Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Business Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of needs Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of needs When one thinks of what families do for each other, they will most likely think of care. More specifically they think of the care that a parent has for their child. Parents have to meet certain “needs” for the child in order for the its healthy survival. Children must be fed and clothed. Parents must also watch over the safety of and be the friends of the children. Cheering on in good times and making their child the best it can be are also responsibilities of parents. The family metaphor is used when describing the Human Relations method of management. In this the management of a company is seen as the parents and the employees are seen as the children. Employees, as seen as the children also have certain needs as well. These needs are very similar. Abraham Maslow did studies of the basic needs of human beings. He put these needs into a hierarchical order. This means that until the need before it has been satisfied, the following need can not be met (Encyclopedia, 2000). For example, if someone is hungry they are not thinking too much about socializing. In the order from lowest to highest the needs are psychological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. The first three are classified as lower order needs and the last two are higher order (Hierarchy, 2000). Without meeting these needs workers are not going to be as productive as they could otherwise. The first three are considered to be essential to all humans at all times. The last two have been argued but are mostly considered to be very important as well. A person’s behavior at one specific point in time usually controls their attitude at that time. Managers must be able to understand these basic needs of their workers. If these needs are not dealt with in a certain correct way than workers will not reach their maximum potential. If the lower order of needs is not met than people are not happy. The same can be said of the higher order. Food, water, sleep, and sensory gratification are all at the top of the hierarchy. These and other needs are considered to be part of the psychological needs. These rest at the top of the hierarchy because they are the essence to basic human survival. The list of these needs can be much larger or shorter depending of personal opinion. Maslow himself said that said “it would be possible, but most likely not very helpful, to make a long list of psychological needs.” (Goble, 1970, p.37). Without these most essential needs somewhat satisfied a worker will not be productive. If someone is hungry they will not have their mind on work until they get some sort of food. Managers have to not only make sure that their employees have some time to eat, but also that they have enough money to buy food for themselves. They also need to make sure that there is enough money for an employee to take care of his or her family as well. Immediately following the psychological needs, come a persons need to feel safe, or free from danger. If a person feels threatened at a specific time at work than their mind is not going to be on work. People naturally have a need for self-preservation (Hierarchy, 2000). This would mean that someone would not want to work at a job that threatens his or her safety. Children can again be looked at to describe human nature. Most child psychologists have found that children need to live in a predictable world (Goble, 1970, p.39). Today in America not too many workers are put in very unsafe working conditions. The ones that are, are often paid well because of this danger. Managers do need to think about the safety of their employees on the job. Not only does this need for safety relate to the present working condition but it also includes the future. People need to feel that in the future they will not only be able to provide for themselves, but also for their family. They need to know that they will have a job to support their family in the future as well, job safety. The last of the lower order of needs is the need for belongings and love. As defined by Katherine Miller, “This set of needs refers to the necessity of giving or receiving human affection”(1999, 31). People have a need to feel like they are a part of something. At work people also need to feel like they are part of “the team.” It is very important for people to feel accepted with their fellow workers. In many jobs today people work in small groups to solve problems. If everyone in the group is working well together than the group is very productive. People do need to feel comfortable with each other in order to work with each other well. It is the manager’s job to create an environment that is easy to create friendships in. A good way to do this would be for a manager to be friendly and easy to talk personally to. Many organizations often send teams on trips together in order for them to become closer. The first of the high order needs is the need for esteem. According to Frank Goble (1970), the esteem need can be broken down further to self-esteem and esteem from other people (p.40). Self-esteem includes the need to feel confident in the work that one is doing. Managers need to make sure that the work that they give their employees is rewarding. The work needs to be something that the employee is proud of. People not only need to feel like they are part of a group but they also need to feel that they contribute something more. People also need to receive recognition from others. This could include public recognition or actual rewards. These rewards could include cash bonuses or other forms of reward. Without working for a purpose a person is not going to work to their full potential and be an important asset to a business. People need to know within themselves as well as being told by others that they do good work. The last need is a persons need for self-actualization. Maslow once said, “What a person can be, he must be”(Goble, 1970, p.41). The army’s slogan, “Be all that you can be,” is a good way to describe self-actualization. According to Wilson it is hard to measure if someone has self-actualized. It may take a person a lifetime to reach this maximum point. Other stints of self-actualization may occur in peak experiences, or self-actualized moments, that people have (1972, p.1999). Self-actualization can be seen in the business sense of a person finding their “calling,” the job someone was meant to do (Maslow’s, 2000). Many people believe that there is a set path for how their life is going to be, people also believe that there is a specific purpose for everything in life. This would include career. When someone is in a job for their entire life they want to make it something worth while. No one wants to do something that they do not like for their entire life. They do not want to do something useless or without meaning either. According to Katherine Miller managers need to allow employees to exercise their creative needs to fill the need for self-actualization (1999, p.31). Maslow also studied other human needs after he released his hierarchy of needs. These include the desire to know and understand, aesthetic needs (the need for beauty), and growth needs (Goble, 1970, p.41-43). These needs could possibly though be put under the need for self-actualization. This all depends on a person’s point of view, and their priority list. These last needs though would not have as much influence on people as the above five. This influence would not have an effect on the work habits of people at their job. The Western Electric Companies Hawthorne plant did studies on workers and their response to stimuli (Miller, 1999, 27). These studies are known as the Hawthorne studies and are the basis for the entire Human Relations approach to management in organizational communications. Some of these studies reveal that if certain basic needs are met than workers will be more productive. They found that the more interactions that employees have with the managers the more productive they will be. This goes along with the idea that workers have social needs. The interaction increased output and seemed to make a happier employee. This also made the employees feel that they are part of the team and make a difference. In conclusion, people have basic needs. Without these needs met not much can be accomplished. People will be pre-occupied on the need and can not of much else. Abraham Maslow did a study on these basic needs of humans, therefore workers as humans have these basic needs. He found that people have psychological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs. He put these needs in a pyramid shape; meaning that without the prior need met the next need can not be met. Managers must know that people must have these certain needs met before they can be productive. If someone is hungry of worried about their safety than they will not be as great of an asset as someone who has these needs met. Not only do managers need to recognize these needs but they also need to find a way to satisfy the needs of their workers. Bibliography: References Encyclopedia Britannica Online. (2000). Maslow, Abraham. Encyclopedia Britannica [online]. Available: (www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/410,5716,52534+1,00.html). Goble, F.G. (1970). The Third Force. New York: Grossman Publishers. Heirarchy of Needs, Abraham Maslow (2000). [online]. Available: (www.it-consultancy.com/backround/maslow/index.html). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (2000). [online]. Available: (www.connect.net/georgen/maslow.html). Miller, K. (1999). Organizational Communication. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Wilson, C. (1972). New Pathways in Psychology. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company. Word Count: 1692
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