Human Needs - Essay Example

Motivations theory Introduction: In our day to day life we have needs that we are required to meet, some of these needs include food, shelter and security, I base my discussion on the theory of motivation that was initiated by Abraham Maslow. This theory will help narrate my life and the actions I take to fulfill these needs. Motivations theory: This theory was developed by Maslow and it is an attempt to explain the hierarchy of needs of an individual, according to this theory motivation develops in a sequence of hierarchy of needs and this means that one will fulfill lower need and then progress to the other higher needs, an example is in the case where an individual will want to buy a house or car, in this case the individual must have first met the other basic needs such as clothing and food. This theory states that there are four hierarchy needs and they include physiological, safety, social emotional needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs. Physiological needs are those needs for survival and they include food and other basic needs, in my life I have managed to meet these needs, when I was born these needs were met by parents but because now I have my own family I have to work in order to meet my physiological needs and also those of my children, every day I spend a substantial amount of my income to buy food stuffs and I always buy clothing for my children frequently and This is an attempt to meet my needs and those of my children. In order to meet these need one has to have a paying job, at first I dropped out of college and become a home mother, I become pregnant while in my second year in college, after giving birth to my lovely daughter my then husband left me, this led to have many needs such as social emotional comfort needs and also physiological needs, however the first priority of these need was the physiological needs such as food and housing, luckily I acquired a job and was able to meet these needs. The second in hierarchy is the safety needs, these need include need for security, stability and order in the system, after my husband left I felt insecure and very unstable, I met these needs by acquiring a job, in my childhood my parents provided this need, my father was the one to walk out of the door at if any suspicious event occurred at night, today I provide these needs to my children by protecting them from danger. The third in the hierarchy is the social emotional needs, these needs include need to find love, the need to have friends and a family, my parents provided these needs when I was a little child, however as I grew up I needed to further these needs by making friends at school and also having a boyfriend. There was also a need to have a family and for this reason I have accepted to have one, I have now fulfilled all the above mentioned needs and therefore moving up to higher needs. The next need is the esteem need, these needs can be referred to as the ego needs, this is the need to feel competent, this is a need to achieve and be recognized and also have dignity, I have not fully achieved this need and this is the reason I want to join the accounting college to be a graduate and this will help me achieve more in my life. The final need is the self actualization need, this is the need to direct ones life and the need to achieve full potential, I have not yet achieved this and I am working to achieve through education and also realization of my dreams. This theory however can be summarized in the following chart: The above diagram shows Maslow theory of hierarchy of needs, we move from lower needs to higher needs, this means that we first demand physiological needs such as the need to survive such as food, we then move to higher needs which are the needs up the ladder, this ladder is similar to the social stratification theory, this theory states that people will move up the ladder, in the stratification theory the rich are few while the poor are the majority. There are only a number of factors that can make you moving up the ladder and this include education, inheritance, marriage, chance or luck and promotions at the work place. We can also move down the social stratification ladder, this is possible through illness or deviance behaviors among other factors. This social stratification ladder also signify a capitalist society which Marx was against, Marx was not happy about the inequalities in the society and for this reason wrote articles against the capitalist society, however it is better to have a capitalist form of society compared to the caste system practiced by the Indians, in this form of society social inequality is by birth and if you are born a servant you will remain in the same class the rest of your life, lucky for me I was born in a capitalist society where I have worked my way up the ladder through hard work and education. My life I was born in 1973 by a middle class family in Ukraine, I grew up in Kiev attending learning the culture of our community, as a child I always wanted to learn more from the adults especially my mother who spent all her time with me until it was time for me to go to school, a new born child in Ukraine must learn from the adults especially the language of the community and also the way things are done. All that mattered in my early life as a child was to meet the physiological, safety and social emotional needs, the physiological needs such as food, clothing and shelter were provided by parents, however the social emotional needs were met by my parents and close relatives. Reaching the age of 5 years I was admitted to a school near my home, at this point all my needs were met by my parents but my physiological needs extended and there was a need to have friends at school, I made many friends who at the time were mostly my class mates. However this changed at the age of 16 years, at this age I felt the need to have a boyfriend, and this was a physiological need that my parents at the time were against because I was still in school. Attending school was an indication of my movement in the social ladder, education is one of the factors that help individuals move up the social stratification ladder but at this time I did not realize the stratification in my society. Also in my country at this time was experiencing political stability and everyone experienced insecurity, the need for security of each citizen was not properly met by the existing government. Luckily we migrated to the US where the political environment was at the time stable, our migration was not only because of the existing political instability in the country but also to get an opportunity in the US to realize our dreams and meet other needs. I joined a community college in the United States and having left all my friends back in my home country I needed to meet my social emotional need by having more friends, this is where I met the man I thought was my better half, I got married and some months later I was pregnant with my daughter Gabriella. At this time my entire social emotional needs to have a family had been fulfilled and I become a home mother spending most my time with my new born, all that was left at this time were the esteem and actualization need in life. Some months passed and the worst happened, I realized I had lost nearly everything in life apart from my daughter, I had no job and my husband had left, I realized that my needs and that of my daughter were now my burden, having realized this I knew I had to do something quick. I acquired a job that enabled me to meet the my needs and those of my daughter, the pay was low but I had to do the job for us to survive, with