Abraham Maslow and Motivation free essay sample

Abraham Harold Maslow was born on April 1, 1908, in Brooklyn, New York. American psychologist Abraham Maslow was a member of the humanistic school of psychology. Maslow proposed a theory of motivation based on a categorization of needs, suggesting that an individual progress from satisfying basic needs such as those for food and sex to satisfying the highest need for what he called self-actualization or the fulfillment of ones potential. Mallow believed that self-actualization could only be attained once basic needs had been met.In  1954  American  psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed that all people are motivated to fulfill a hierarchical pyramid of needs. At the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid are needs essential to survival, such as the needs for food, water, and sleep. The need for safety follows these physiological needs. According to Maslow, higher-level needs become important to us only after our more basic needs are satisfied. These higher needs include the need for love and belongingness, the need for esteem, and the need for self-actualization (in Maslow’s theory, a state in which people realize their greatest potential). We will write a custom essay sample on Abraham Maslow and Motivation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The cornerstone of Maslow’s position is his theory of motivation that he first posed in two articles published in 1943 when Brooklyn College (1943a, 1943b). Maslow centered his theory of motivation on the hierarchy of human needs. He contended that humans have a number of needs that are â€Å"instinctoid†, that is, innate. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow devised a five level hierarchy of motives that, according to his theory, determine human behavior. Maslow ranks human needs as follows: (1) physiological needs; (2) safety needs; (3) belongingness and love needs; (4) esteem needs; (5) self – actualization.Physiological needs, These are the needs directly related to survival that we share with other animals. These are basic needs such as food, water, sex, elimination and sleep. Theses needs are extremely important and must be satisfied. But, according to Maslow, psychology has overemphasized the importance of such needs. Safety needs, this is the second human need in the hierarchy. When the physical needs are satisfactorily met, the safety needs emerge as dominant motives. Included here are the needs for structure, order, security and predictability.The person operating at this level is very Kellian, in that the primary goal is to reduce uncertainty in his or her life. These needs are most clearly seen operating in children, who typically show great fear when confronted with unpredictable events. The satisfaction of the safety needs assures individuals they are living in a safe environment free from danger, fear and chaos. For example, security products such as alarm systems, insurance such as life assurance etc. Belongingness and love needs, the third cluster of needs in the hierarchy of needs.Included are the needs for affiliation with others and for the feeling of being loved. With the physiological and safety needs essentially satisfied, the person now is driven by the need for affiliation. Included in these needs are the needs for friends and companions, a supportive family, identification with a group, and an intimate relationship. If these needs are not met, the person will feel alone and empty. Maslow believed the failure to satisfy needs at this level is a major problem in the United States and this explains why so many people are seeking psychotherapy and joining support groups.Esteem needs, the fourth cluster of needs in the hierarchy of needs. Included are the needs for status, prestige, competence and confidence. If one is fortunate enough to satisfy one’s physiological, safety and belongingness and love needs, the need for esteem will begin to dominate one’s life. This group of needs require both recognition from other people that results in feelings of prestige, acceptance and status and self esteem that result in feelings of adequacy, competence, and confidence. Both types of feelings usually result from engaging in activities considered to be socially useful.Lack of satisfaction of the esteem needs result in discouragement and feelings of inferiority. Self- actualization, highest level in the hierarchy of needs, which can be reached only if the preceding need levels have been adequately satisfied. The self-actualization individual operates at full capacity and is motivated rather than demotivated. Hence, if all the lower needs have been adequately satisfied, the person is in a position to become one of the rare people who experiences self-actualization.Maslow hoped that his work at describing the self-actualizing person would eventually lead to a â€Å"periodic table† of the kinds of qualities, problems, and even solutions character istic of higher levels of human potential. Over time, he devoted increasing attention, not to his own theory, but to humanistic psychology and the human potentials movement. Maslows view of motivation provides a logical framework for categorizing needs, but it does not supply a complete picture. Motivation arises from the need that an individual posses.Hence, knowing how and why to motivate employees is an important managerial skill because of its significance as a determinant of performance and its intangible nature. Motivation can be defined as the set of forces that cause people to choose certain behaviors from among the many alternatives open to them. The importances of motivation for an organization are: it puts human resources into action, improves level of efficiency of employees, leads to achievement of organizational goals and it leads to stability in the workforce.Motivation is important as it puts human resources into action, this is so because the more motivated the employees are, the more they will be inspired t o aspire as well as empower other employees who require physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. Hence, it is through motivation that the human resources to accomplish the goals. This can be achieved by building willingness in employees to work for example reward employees by giving employees’ monetary and non –monetary incentives and promotion opportunities.This will help the organization in securing their workers who efficiently utilize the resources. Hence, people want to contribute to organizational effectiveness and are able to make genuine contributions. The organizations responsibility is to create a work environment that makes full use of available human resources. Motivation is also important as it improves the level of efficiency, an employees effort to performance expectancy is the individuals perception of the probability that effort will lead to high performance.This expectancy ranges from zero to one, with 1 being a strong belief that effort will lead to high performance. The employees will be adaptable to changes and there will be no resistance to changes, this will result in profit maximum through increased productivity. Another importance of motivation is that it leads to achievement of organizational goals; this approach suggests that managers and subordinates should set goals for the individual on a regular basis and that rewards should be tied to the accomplishment of goals.Research support for goal-setting theory is more consistently favorable than any other single approach to employee motivation. The goals of an organization can be achieved by utilization of resources, co-corporative environment which brings stability, employees are goal directed, and goals can be achieved if co-ordination takes place simultaneously which can be effectively done through motivation.