futrell, 1987; Kotler, 1991).

Seeley (1992) constructed an economic model of consumer behavior by using Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. This model is designed to track consumers'

expenditure patterns as the satisfaction of their needs progresses. Maslow's theory has shaped marketing research and consumer research theory and practice associated with consumer motivation (Pincus, 2004). One of the key insights of Maslow's theory is that satisfied needs do not motivate. Therefore, by focusing on the similarity of unmet needs, the need-based segmentation approach opens up more opportunities in marketing and brand management.

Maslow's theory in Psychotherapy Maslow's theory has tremendous impact in the field of psychotherapy. Before Maslow, psychology was mainly dominated by Freud's psychoanalysis and Skinner's behaviorism. Psychology used to be concerned with abnormalities of mental health. It can be generalized that counseling clients used to be treated like animals by psychoanalysts, and like machines by behaviorists, but Maslow wanted to treat people like people. He was more concerned with the positive constitution of mental health and human potentials.

Maslow (1954:180) commented that: “it becomes more and more clear that the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a crippled psychology and a crippled philosophy. ” With Maslow's theory being the foundation, counselors take the approach of assessing an individual's needs from a positive viewpoint, helping the client to remove obstacles and eventually regain the path toward self-actualization. Thus, it enables the client to move toward a healthier psychological state. What is more interesting is that Maslow even advocated the use of psychotherapy to achieve self-actualization (Lowry, 1979:459).

Self-reflection counseling creates opportunities for organizational learning. It benefits an organization in a way that leads people in organization to share their experiences, beliefs about work and gain their valuable insights to the organization (Chiaramonte & Mills, 1993). There has been great interest

in applying psychotherapy to organizations since Maslow (Kets de Vries, 1978). Maslow's theory in healthcare industry In medical settings, Maslow's theory provides a set of theoretical guidelines for understanding the concerns of people suffering from physical illness, disabilities, or other life problems.

This useful framework has been incorporated into the healthcare industry. One important approach to nursing theory is the “need” approach, which is developed based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory (Meleis, 1991). Maslow's theory is helpful for care providers to see the “big picture” of a given patient's situation. By being able to identify what the patient's needs are, caregivers can better assist the patient meet his or her physiological and psychological needs. Maslow's theory has also been adopted to support health care strategy (Bardwell, 2004).

One of the strategies involves the changes of healthcare facilities. It is stated that the bottom levels of hierarchy of needs are associated with creating a comfortable and secure environment for patient care and the upper levels of the hierarchy of needs is related to achieving maximum potential for facilitating staff performance and job satisfaction through design or adaptation of the physical environment. Maslow's theory in social science In social science, research has been done to extend Maslow's theory which addresses the motivations of the individual to that of groups of people (Laas, 2006).

Laas (2006) pointed out that people in a community, culture or a nation experiencing similar environmental and cultural conditions might collectively experience need fulfillment or frustration. Thus, a collective action may be taken by this group of people to respond to their collective need situation. The researcher gave examples of democratic uprising in the former Soviet

Union, Eastern Europe and China. In the above countries where the democratic uprising took place, people have experienced basic need fulfillment. Their love and belongingness needs are also relatively fulfilled in the company of each other.

The younger generation demonstrates healthier levels of self-esteem. The researcher noted that participants of the democratic uprisings placed a greater value on a higher need (self-actualization), at least temporarily, because the need was continually being frustrated”. Therefore, this study concludes that pursuit and gratification of higher needs can have desirable civic and social consequences (Laas, 2006). Shermer (2004) developed a “bio-cultural evolutionary pyramid” to explain the origins and evolution of morality, in which Maslow's hierarchy of needs has been used as a theoretical base of human needs.

Quality-of-life theory, developed on the basis of Maslow's theory, postulates that the greater the hierarchical level of need satisfaction is, the greater the quality-of-life that society will have. It addresses the measure of quality of life and the optimality of institutional structures (Sirgy, 1986). Theories derived from Maslow Motivation-Hygiene Theory The Motivation-Hygiene Theory developed by Frederick Herzberg has been used as an alternative to Maslow’s Theory for studying job satisfaction.

He concluded that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction must be separated into two different continua and are determined by two different sets of factors. Factors found to affect job satisfaction (recognition, achievement, work itself, advancement, and responsibility) are called “motivation factors. ” Factors found to affect job dissatisfaction (salary, company policies, technical competence, interpersonal relations and working conditions) called “hygiene factors” are related to the environment of the job (Brenner, Carmack, ; Weinstein, 1971). Wilber Ken Wilber’s theory is very similar to Maslow’s.

Instead of a one-way

linear trend of ascent from lower to higher levels, his theory acknowledges an ascent as well as a descent. Ascent is about rising to what we are capable of which Maslow termed self-actualization and descent is about using the insight gained as a new way of life. If this theory is applied to Maslow’s levels, we find an interesting new slant on deficiency and abundance motivation (Rowan, 1999). One of Maslow’s ideas was that our motivation was deficiency oriented, being about the satisfaction of needs, but that some of our motivation was abundance oriented, going beyond needs altogether.

Rowan states that values are of two kinds – deficiency or abundance, which leads to two kinds of motivation. If we apply Wilber’s theory we see that self-actualization is not the end of the experience. A person may develop beyond the level of needing to get esteem from other people, but then enter a new organization and may have to go back to that level for a while, until we have learned the ropes again. Rowan suggests that when we go back to an earlier level, though, we do not enter it in the same way in which we entered it before. We come in from the top instead of the bottom and instead of ascent we now experience descent (Rowan, 1999).