Marlows Hierarchy of Needs - Essay Example

Critically evaluate theoretical explanations of motivation that we have learnt about in this module”.- Marlow’s hierarchy of needs “Motivation is a continuous process that occurs in our brains, on a daily basis. We are motivated throughout our days to accomplish tasks or complete activities” (Wicker, 2009:pp 1). Motivation produces eagerness and determination to complete a task or action which takes place within individuals as well as within groups. It plays a major role towards the physiological state of individuals and the effort within motivation can be increased and sustained (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2008). According to Maslow, in order for a person to be motivated, he or she must have certain basic needs met. There are five tiers to his theory which include the areas of physiological needs, safety and social needs, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. Maslow believed that if the lower needs of physiological and safety needs were not met, the individual would not be motivated to reach for social needs, self-esteem needs or self-actualization needs (Maslow, 1970). Maslow also saw that motivation was related to behaviour because people would do what they needed to do to have their needs met. In other words, if they person had the need for food and shelter, they would seek these before they would behave in ways that would provide them with these needs before they would be motivated to seek higher level needs (Maslow, 1970). In the workplace, this means that people are motivated by different things and the workplace must recognize that people have different basic needs (“Motivation in Today’s…”). As an example, some employees will be motivated by having enough money to pay their bills, while others will be motivated by encouragement from their employer. Both needs are important but one is based on survival needs (physiological needs, e.g. the need for enough money) while the other is based on the higher self-esteem needs. Individuals have a psychological need to work. They strive towards fulfilment and look towards a sense of accountability in the workplace. Within a workforce the constant supervision is not always needed for motivation to take action. Using Maslow’s hierarchy, this means that an individual can be motivated intrinsically (within themselves) or extrinsically (outside themselves). According to HR Magazine, an individual who is intrinsically motivated when they pay more attention to helping others than in what they will receive from the experience. As an example, an individual may provide good customer service because they want to help people. This is an intrinsic motivation (“Motivation in Today’s….”). Extrinsic motivation provides an individual with self-esteem or prestige. As an example, an individual who works for a promotion or for specific recognition is said to be extrinsically motivated (“Motivation in Today’s…”). Both types of motivation will have a place in Maslow’s hierarchy because the individual will have reached a specific place within the hierarchy in order to become motivated in one way or the other. Employees can become self-motivated which offers an organisational advantage to the workforce. (Robertson-Smith, 2009) The feedback an individual receives from an employer will determine whether a person will be motivated or not, but this only works for people who are extrinsically motivated. If the feedback is positive, the motivation will increase for these employees. Bowen (2010) discovered that motivated employees put more effort within their work and produced a high quality of work within the organization. If the employee is motivated and happy at their current job then they are less likely to leave and search for more fulfilling opportunities. (Dubrin, 2008). There are two motivational factors that move an individual towards an involvement and effort towards a task. The first motivation is intrinsic motivation consists of salaries or wages. This motivation corresponds with Maslow’s need for basic physiological needs and needs for safety. If an individual has a wage that provides a way to have food and shelter, the individual will continue to be motivated towards his or her job. These incentives are very appealing to employees as they are beneficial, especially to those whom work at lower levels. If an individual believes that he or she is not getting paid the appropriate wage, then they will not complete certain tasks to the full ability that is required (Benson, 2003). This may also mean that they will leave the company in search of a better opportunity that will provide these lower level needs. Therefore if the person is not motivated at work they are less likely to complete tasks to a high quality and are not able to progress further. Extrinsic motivational factors are related to such things as job status, delegation of authority, and job enrichment. Within advanced levels of management, extrinsic factors are seen as more important than monetary factors. (Gorman, 2004). Again, this type of motivation only works with those individuals who are extrinsically motivated, and they correspond to Maslow’s needs for self-esteem and self-actualization. In both of these situations, when an individual feels that they are contributing to their job, and that they are respected in the job they do, they feel good inside and this makes them strive to do a good job and stay with the company. This type of motivation can also mean that the individual strives to improve his work situation by working towards a promotion or other type of recognition. Content theories of motivation consist of the needs of the individual; especially what motivates a certain individual and what the needs include. (Thompson) states that people are motivated by values and needs. These theories concentrate on the psychological state of the person, the base of the individual and human behaviour. If the needs are not filled, the person tries to produce stability. A key study within this area is the humanistic theory consisting of Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs. The humanistic theory believes in free will, the person is viewed as an active agent, able to control and determine their own development. The theory believes that individuals strive for higher