MOTIVATING PEOPLE AT WORK

Motivating People at Work



Motivating People at Work

Introduction

Maslow's need hierarchy theory presents the scholar of work motivation with an intriguing paradox: The theory is broadly acknowledged, but there is little research clues to support it. Since Maslow first released his theory 30 years before, it has become one of the most well liked theories of motivation in the management and organizational behaviour literature. The theory has leveraged the writings of numerous famous authors in the area of management and organizational behavior. Furthermore, the theory has supplied an a priori conceptual framework to interpret varied research findings. Such prevalent acceptance of the Need Hierarchy Theory is rather astonishing in battle of the detail that until the mid-sixties. Little empirical clues lived that would support the propositions of the theory particularly in the area of developed and organizational psychology. It has nearly become a custom for writers to issue out the discrepancy between the attractiveness of the theory and the need of clear and reliable empirical clues to support it . However, in spite of this need of clues, numerous writers proceeded to use components of the theory or Maslow's need classification in their latest writings, for demonstration, Clark's (1960) theory of motivation in work assembly and Lawler's (1971) model of the significance of pay.

Recently, the concern in Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory has been revived due to the publication of several empirical investigations checking some propositions of the theory.

The reason of this paper is to reconsider and assess the empirical research associated to Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory, thereby considering the empirical validity of the theory itself. Several constraints were enforced on this review: First, the reconsider will deal only with the check of Maslow's Theory in the work situation.

Second, this reconsider will encompass only investigations that utilised statistical other than clinical methodology (after Meehl, 1954). Third, this reconsider will deal only with what is advised to be the centre or the major components of Maslow's Theory as it concerns to work motivation.

 

MASLOW'S NEED HIERARCHY THEORY: A BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Part of the apply of Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory is that it presents both a theory of human motives by classifying rudimentary human needs in a hierarchy, and a theory of human motivation that concerns these needs to general behavior. As a theory of motives or needs, Maslow, like other writers suggested that human needs can be classified into distinct categories. Unlike other ones, although, Maslow suggested that his need categories are organised in a hierarchy of prepotency and likelihood of appearance. The hierarchy of needs is as pursues 1 (in ascending alignment of prepotency): the physiological needs, the security needs, the belongingness or love needs, the esteem needs, and the need for selfactualization. Maslow contended that the five rudimentary needs are instinctoid (Maslow, 1970, ch. 6). Consequently, Maslow postulated that his needs are "more universal" for all heritage than other superficial yearns or behaviors . Maslow furthermore differentiated his five categories by mentioning to some of ...