SELF-ACTUALIZATION NEEDS

05.  SELF-ACTUALIZATION NEEDS

The aforementioned theory may be applied to the roles of organizational cultural and human resource

management in improving employee’s performance despite some criticism or limitations of the theory. While some research has shown support for Maslow’s theory, others have not been able to substantiate the idea of a needs hierarchy that is considered to be influenced by Western culture, and thus cannot apply to all scenarios (Richard, 2000)

There was little evidence for Maslow's ranking of these needs and even less evidence that these needs are in a hierarchical order.

Maslow's biographical analysis focused on a biased sample of self-actualized individuals, predominately limited to highly educated white males such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, William James, Aldous Huxley, Gandhi, Beethoven. Although Maslow (1970) did study self - actualized females, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Mother Teresa, they comprised a small proportion of his sample. This makes it difficult to generalize his theory to females and individuals from lower social classes or different ethnicity. Thus, questioning the population validity of Maslow's findings (Grampy,2016).

The hierarchy of needs theory is relevant to this study as the theory is applicable to organizational orientation and employee motivation (Greenberg & Baron, 2003). They further argue that the theory is able to suggest how managers can lead their employees or subordinates to become self-actualized. The idea implies the dual role of the theory first to organizations and second to employees on the basis that both the organization and the employees must decide on the performance of their organization, and that when employees put in their best in the service of the organization, the culture and human resource practice should also ensure that the employees’ level of needs are reflected in the values the organization holds with high esteem (Greenberg & Baron, 2003).

In conclusion, problems noted with Dr. Maslow’s work are primarily empirical. Although he saw the need for future, objective studies, he initially viewed his pursuits as a way to “convince and to teach” himself, “rather than to prove or to demonstrate to others”. Reading this study would lead one to believe that the self-actualized person is untouchable and beyond reproach. However, Maslow has a way of detaching the SA individuals and then slowing allowing them back down to earth. He identified several positive factors but also explained the Self-actualized are not perfect, invariably bringing back the “human part” of this humanistic view of psychology. (Huber, et.al, 2000)

The wide popularity and applicability of Maslow’s theory is attributed to its simplicity and ease of application. However, counter-evidence paved the way for criticisms. Thus, this section aims to shed light on some of these limitations, namely:

1. deprivation/domination,

2. gratification/activation,

3. self-actualization (Fallatah and Syed,2018)

Indeed, it is the limited empirical evidence of the universality of Maslow’s model which should be of particular concern to researchers of motivation. Satisfaction is a relative concept which differs from person to person and context to context. Therefore, it is imperative that such researchers undertake empirical verification of Maslow’s hierarchical order of needs in diverse national, industrial and organisational contexts. This is important given that the majority of the empirical studies on Maslow, which have actually been undertaken, have been done in Western organisations and contexts. Therefore, it would be beneficial for there to be a future focus on organisations which are located in developing and underdeveloped countries (Fallatah and Syed,2018)

Conclusion

Regardless of these criticisms, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs represents part of an important shift in psychology. Rather than focusing on abnormal behavior and development, Maslow's humanistic psychology was focused on the development of healthy individuals. While there was relatively little research -supporting the theory, the hierarchy of needs is well-known and popular both in and out of psychology. (Gans,2018).

This is not always the case, and therefore Maslow's hierarchy of needs in some aspects has been

Falsified. Through examining cultures in which large numbers of people live in poverty (such as India) it is clear that people are still capable of higher order needs such as love and belongingness However, this should not occur, as according to Maslow, people who have difficulty achieving very basic physiological needs (such as food, shelter etc.) are not capable of meeting higher growth needs (Grampy,2016).

Also, many creative people, such as authors and artists (e.g. Rembrandt and Van Gough)

lived in poverty throughout their lifetime, yet it could be argued that they achieved self-actualization (Mcleod, 2007)

As Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs proposes a powerful means to motivation in which higher level needs, such as esteem and self-actualization be designed and implemented for motivation, it was additionally employed to devise motivational mechanics for CEOs, seniors and directors of management corporations (Senter ,2004).

List of References

.

Fallatah, M. and Syed,J.(2018) Employee Motivation in Saudi Arabia:An Investigation into the Higher Education Sector.

Greenberg, J., and Baron, R. A.( 2003). Behavior in Organizations: Understanding and Managing the Human Side of Work. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice

Huber, R. J., Edwards, C. & Fleming-Boyton, D. (2000) Cornerstones of psychology, readings in the history of psychology. The current science. (pp. 291-318). Australia: Wadsworth, Thomas Learning Inc. 

Maslow, A. H. (1970a). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row

McLeod, S. A. (2007). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Richard, O. 2000. Racial diversity, business strategy, and firm performance. Academy of Management Journal, 43: 164 –177.

Senter, A. (2004). An Embarrassment of Riches. Director, 58(4), 96.