Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory of Motivation
Need-hierarchy Theory of Motivation
Abraham Maslow, an eminent US psychologist, offered a general theory of motivation, called the ‘Need hierarchy theory in his classical paper published in 1943. The salient features of his theory are as follows:
(i) People have a wide range of needs which motivate them to strive for fulfillment.
(ii) Human needs can be definitely categorized into five types: physical needs, safety or security needs, affiliation or social needs, esteem needs and self-actualisation needs.
(iii) The above needs have a particular structure, they can be arranged into a hierarchy. Physical needs are at the base of the hierarchy while self-actualisation needs are at the apex; safety needs, affiliation needs and esteem needs nature or positioned in between (see diagram). Needs decrease in their basic nature or essentiality as one proceeds from base towards the apex.
(iv) Humans strive to gratify their needs in a sequential manner strating form the base of the hierarchy and reaching the apex step-by-step. This means that all the needs are not felt at the same time, nor is human effort diffused.
(v) It is natural for humans, as living benings, to seek to gratify their physical needs first. They are more basic than all the other needs. Once people are able to reasonable satisfy them by making adequate sustained arrangement for their continued satisfaction, they feel the urge to satisfy the next level, safety or security needs and direct their efforts accordingly. In this way, they tend to ultimately reach the top level self-actualisation needs, by sequentially gratifying their lower level needs to the extent possible.
(vi) Relative satisfaction of a lower level need is a precondition for the activation of the next higher level need. The notion of hierarchy implies that lower level needs get more priority for relative fulfillment than higher level needs. Satisfaction is never absolute; it is relative.
(vii) A satisfied need does not motivate human behavior. It only triggers or activates the urge for the next higher level of needs.
Hierarchy of Needs
According to Maslow, the urge to fulfill needs is a prime factor in motivation of people at work. Maslow recognized that human needs are multiple, complex and inter-related. He also emphasized the systematic and sequential processes of need development and need fulfillment among individuals. Maslow’s model attained extensive popularity and research attention. Its popularity stems from its basic simplicity and intuitive appeal. The propositions made by Maslow could not be rigorously tested empirically. Hence his theory could not be validated. However, Maslow’s theory is said to contain some fundamental human truths which do not require any proof. Even so, the need hierarchy theory is widely criticized for its over-simplification of human needs and motivation.
It is pointed out that need recognition and fulfillment do not follow any specific sequence or hierarchy. All the needs are present in more or less degree among some people whether they are capable of being fulfilled or not. In others only one or two types of basic need’s are felt. As a need is satisfied it becomes more important and not less. Human beings are motivated not by the interaction among needs and between needs and incentives. Also, apart from needs, there are other motivating factors also, such as perceptions, expectations, experiences and so on.
