Maslow's Hierarchy and Workplace Engagement

You doubtless remember studying Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a paradigm in which the legendary psychologist rank ordered human needs from the most basic to the most transcendent. This hierarchy makes so much good, plain sense, it’s odd that more of us don’t use it as a foundation for ensuring workplace engagement.

The most basic needs of every human are those of survival: air, water, food, and shelter. Only after those needs are met, Maslow argued, can people look after their personal safety and mobility. Here we find concerns about security, protection, and transportation. Then with both their survival and safety in place, people can proceed to look for a sense of social belonging and purpose: friendship, family, and community. These are the relational bonds of affection and love that give our lives so much richness.

With all that set, we can go on to seek the esteem and approval of our peers, so we begin to strive for status, achievement, and respect. Kids learn this on the playground. We keep it up as grownups. We jockey for promotions, promotions, bonuses, high-visibility assignments, bigger offices, lofty titles, and more stripes.

Finally, at the zenith of the hierarchy, we can seek personal growth and fulfillment, what Maslow termed “self-actualization.” This, the highest level of personal needs, we can think of as a kind of ambrosia of engagement. People with such an extraordinary sense of growth and fulfillment are truly engaged in their work.

Now, organizations can easily satisfy the hierarchy’s two foundational levels simply by offering a clean, safe place to work at compensation sufficient to meet the employee’s demand for food, shelter, and personal security. Beyond that, the camaraderie of like-minded peers goes a long way toward meeting our needs at the third level.

Here is where it gets tricky. Without thinking, most organizations tend to reserve the fourth and fifth levels—esteem and approval, and then personal growth and fulfillment—for only a small subset of their workforce. These higher levels of personal needs are typically the province of well-educated professionals, managers, and executives. The rest of the workforce, often including front-line supervisors, are commonly out of luck. That’s where disengagement is so pervasive, and it sows the seeds of cynicism.

All of us should give some serious reflection to ways we can offer a greater sense of esteem and approval, along with personal growth and fulfillment, to more people at more strata of an organization. If you agree, ask yourself:

• What would that look like?

• What attitudes would have to change? Whose attitudes?

• What visible behaviors can you adopt today to communicate the need for change?

• How will you change your leadership accordingly?

Comments

[Paul Hebert]

There is good reason for not adopting Maslow as an engagement model. While Maslow makes "sense" it has never been proven. In fact, Maslow himself said he didn't know if it was a good model - just an idea he had. Most of the psychology world looks at Maslow's model as "interesting" but not a strong contender. Some studies have shown that people will actually fore go their base needs for social acceptance. Pulling Maslow's hierarchy down to just a pile of blocks vs. an stairway to "self actualization."

Most people bounce around the hierarchy, never alighting in any one level - therefore it is impossible to use a "model" for designing any ongoing motivation and engagement strategies. At best, if the levels are correct (regardless of whether we advance once needs are met) we can try to ensure all levels are encompassed with our engagement plans. At least in that way we've "covered our bases" in case there is any validity to it.

There is new article on Strategy+Business that addresses some of the issues you bring up called: Managing with the Brain in Mind - they mention that Maslow may have had this hierarchy thing wrong.

Link to article: http://www.strategy-business.com/article/09306?gko=5df7f

[Thomas J. Lee]

Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I will check out that article, and I urge my readers to do likewise.