Maslow Theory in the Workplace
Figure 1: Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs theory
Source: (Collins, 2016, p.331).
The Maslow pyramid
levels are as follows:
- Physiological
Needs - These are fundamental needs essential for human survival. Such as
food, clothing and shelter are most important consideration. Further this
includes having a place to work, regular monthly salary,
comfortable working environment and essential facilities (Ozguner and
Ozguner, 2014).
- Safety
Needs - These needs are expressed by a desire for protection against
danger and deprivation of physiological needs (Aruma and Hanachor,
2017).
- Social
Needs - These cravings are for love, affection and acceptance into groups.
As soon as the feeling of safety is established, then next needs people
have are that of being part of a social community where they can express
love, feel loved and accepted in return (Mulwa, 2008). Sadri and Bowen
(2011) marked that employers need to provide employees with a balanced
work-life by providing flexible working hours. This would show the
employers support of the employees’ life exterior to the place of
employment.
- Esteem -
These are desires for a high evaluation of oneself. Onah (2015) states
that immediately once social needs are achieved, the need for self,
trustworthiness, respectability, regard, honor, validity, and acceptance
develops. Further allows people to take part in the development of their
different communities and conditions which they live in.
- Self-actualization
– The highest level in the Maslow pyramid. Self actualization employees
deliver the best productivity through the motivation and these employees
are extremely valuable assets to the organization (Kaur, 2013).
Application to Workplace
As
the Leading Finance Organization where I work, the current facilities provided
by the company are elucidated below.
In
accordance with Maslow hierarchy of needs at the lowest level
as psychological needs, organization offer, breaks to eat meals
and snacks, a place to get drinking water, medical, uniform, restroom and
transportation. Further management has ensured that they are provided
comfortable working environment. The Organization provided employees with
educational loans, credit cards and compensation to achieve financial security
and to sustain safety working conditions, company present personal protective
equipment, first aid, fire safety protection and training on safe work
practices.
Further special work plan designed for health and safety during pregnancy and on return to work. The Organization offer Membership for fitness center to ensure and improve physical and mental wellbeing of employees. The Organization develops a love and belonging through organizing special trainings, celebrating employees’ birthdays and paying for a victory party with treats (when after the every Quarter).The Organization reward ‘employee of the month’ and offer a special Reward along with family holiday package in Locally.Furthermore additional responsibilities are provided as recognitions and nominating for an Overseas training, tours entertainment.
Therefore
it is evident that the subject organization clearly maintains an organizational
culture where its employees are motivated and satisfied to a greater extent.
Whereas the company claims to be one of top ten leading Finance Organization in
the Island and been awarded in many esteem rewards from reputed bodies
exampling- Emerged as the Runner up at the “I love my workplace” video
competition in Social Medial 2017 & The Organization is listed amongst the LMD 'Hall
of Fame’ of the Most Respected entities for 2020.
As stated by Smither and London, (2009) research has found that motivated employees work harder and stay with the same employer longer and have a stronger optimistic influence on organizational outcomes because they are more eager, more energized and apply more effort.
References
Sadri, G. and Bowen, R., 2011. Meeting employee requirements: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is still a reliable guide to motivating staff. Industrial Engineer, [online] 43(10), p.44. Available From: <https://www.iise.org/IEMagazine/Details.aspx?id=27534> [Accessed on 24 April 2021].
Smither, J. and London, M., 2009. Performance
Management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Agreed, Maslow’s theory is a constructive tool that helps to understand individual human behaviour. It is used in the organization to understand and affect employee motivation. If the leaders can influence the lives of employees, take into consideration the needs of the employees, the new technology that provides challenges and opportunities for meeting those needs, and provides the training, increased employee motivation and commitment is possible. (Benson and Dundis, 2003).
ReplyDeleteYes Nivethini,adding more content to the theory, 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).
DeleteIn addition to this, Bassetti (2018), reveals that motivation and employee engagement are key ingredients in making sure employees feel appreciated and valued in the work they do. Maslow’s theory held the psychological well-being of individuals was dependent on fulfilling their needs in order of priority. This needs perspective of motivation was developed with the belief that individuals must have their own basic needs met to be able to pursue their own personal growth and development
ReplyDeleteThank you for adding more content to the theory. Further adding to your views, An individual has satisfied deficiency and growth needs would Maslow suggest that he or she has reached an optimal level of functioning. Maslow further postulated that although one level of need may take precedence at a particular time, it is possible for an individual to be motivated by multiple needs simultaneously (Bush, Patton and Bergen, 2012).
DeleteAgree with your views Eranga, but Basset-Jones & Lloyd (2004, p 961) has presented that in general, critics of the need theory argue that it is as a result of the natural feeling of employees to take credit for needs met and dissatisfaction on needs not met.
