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Unit 11: Work Motivation

11.2.1 'Hierarchy of Needs' Theory Notes

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who proposed a theory of human motivation for
understanding behaviour based primarily upon a hierarchy of five need categories. He recognized
that there were factors other than one's needs (for example, culture) that were determinants of
behaviour. However, he focused his theoretical attention on specifying people's internal needs.
Maslow labelled the five hierarchical categories as physiological needs, safety and security
needs, love (social) needs, esteem needs and the need for self-actualization.
Humans have a variety of needs or motives. Clearly, some needs are more critical to sustaining
life than others. We could live without self-esteem, but obviously we could not live long without
air to breathe, water to drink, or food to eat.
Abraham Maslow (1970) proposed a 'hierarchy of needs' to account for the range of human
motivation. He placed physiological needs such as food and water at the base of the hierarchy,
stating that these needs must be adequately satisfied before higher ones can be considered.
Figure 11.1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Need for self-
actualization,
need to realize one's
fullest potential
Esteem needs: Needs to achieve,
to gain competence, to gain
respect from others
Belonging and love needs-need to love and
be loved, need to affiliate with
others and be accepted
Safety Needs: Need for safety and security
Physiological Needs: Need to satisfy the basic biological needs for food,
water, oxygen, sleep and elimination of bodily wastes

If our physiological needs (for water, food, sleep, sex and shelter) are adequately met, then the
motives at the next higher level (the safety and security needs) will come into play. When these
needs are satisfied, we climb another level to satisfy our needs to belong, and to love and be
loved. Maslow believed that failure to meet the belonging and love needs deprives individuals
of acceptance, affection and intimacy and is the most prominent factor in human adjustment
problems. Still higher in the hierarchy are the needs for self-esteem and the esteem of others.
These needs involve our sense of worth and competence, our need to achieve and be recognized
for it, and our need to be respected.
At the top of Maslow's hierarchy is the need for self-actualization the need to actualize or realize
our full potential. People may reach self-actualization through achievement in virtually any
area of life's work. But the surest path of self-actualization is one in which a person finds
significant and consistent ways to serve and contribute to the well being of humankind.
Maslow conceptually derived the five need categories from the early thoughts of William James
and John Dewey, coupled with the psychodynamic thinking of Sigmund Freud and Alfred
Adler. One distinguishing feature of Maslow's need hierarchy is the following progression
hypothesis. Although some later research has challenged some of Maslow's assumptions, the
theory insists that only ungratified needs motivate behaviour. Further, it is the lowest level of

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