Hierarchy of Needs
The hierarchy of needs is an idea associated almost entirely with one man, Abraham Maslow, the most influential anthropologist ever to have worked in industry. New York-born Maslow did anthropological research among the Blackfoot Indians in Alberta, Canada, before working in industry. He subsequently became professor of psychology at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
The hierarchy of needs is a theory about the way in which people are motivated. Maslow first presented the theory in a paper published in the Psychological Review in 1943. In it he postulated that human needs fall into five different categories. Needs in the lower categories have to be satisfied before needs in the higher ones can act as motivators. Thus a violinist who is starving cannot be motivated to play Mozart, and a shop worker without a lunch break is less productive in the afternoon than one with a lunch break. The theory arose out of a sense that classic economics was not giving managers much help because it failed to take into account the complexity of human motivation. Maslow himself wrote: What conditions of work, what kinds of work, what kinds of management, and what kinds of reward or pay will help human stature to grow healthy, to its fuller and fullest stature? Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionised by accepting the results of higher human needs, including the impulse to self-actualisation and the love for the highest values. Whole industries exist to satisfy the needs in Maslow’s five categories.
- Physiological needs: hunger, thirst, sex and sleep. Food and drinks manufacturers operate to satisfy needs in this area, as do prostitutes and tobacco growers.
- Safety needs: job security, protection from harm and the avoidance of risk. At this level an individual’s thoughts turn to insurance, burglar alarms and savings deposits.
- Social needs: the affection of family and friendship. These are satisfied by things like weddings, sophisticated restaurants and telecommunications.
- Esteem needs (also called ego needs), divided into internal needs, such as self-respect and sense of achievement, and external needs, such as status and recognition. Industries focused on this level include the sports industry and activity holidays.
- Self-actualisation, famously described by Maslowas: “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualisation.” This involves doing things such as going to art galleries, climbing mountains and writing novels. The theatre, cinema and music industries are all focused on this level. Self-actualisation is different from the other levels of need in at least one respect. It is never finished, never fully satisfied. It is, as Shakespeare put it, “as if increase of appetite grows by what it feeds on”.
An individual’s position in the hierarchy is constantly shifting as his or her needs shift. Any single act may satisfy needs at different levels. Thus having a drink at a bar with a friend may be satisfying both a thirst and a need for friendship (levels one and three). Single industries can also be aimed at satisfying needs at different levels. For example, a hotel provides food to satisfy level one, a restaurant to satisfy level three and special weekend tours of interesting sites to satisfy level five.
The hierarchy is not absolute. It is affected by the general environment in which the individual lives. The extent to which social needs are met in the workplace, for instance, varies according to culture. In Japan the corporate organisation is an important source of a man’s sense of belonging (although not of a woman’s); in the West it is much less so.