2. In Our Diploma of Management Course You’ll Learn
About Maslow’s Theory of Needs.
Often we can be surprised in the difference between what
we think motivates the people in our team and what
actually does motivate them. Studies on what motivates
people at work have found that contrary to popular belief,
money is not the major motivator for most people. Factors
such as `feeling valued’, and `using my skills’ often come
above money in the priority list.
3. The one significant exception to this is when a
person feels significantly over or under paid. In
these cases money rapidly rises to number one.
Abraham Maslow studied motivation in 1943 and
suggested that human needs could be described in five
categories and that these categories formed a
hierarchy.
4. Needs at the higher levels only become apparent once
needs at the lower levels have been satisfied. In other
words, if physiological needs (i.e. hunger) are all met,
then safety become the next priority. Most people in
work these days have the first two needs met so could
be considered to seek fulfilment of their other needs
through work.
NOTE: There have been many studies and
counterarguments since 1943. The main point of these
arguments has been about the risk of stereotyping
people by believing that everyone is motivated by the
same thing.
5. Physiological needs
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for
oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body
temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a
person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones
would come first in the person’s search for satisfaction.
6. Safety needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no
longer controlling thoughts and behaviours, the needs for
security can become active. Adults have little awareness
of their security needs except in times of emergency or
periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as
widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of
insecurity and the need to be safe.
7. Belonging/love
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-
being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love,
affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states
that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and
alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love,
affection and the sense of belonging.
8. Esteem/recognition
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the
needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve
needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person
gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable,
firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from
others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels
self-confident and valuable as a person in the world.
When these needs are frustrated, the person feels
inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
9. Self-fulfilment
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and
only then are the needs for self-fulfilment activated.
Maslow describes self-fulfilment 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.’
10. 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. It is
not always clear what a person wants when there is a
need for self-fulfilment.
Source:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCo
m/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm
11. LMIT provides online training and Nationally
Recognised Courses in Certificate IV
in Frontline Management and the Diploma of
Management.
