Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows some resemblance to Herzberg’s. The key to motivation according to Maslow is based on the notion that certain needs require a basis for development. Maslow however extends the needs to 5 hierarchically ranked levels. In his book Maslow Motivation and Personality he describes a hierarchy of personal needs, a ladder (or pyramid) of unsatisfied needs where lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be. On the bottom of the ladder are the basic or psychological needs such as the most elemental biological needs like oxygen, sleep, water etc… When these needs are not fulfilled we might feel sick, pain or discomfort. Once we have reached a satisfactory level of basic survival needs we want to protect what we have attained, such as the security of a family and a home. Adults have little conscious awareness of this need except in times of calamity. Social or belonging needs are halfway up the ladder, people are collective creatures and will gather in organizations, bars, sports and work groups, etc…all needs to overcome feelings of loneliness or alienation. Identity or ego need is the need for self-respect, and includes status, recognition, attention, reputation, confidence, independence, freedom and respect from others. If these needs are satisfied the person will feel self-confident if not low self-esteem or inferior complex are felt. According to Maslow the ego needs are never fully met, which accords for the constantly setting of new goals to ourselves. The last need called the Self-fulfillment or self-actualization need is what Maslow described as “the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming”, gaining a sense of accomplishments, reaching an individual’s fullest potential.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
1. basic needs: food, water, oxygen, sleep.
2. Security needs: family, home, job safety,
3. Social needs: group membership, feeling of belonging to a team, a club, friends
4. Identity needs: status, recognition, reputation
5. Self actualization needs: search for knowledge, esthetic experiences
These motivational needs and their hierarchical interrelationships are equally relevant in a work environment. (Figure 3) Even though the basic needs such as desks, chairs and air-conditioning in the office might be taken for granted, people notice the difference when something unusual happens, for example when the lighting breaks down or someone is assigned to a new desk that is smaller or bigger. The change will have a psychological impact on the individual.
Investigating these needs of the workers in their work environment we will find on the lowest ladder the office such basic items as the creation of an environment to work in, with a surface to work on, a place to sit and other technology required to do the specific tasks. Security needs include visual as well as acoustical privacy, the ability to store personal belongings and the ability to create a desk or space employees can call their own. Considering the time spend in the office, the social needs play an important part in the organizational culture. With increasing demand on teamwork and group based activities the social culture that the work environment provides and supports is becoming more and more important. Even though companies are increasingly becoming flatter in their hierarchical structure, identity needs such as status and differentiation still play an important role as a motivational element. Finally, employees look for self-fulfillment in their work. In selecting a company to work for people will look at the corporate values that this company has and judge whether these values coincide with their own.
All these needs can be found in an office environment as well:
1. Basic needs: (proper) light, temperature, desk size
2. Security needs: acoustical and visual privacy, storage, meeting space
3. Social needs: a feeling of belonging, office community, space for social gathering
4. Identity needs: Status, recognition
5. Self actualization: identification with company values, sense of accomplishment, branding
