Critically Evaluate Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as Way of Understanding Employee Motivation in Contemporary Chinese Business

According to Maslow’s Needs theory, based on the fact that a person is justified as long as he still has not reached a certain level of satisfaction, has a better understanding of the fact that human motivation leads to a broad spectrum of their needs we could say that in order to motivate people, the manager has to give employees the opportunity to meet the needs in a way that together lead to the organization's objectives.

Abraham Maslow developed a Hierarchy of Needs (appendix 3) which is used to understand human motivation, management training and personal development. This hierarchy is used to determine the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential.

Maslow identified that employees have the motivation to achieve certain needs. Once these needs have been achieved the employee will seek to fulfil the next set of needs.

Abraham Maslow developed the theory of human motivation called Hierarchy of Needs. It suggested that people need to be satisfied by all physiological needs before move on other high-order needs. I learned this concept in my secondary school which introduced how Hierarchy of Needs can be used in business management. At that moment, I can’t realize how this concept can be applied to manage people in companies, since I was student. It was difficult for me to imagine how this theory can be practically applied in the business world. When I study Consumer Behavior in this master course, it arouses my interest to understand that this theory can be applied to interpreting how consumer goods and

Maslow’s theory of motivation is called the “hierarchy of needs”. Maslow believes that people have five main needs in the following order of importance;

Maslow's hierarchy of needs provides a foundational theory. It states that all employees have some basic needs that must first be satisfied in order to provide the framework for further motivation and empowerment.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs was introduced in the mid-1940’s by Abraham Maslow; it is one of the most popular theories of work motivation to this day. the theory was originally used specifically in a psychological setting, but was made more popular by Douglas McGregor in the late 1960’s and began to be used by not only psychologists but managers as well (Steers & Porter, 1983). The hierarchy is based on the fact that human beings have needs, Maslow took these needs and separated them into five categories: physiological needs, safety, belongingness or social needs,

Abraham Maslow is a psychologist who had developed the Hierarchy of needs model in 1940-50s, and the Hierarchy needs theory is still being used to day and for understanding the human motivation. In his hierarchy he believes that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. And when a human had fulfilled a person would seek to fulfil the next one. Maslow’s hierarchy needs is concerning the responsibility of service providers to provide a

Management Summary This Bachelor Thesis will yield insights in the applicability of motivational theories across cultures. Within a globalizing working environment this research will provide relevant information on how to motivate employees with a different cultural background. The research combines the theory of Hofstede’s four dimensions (Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism/Collectivism and Masculinity/Femininity) with two theories of

Social needs acquired by such employees include love, acceptance and belonging. They must feel accepted and a sense of worthiness before they can work up to fulfilling other, more difficult needs. The esteem level on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is the need for appreciation and respect. After the other levels of needs have been fulfilled, the esteem needs begin to play a prominent role in motivating behaviour. Theory Y employees will be motivated to gain respect in their organisation by achieving company objectives and by showing management their skills and abilities. The top need desired by such employees is self-actualisation. Maslow himself said;

The needs hierarchy is applicable to anyone and everyone. For me, I like to apply it to my job and why it motivates me. As described above, to achieve self-actualization you must complete the lower tiers before you can achieve the most complex need. I have worked at HomeGoods for about three years and it is my first job. I have stuck around for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Right now, we are in the ugly. I am working an average of 35 hours a week because we are understaffed. Why am I doing this to myself? Why have I stayed this long? Maslow’s theory of motivation helped me understand why. The first need is physiological and it is thoroughly completed. I have clean working environment with snacks and regulated breaks. These needs are completed so now I can achieve the second tier. My safety needs are met: a safe working environment, a very secure job, yearly raises, and

Abraham Maslow introduced a very simple way of understanding the needs of a person. The Hierarchy of Needs sorts the needs of the lowest and most basic levels to the higher levels. Maslow then arises within their theory of personality, the concept of hierarchy of needs, which needs are structurally organized with varying degrees of power, according to a biological determination given by our genetic makeup as the agency human species.

Scott, Bishop and Chen (2003) researched how well Chinese employees perform under western management principles and practices. They stated that the traditional Chinese culture might have conflicting influences on the success of programs that involve employees. They examined components that underlie participative management efforts in the U.S., which include the nature of the tasks individuals perform in Guangzhou, China. According to their results, perceived group support and

Per Maslow, these needs which are the run of motivation for an employee to work are arranged in a hierarchical order of increasing importance. This order is “prepotency”. It means satisfied need no longer remains a motivator and only the next greater needs can motivate an employee to perform further. This was later analyzed due to there is no certainty that these needs are consider as a motivation hierarchical order as recommended, therefore

As Douglas McGregor began working on his book, The Human Side of Enterprise, he encountered Abraham Maslow’s theory. Maslow believed that people had 5 basic ascending needs. It was this theory that not only supported McGregor’s thinking about a hierarchy of motivation, but it also provided a strong theoretical foundation for his assumptions (Bobic, 2003). With a firm foundation McGregor shared his theory with the world, and his theory has had a lasting impact on management theory.