levels of capabilities and therefore seek for the highest level of imagination and consciousness. Whilst working with monkeys Maslow found some needs are more important than others. The intrinsic forces drive and motivate an individual, depicting that some things are more powerful than others, resulting to strive towards fulfilling our maximum potential. This theory highlights the specific factors that motivate individuals. Maslow’s model depicts that individuals are motivated by unsatisfied needs. (Steinberg, 2007). Maslow put forward a theory that consisted of five levels of human needs which employees need to have fulfilled in life and at work. According to Maslow “only unsatisfied are prime sources of motivation...only if you have an intense craving to succeed will you study and learn as much as you can in order to fulfill this ambition” (Montana, 2010:pp. 238) Once a lower level of need has been fully met a worker is motivated by the opportunity of moving on to the next stage, in process of achieving that unfulfilled need. Maslow believed that it was in a human’s nature to desire to know more and develop within life to the fullest they can. (Zastrow & Kirst-ashman, 2010) A business should therefore offer different incentives to workers in order to help them fulfill each need in turn and progress up the hierarchy. Managers should recognize that workers are not all motivated in the same way and do not all move up the hierarchy at the same pace. Therefore, managers should provide slightly different sets of incentives so that all workers will strive to achieve their best. Schiffman and Kanuk (1994) assume that dissatisfaction is a strong motivator in Maslow’s model. Within Maslow’s model the lower factors need to be satisfied in order to pursue the higher factors. As long as an individual is always motivated to satisfy the needs, they are moving towards growth and closer to self-actualization. “self actualization is an expression of the potential for growth which is part of all life. Not being based on a deficiency, it can also never be fully satisfied; unlike other needs, the expression of self-actualization is a process, not a goal“(Glassman & Haddad, 2008: pp 299). Self-actualization is the highest stage that could be reached as ones capacities and full potential had been achieved as the individual becomes all they can be. Physical needs represent the lower-order needs whilst socio-psychological needs represent the higher order needs Maslow’s Hierarchy has been critiqued for a number of reasons. Maslow completed his research through biographical analysis. One can argue that this method is entirely subjective as it is based upon the opinions of the researcher. This reduced the validity of the research to a person’s opinion which, for many researchers, said that Maslow’s opinion was biased. Hence Maslows theory of self-actualization cannot be completely accepted as a scientific fact. His theories led the idea that motivation could include more than one goal and also ignores individual differences, as some individual’s will find something more important than others. Some individuals respond to several needs rather than one. Also the same need for some individuals may result to different behaviours of each person. The theory places too much emphasis on a person’s ability to change and develop, which could mean that the theory is ignoring cultural constraints. The theory has been found hard to falsify, although they lack predictive power and are considered unscientific. There is also a lack of empirical evidence to support the model (Brain, 2002). Maslow’s perspective of people desiring for personal achievement has been found to be massively culture bound (Jarvis, 2005). His study was only carried out on an individualistic culture in the USA, therefore making it hard to generalise with other cultures. Some critics have shown that Maslow’s model is only relevant to understanding the behaviour of middle class workers in the UK and the USA, as this was where his research was done.(McReynolds, 2012) Other research found no clear link between Maslow’s theory and behaviour. Individual emotions and consciousness are difficult to study objectively. Maslow believed that we self-actualize at the final stage; there have been many different examples to show that this may not be particularly correct. Managers develop strategies intended for satisfying needs which are developing and unmet. Though there are many negative views towards Maslow’s theory, it still remains valid today in terms of understanding motivation and how people strive to fulfill the needs desired. References Benson, G.S, Dundis, P. S. (2003.)Understanding and motivating health care employees: integrating Maslows hierarchy of needs, training and technology. Journal of Nursing Management. 11(5), 315-320. Brain, C (2002), Advanced Psychology: Applications, Issues & Perspectives, United Kingdom Carter-Steward, J. 2009, Motivating the 21st-century worker: A case study of Maslows hierarchy of needs as it applies to the current generationally diverse workforce, Capella University. Dubrin, J. A (2012), Essentials of Management, USA Glassman, E. W, Haddad, M (2008) Approaches to psychology, Open University Press, United Kingdom. Gorman, P (2004), Motivation and Emotion, Routledge, USA. Jarvis, M (2005). The psychology of effective learning and teaching, United Kingdom Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality. 30 December 2012. Available from http://www.chaight.com/Wk%2015%20E205B%20Maslow%20-%20Human%20Motivation.pdf McReynolds, J (2012). Motivational Theories and Psychology “Motivation in today’s workplace: The link to performance.” HR Magazine, 55.7, 1-9. Robertson-Smith, G(2009). Employee Engagement: A Review of Current Thinking. Sadri, G; Bowen, R. C(2012) Meeting employee requirements: maslows hierarchy of needs is still a reliable guide to motivating staff. Schunk, H. D, & Zimmerman, J. B (2008), Motivation and self regulated learning, Theory, Research and Applications , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, USA. Steinberg, S (2007), An introduction to communication skills, Juta & Co, South Africa Wicker, D (2009) Motivation: An interactive guide, USA Zastrow, H. C, Kirst-ashman, K. K, (2010), Understanding human behaviour and the social environment, USA. Read More