Hierarchy Of Needs by Maslow
In 1943 Abraham Maslow who is one of the founding fathers of humanist approaches to management, wrote a significant paper that attempted to create a needs based framework of human motivation which is based upon his experiences with humans. Maslow’s five fundamental human needs and their hierarchical nature are most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the complex needs are present at the top of the pyramid. The five different levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of the pyramid are:
Physiological Needs: these include the mot basic needs that are important for the survival, such as the need for water, food, air and sleep. These are the most instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all the needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot continue to function.
Security Needs: these include needs for safety and security. They are important for survival, but not as demanding as the physiological needs. Examples of security needs include safe neighbourhoods, health insurance, desire for steady employment and shelter from the environment.
Social Needs: this aspect of Maslow’s hierarchy basically involves emotionally based relationships such as friendship, family and intimacy. Maslow considered these needs to be less fundamental than security and physiological needs.
Esteem Needs: all the humans have a need to be respected and to have self respect and self esteem. This is also known as belonging need; esteem presents the normal human desire to be valued by others. These also include the need for things that reflect on personal worth and social recognition.
Self-actualizing Needs: “What a man can be, he must be.” This forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. Self-actualizing people are self aware, less concerned with the opinions of others, concerned with personal growth and interested fulfilling their potential.
Written by: Matt
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