ReplyDeleteVery much agreed and adding more in to the content, Self-actualizing people who are meta-motivated exhibit characteristics like liveliness, spontaneity, autonomy, independent thinking, self-exploration, compassion, tolerance, and altruism. They tend to pursue knowledge, meaningfulness, justice, truth, science, beauty, goodness, and wholeness. They are not slaves to their biological needs and their ego and are free to explore themselves and the universe with clarity and without any subjective bias (D’Souza, 2018).
DeleteAgree with you and adding to think, when reaching basic needs humans are moved next sets of needs organizational and the employees motivation need to build up accordingly. Maslow states that when needs are satisfied, individuals tend to have an inspirational motive in their life (Robbins et al 2014). Developing from the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, content theories of job satisfaction rotate around employees’ needs and the factors that bring them a reasonable degree of satisfaction (Saif et al., 2012).
ReplyDeleteAdding more to the content, Maslow assumes that there are several prerequisites for meeting these needs. For example, having the independence of speech and expression, or living in a fair and equitable society, is not specifically mentioned in the hierarchy of needs. However, Maslow believes that having these things makes it easier for people to meet their needs. Although Maslow puts forward his own needs in the hierarchy, he also acknowledges that satisfying each need is not a complete or no phenomenon. Therefore, people do not need to fully meet the next requirement in the hierarchy(Goyal, 2012).
DeleteAgree with your views and would like to elaborate more on self actualization needs. When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. However, it is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization (Ozguner & Ozguner, 2014)
ReplyDeleteYes, of course Uddika. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model is used by many organizations to understand what triggers the motivation of its employees. Motivation is one of the most important drivers to navigate a diversified workforce to meet organizational goals. As per the study of Rahman and Nurullah (2014), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is based on the following three major assumptions.
ReplyDelete1. Individual’s needs are arranged in order of importance, going from basic needs to more complex needs such as self-actualization.
2. Individuals will not be motivated to satisfy a higher-level need unless the lower-level need(s) have been satisfied.
3. Individuals have five classifications of needs.
Agreed and adding more in to the content, 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).
DeleteYes Uddika, Maslow which introduced his theory about how people satisfy various personal needs in the context of their work. He postulated, based on his observations as a humanistic sychologist, that there is a general pattern of needs recognition and satisfaction that people follow in generally the same sequence (Gawel,1997).
ReplyDeleteAgreed and adding more in to the content, In getting some perspective of the theory, in day to day life, people usually focus on basic and psychological needs; about eating and sleeping well and being healthy and what friends think about. Maslow's hierarchy remind us what important and worth pursuing rather than stuck at the same life every day towards the need of experiencing the beauty or work through the self-actualization (Hartley and Karinch, 2019).
DeleteValuable article Uddika, Adding to your view, Maslow (1943) made a basic proposition that people are wanting beings. This proposition was based on the way people are always looking for more wants, and their wants are dependent on what they already have. 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 Sachith,In addition to your views, the five-stage model comprise of two major types of needs, the first being deficiency needs which includes the first four levels of the Maslow’s need hierarchy and the second is growth needs which is the top-level self-actualization (Sanyala and Biswas, 2014). The needs which are unmet causing the motivation can be identified in first four levels or deficiency, and the self-actualization level is considered growth need as it further motivates when engaged (Verner et al., 2014).
DeleteEmployees needs in the job & personnel life are depending on the importance levels, they change the priority based on the environment(Badubi, 2017).
ReplyDeleteYes Sadun, Further self-actualization is referring to a situation where a person can feel as living up to his/her potential and feels all life expectations are fulfilled (Cao et al., 2013). The self-actualization may vary from person to person, and essentially, self-actualization is the feeling of oneself is doing what he or she believes what is meant to do in one’s life as per Jerome (2013).
DeleteAgreed with you Uddika, adding to it Maslow's heirarchy of needs are also the employees need to have their basic physiological needs that they seek to satisfy and are specifically necessary for their motivation at work. In this sense, offering employees a place in their work environment that is stocked with food and drink, a place of higher standards of hygiene where employees can breathe clean fresh air and a competitive wage or salary to afford good accommodation and clothing helps employees meet their survival (Pinto & dos Santos, 2018).
ReplyDeleteAgree and further,Nyambegera and Gicheru's (2016) study highlights the importance of multiple intrinsic factors that drive employee motivation, such as financial remuneration, empowerment, rewards and recognition, the nature of work, and an employee's perception of the contribution to the organization.
DeleteAgree, 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.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to your views on the physiological needs Jerome (2013) says, the human body’s urge to be in homeostasis or maintaining the consistent state of various bodily systems, are the physiological needs, which are involving food, water, warmth, adequate sleep to ensure the consistent state of the body. Therefore, physiological needs are primary and vital for an individual and a person who is lacking the basic needs, would only focus and put effort to fulfill the primary and essential needs as the first priority, as per Benson and Dundis (2003).
Delete