|
The Man is a perpetually wanting animal.... the basic needs can be
arranged in a hierarchy of prepotency. The most pre-potent goal will
monopolize consciousness and will tend of itself to organize the
recruitment of the various capacities of the organism. The less
pre-potent needs are minimized, even forgotten or denied. But when a
need is fairly well satisfied the next pre-potent need emerges in
turn to dominate the conscious life and to serve as the center of
organization, since gratified needs are not active motivators.",
wrote Abraham H. Maslow who propounded the 'Hierarchy of Needs'
motivation theory. Human needs vary from person to
person so does motivators. What motivates one person need not
necessarily motivate another and what motivates one person at one
time need not motivate him at a different time. This makes the task
of designing a reward system or incentive scheme to motivate
employees sometimes difficult.
In this context, Maslow's theory
of motivation could work as a simple guide with universal
application.
Maslow carried out his
investigations into human behavior between 1939 and 1943. He found
that the human needs can be grouped and arranged into five levels in
an order of importance. He observed that people satisfy their needs
moving from level one to level five in the arranged order. The first
level of needs has to be relatively satisfied for the second level
of need to replace. Similarly the second, third, fourth and fifth.
The five sets of needs in their hierarchical order are:
1. Physiological: Physiological
needs are the need for food, water, clothing, sleep, shelter etc.
2. Safety: Need for protection and
security etc.
3. Social: Need for love or
belonging to family and society, associate with people etc.
4. Esteem: Need to feel important,
display one's talents and skills, receive attention, appreciation
and recognition from others.
5. Self-actualization: The desire
for self fulfillment, the urge to achieve full potential;
Right employee motivation improves
Manager-staff relations and work environment and increases staff
efficiency. However, it is often very difficult to understand
clearly needs of individual employee if the size of the organization
is large or individual needs of the employees if the background is
diverse. In such situations and others where employee needs cannot be
individually assessed perfectly, or motivators cannot be strictly
tailor made to the individual goals. Maslow's hierarchy of needs can
be used as a simple guide to group employees on the basis of levels
of needs and design motivators. While evaluating employee motivation
of individual worker Maslow's theory can work again as a guide to
determine if the motivators are relevant to his goals.
George Thomas
|
