Business Philosophy - Motivational Theories Part 4

Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) 

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who is most famous for his theory of motivation called The Hierarchy of Needs.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on the 1st of April 1908, Maslow grew up in a rather poor family. His parents were first generation Jewish immigrants from Russia and chose to live in Brooklyn for its multiple cultures and ethnicities. Maslow was classed as mentally unstable as a child by psychologists, also suffering prejudice regularly by anti-Semitic teachers and gangs, the gangs used to chase and throw rocks at him on a regular basis.

Maslow attended the City College of New York after school and also took legal studies as a night class on top of this, but he dropped out not long after enrolling because he did not enjoy it transferring to Cornell. Due to high costs and also poor grades Maslow also dropped out of Cornell. He did later graduate from City College and went to Wisconsin University to study psychology. Whilst and Wisconsin University, Maslow’s research was mainly experimental behaviourist, looking at primate dominance and sexuality, and graduated with a master’s degree.

He continued his research at Columbia University working with Alfred Adler, who was one of Sigmund Freud’s early colleagues. From 1937 – 1951 Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. At the time when Word War 2 broke out, Maslow was a 33 year old father of 2, and therefore not eligible for the army, but the war made an impact of his life and professional career. He looked at evil and what drives people to do the things that they do, this is how he came about his ground-breaking studies on self-actualisation. Maslow believed that every human being has aspirations to achieve, in his book Motivation and Personality (1954) Maslow said that:

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.”  

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a ‘content theory’ of motivation. The theory consists of 2 parts:

1.       The classification of human needs

2.       Consideration of how the classes are related.

The hierarchy states that there are 5 degrees / stages of needs, starting with physiological and ending with achieving self-actualisation, the hierarchy is represented as a pyramid. A person starts at the bottom of the pyramid, and will initially seek to satisfy their basic needs. Once these needs have been met they will move up to the next stage, and so forth.

The Hierarchy of Needs consists of the following stages.

1.       Self-actualisation

2.       Esteem

3.       Love / Belonging

4.       Safety

5.       Physiological

Maslow’s model has great potential in the business world. The message is clear – If management can find out what level each of their employees are at, they can find suitable rewards for them.

·     Safety needs at work could include PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), as well as safety against unemployment and loss of earning through sick leave, pregnancy etc.

·     Social needs recognise that most people want to belong in a group, these would include the want for love / belonging, i.e. colleagues support, teamwork etc.

·     Esteem needs are about giving recognition for a job well done. They reflect the fact that many people seek the esteem and respect of other people. Promotions are also a way of achieving this.

·     Self-actualisation is about how people think about themselves – this is often measured by the amount of success / challenges people have at work.

Maslow is also known for what has become known as ‘Maslow’s Hammer’ when in his 1962 book, Toward a Psychology of Being, he wrote:

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” 

My opinion of Maslow’s theory is very good, I also believe that people have multiple needs at different times, meaning that needs change depending on the point of they are at in their career. Money is a stronger motivator for people in the age range of 23-27; this is because it is the usual age of planning a family, buying a house etc. Pre-retirement age is also when money becomes a more powerful motivator, when people are worrying if they have enough money for the rest of their lives. Some critics of the theory say that it speaks only for middle class people in the UK and USA (where Maslow did his research). Contrary to this I believe that if a person working on the shop floor were to be given a huge sum of money, i.e., winning the lottery, they would not continue to work there if the conditions were poor etc. Another argument to defend Maslow’s theory is that if we were to lock somebody in a cold, damp room with nothing but bank notes and a match. The money would not resemble wealth, as he would not have no way of using the bank notes (there is not any shops or ways of turning the money into objects). Therefore the notes would be of no value as notes, their only use would be to set fire to them, using the money as a source of heat, or eating them as a source of food, and nothing else.

In my next blog I will be introducing Frederick Herzberg and explaining his 2 Factor Theory.
Part 5 - 
http://christopherharrisengineer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/business-philosophy-motivational_30.html