Abraham Harold Maslow, An American
Psychologist and Philosopher proposed that human beings are driven by different
factors at different times. These driving factors are hierarchical, in the
sense that we generally start at the bottom layer and work are way up. Maslow
wanted to understand what motivated people. He believed that people possess a
set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires (Maslow,
1943). This belief was the birth of ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs’ theory in
1943.
This theory was well recognized as
it was very easily grasped, adopted and applied in a simple manner. Also this
theory helped people to be motivated while identifying similarities and deference’s
among the theory. The usage was so that the theory was used to understand human
needs useful for businesses such as in product planning, positioning and
pricing. In addition the relevance was so that the modern business word started
using this theory to motivate employees and interpret human behaviors.
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Nevertheless many criticisms have
irrupted since this theory was brought forward as to the practical as well as
to the limitation on the methodology. It is noted that Maslow considered only a
very narrow segment of human population for this study and because of this the
hierarchy fails to take individual and cultural differences into account. He assumed
that the same needs will apply equally to all human societies (King-Hill,
2015).
In addition
‘it has been criticized for its apparent rigidity (different people may have
different priorities and it is difficult to accept that needs progress steadily
up the hierarchy) and for the misleading simplicity of Maslow’s conceptual
language’ (Armstrong, 2009).
The
other factor is the availability (less) on Empirical evidence. There is no way
to measure specifically how satisfied one level of need must be before moving
to the next level. Also there are no facts indicating that all humans experienced
the theory in the order Maslow specified. ‘In fact Maslow himself expressed doubts about
the validity of a strictly ordered hierarchy’ (Armstrong, 2009).
Nonetheless and regardless the intense
criticism levied towards this theory we need to understand that this is one
revolution which is still taken into consideration. Maybe the cluster of sample
and the way it was conducted had some defaults; but still it remains as one of
the best employee motivation theories available globally.
Referencing
Armstrong, M (2009). ‘Handbook of
Human Resource Management Practice’. 11th Edi. Kogan page, UK, pp.
351.
King-Hill, S. (2015). ‘Critical
analyses of Maslow’s Hierarchy of need’, ‘Student teacher perspective’, The
STeP journal, 2(4), pp.54-57.
Maslow, A (1943). ‘A theory of
human motivation’. Psychological review, 50(4); PP. 370-396.
Why waste time with the first two paragraphs could have gone to the criticism direct and talked of the popularity of the concept and that managers still use it and its even though and discussed in Business School.
ReplyDeleteTherefore the essay lost its luster.
Why has this not been peer reviewed? get others to submit their views
ReplyDeleteA real criticism about maslow hierarchy.My opinion is maslow hierarchy would be better if it can take cultural differences into account. A valuable article keep up the job!!
ReplyDelete