MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS AND OPERATIONAL MOTIVATION
Motivating employees is seen as one of management's significant functions, along with planning, organizing and directing the work of employees. Some managers subscribe to so-called Theory X, which maintains that employees are essentially slackers who will take advantage of any latitude given to them by their employers in order to produce less work. Other managers subscribe to Theory Y, which maintains that employees are essentially self-motivated to do the best job they can. Abraham Maslow explored a hierarchy of needs, from the most basic physical needs to the most internal needs for self actualization, and found that individuals respond to motivation that meets their lowest need at a particular point in time. This approach to motivation holds considerable potential for companies willing to apply it to their personnel practices. This research examines Maslow's hierarchy of needs and considers how it can be applied to motivating employees in the workplace.
APPLYING MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS TO EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Maslow identified five levels of needs that human beings want to address: physiological, security, social, ego and self-actualization (Bateman & Snell, 2002). According to Maslow, people are motivated to satisfy the lower level needs before they can be motivated to satisfy the higher level needs. The hierarchy is often shown as a pyramid, as a result, with each level resting on top of the level before. In this way, for example, it makes no sense to motivate someone with power and responsibility if they have nowhere to live and nothing to eat.
The physiological needs are the most basic--a place to live, something to eat, the fundamental needs that are associated with basic human survival. Until these needs are met, the individual cannot focus on any of the higher needs. Thus the homeless person who spends his day trying to find shelter for the night...