Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs, The Love And Belonging Needs (Essay Sample)

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory was suggested by Abraham Maslow as he struggled to understand what really motivates people. He had a solid belief that people display a set of motivators not connected to rewards or any form of desires. The fact that people get motivated by their desire to attain certain needs, and that when that need is attained, they strive to fulfill the next led him to summarize these ideas into five motivating needs that constitutes the theory. This paper analyzes these five needs and their significance to both managers and employees in a working environment.
Question 1
Abraham Maslow spent most of his time with Harry Harlow, a famous psychologist who did various experiments on attachment behavior and rhesus monkeys. From his experience with Monkeys, Maslow was keen to observe that some needs always take precedence over others. Borrowing from this idea, Maslow came to create his now famous hierarchy of needs theory where, beyond the immediate needs like water, food, air, and sex, he established five other layers including physiological, safety and security, love and belonging, esteem needs and self actualization needs.
Question 2
1. Physiological needs
The theory encompasses the physiological needs which include the need for oxygen, food, water and other basic needs. As Maslow believed, these needs are individual and their lack results to greater need and hunger for these needs. Maslow has since gained great support from research works.
2. Safety and Security Needs
Next are the security and safety needs which come into play when the physiological needs get satisfied. The need for safer circumstances, protection, and stability coupled with needs for order and structure are common in this second layer of needs (Boeree, 2006). The satisfaction of safety needs implies that one is able to enjoy the surroundings without any fear and extraneous threats.
3. The love and belonging needs
This is the third layer which involves the need for friends, children, and affectionate relationships. This comes from intimate friendships, affection and love. According to McLeod (2007), these needs are well met by the family, community, friends and romantic relationships. The needs are exhibited by desire to belong to a community, marry and raise a family.
4. Esteem needs
This involves the need for self esteem, achievements, masterly, prestige, dominance, independence and sense of responsibility among others. According to Maslow (1943) two versions of esteem include low and high. Low esteem needs involve need for glory, fame, and attention while higher ones demands need for self-respect, confidence, masterly, achievement, and freedom.
5. Self-Actualization Needs
These are located at the peak of the pyramid and mark the final step of progression towards satisfaction and motivation. According to Maslow (1943), self-actualization is self-awakening; an internally cognitive transition resulting from previously met needs. The needs involve the realization of personal potential, growth, and self fulfillment and climax experiences. Question 3
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory is a crucial theory with greater managerial and organizational significance in relation to raising motivated employees. The ideas suggested by Maslow are very influential and far reaching in human management as they offer a critical analysis of human behavior and employee motivation. Therefore, the business entities apply these ideas to boost the employees’ morale and enhance customer service. Employee motivation is viewed as a sequential process that encompasses the specific intrinsic needs of workers. The theory that is made up of physiological needs, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs helps the managers understand the up and down movement of employees’ capacities and needs. Managers need to understand that employees cannot move up the hierarchy without first satisfying previous needs. Additionally, the more pressing needs takes over a person’s consciousness and satisfaction will manifest when specific needs are met.
Through the creation of proper and suitable work settings, the employees’ needs of contentment and esteem are met. This results in a great sense of motivation among workers since contentment and esteem stimulate supreme motivation levels among employees. A manager should understand that, for the employees to reach their self actualization which is the assumed destination, their lower level needs need to be satisfied (Grenway, 2008). The managers need to know that meeting the safety needs of employees enables them to attend to their work without feeling as if they are under duress and are thus likely to demonstrate high levels of satisfaction.
Question 4
Managers of various business entities can help maintain a competitive edge by taking their employees through various stages of the theory proposed by Maslow. By ensuring that these needs are well met will highly motivate the employees since they will enjoy autonomy which will offer independence from social and physical needs. This is bound to...