the job I was now able to meet my physiological and safety needs but my social emotional needs still remained partially met, I had friends and relatives who helped me meet part of these needs but still the need to have a family were high. Years after I have now fulfilled this need, this is evident with my second marriage to loving husband, we are now a family and I am now moving on to the next need, we now have a son which has made our family complete despite the doctors stating that we could not have a child, life is hard but I know I will finally meet my esteem needs, esteem needs such as recognition, status and self confidence. I am planning on achieving the remaining needs through education, I want to achieve a bachelor’s degree in accounting and auditing, this will be my tool in satisfying my self actualization need, and I hope I will not have to move back to lower needs in the future. Movement up and down the hierarchy of needs is evident in my life, losing my first love shows a movement from the already satisfied social emotional needs to lower needs that include the safety and physiological needs, my experience has made me to be more careful in life, I have made up my mind to achieve the higher needs. The work place: I have worked in my current company for 8 years, work is an important part of ones life, the organization has changed over time for the better and every change is aimed at optimizing on the advantages at hand. The bureaucratic organization of the company enables it to function effectively through utilization of division of labor advantages increasing productivity, for example all my time in the company ia have been an assistant accountant while other perform other activities in the organization. However I have come to realize that bureaucracies can be failure because they are characterized by ritualism, protecting the inept and making waste. The reasons why I state this is because I have worked for 8 years and I have seen changes in the organization which is far beyond my control, the organization controls me and I have no control over it, the same case happens in the society where the society is far beyond the control of the individual, according to Weber the modern world is a juggernaut meaning a large machine that threatens to run out of control and crashes those who resist. I have experienced the changes in the society from a traditional form into a more modernized world, the modern world is full of risks and therefore the modern world is characterized by more risks, it has been a change in society where every institution and individual must adjust, those who resist to change are crashed and this is the reason the company I work with has to change failure to which it will close down. Bureaucracies are characterized by ritualism, there are rules and work is done according to the set roles, people in the organization over the years have become obsessed to procedure and now have lost reasons for these rules, this has made peole to become less creative and effective. Another characteristic is protection of the inept, according to Weber this happens where promotions are carried out until the point where the individual is less competietn and therefore the organization is ful of incompetent workers, for example when an efficient competent worker is promoted to a manager he may not be in a position to play this role better than when he or she was a worker. The final characteristic is whereby people in an organization make waste, workers will tend to fill the time space assigned to them by taking more time to complete a task, this way a worker will turn more incompetent, example at my workplace people take more time to complete their duties fearing that they may loose their job if someone found them idle during working hours, for this reason therefore they will take more time to complete a certain tasks as a way of protecting their job. The organization I work with has undertaken adaptive models and selective models of change, the adaptive model states that an organization will choose strategies that will help become more competitive, I have therefore experienced changes over the years where some are beneficial to the company while others have negatively affected the work environment. Status: I classify myself as a middle income earner, my parents were also middle income earners, at this level I feel that my children should be high income earners and to ensure the realization of this dream my daughter attends the best school in my area, I also have plans for my son who will also attend the same school. Movement up and down the social ladder is determined by various factors, example marriage, inheritance, education and chance as earlier discussed, education is an important tool to the realization of ones dreams, if I did not attend school or even a college I would not be in the present job that has given me the current status, if I successfully complete the bachelors degree I am sure I will get a promotion in the company and this will also be accompanied by an increment in salry, this is easily enable me to realize my dreams and higher needs. Marriage: Marriage has not made me to change status but has made me fulfill my social emotional needs, it may aid me however to climb up the social ladder through financial support from my husband. My greatest strategy however at this point is to create an enabling environment for my children. Marriage is part of human way of life, in the past there were was marriage that was a sign of love and change in ones status, a family is also a unit of the society where if there were were no families then the society would in future not exist. The family also allows population growth and at the same time an increase in resources in the economy and also in a family, I have been successful in this where I have raised two lovely children in my marriage. Religion: I have been a Christian all my life and God fearing, I also tech my children to be Christians, however according to the various theories by scholars religion has been heavily criticized, some state that religion is just a form of escapism from reality where people will only turn to religion to explain what they cannot explain, Karl Marx stated that religion is a means used by capitalist to justify their position and nature of society, religion is acts to sooth the wounds inflicted by the capitalist, however religion has been part of my life and I plan to get married in church and hope to raise God fearing children. Future: The future is very uncertain but I always make plans for the future, I plan to complete my studies and acquire a high paying job, I also hope that my marriage will have a better ending and also raise healthy and wealthy children. I also wish that I will retire working fully satisfied with how I have lived my life. Conclusion: The need theory by Abraham Maslow helps define my life and the life others, we will always strive to met higher needs after satisfying the lower needs, I plan to fulfill my needs after successful completion of my accounting degree, the existing theories of human development is an attempt to explain the various stages people have to pass through. References: Blumer H. (1986) Symbolic Interactionism, methods and Perspective, University of California Press, California Goffman Ervin (1999) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Anchor publishers, New York Homans Casper (1962) Sentiments and Activities, Glencoe free press, London Mead Herbert (1967) Mind, Self and the Society, University of Chicago Press, Chicago Merton Robert (1957) Social Theory and Social Structure, Glencoe free press, London Read More