Theory of human motivation was
introduced by the Abraham maslow in 1943 and 1954. According to the theory the
needs of the employee were mainly categorized in to three categories as basic
needs, psychological needs and self fulfilment needs (McLeod, 2007). Basic
needs was the lowest level of needs in the hierarchy that contains
physiological needs and Safety needs (Story,
2002). Psychological needs were the most essential needs that includes
love and belonging and self-esteem. Self fulfilment needs were the completion
and the fulfillment of an employee that reaches the top of the hierarchy (Benson and Dundis, 2003).
Further to this the maslow’s
hierarchy can be divided in to two as deficiency needs and growth needs.
Requirements or the elements that used to motivate people can be define as
deficiency needs (Swart, 2010). Needs that pushed employees to feel that the
person has reached the highest level of satisfaction or capability can be
defined as the growth needs. Below shows the mashlow’s hierarchy of needs
(Amekudzi, Akofio-Sowah,Boadi,Brodie, Amoaning, Smith-Colin,Fischer and Wall,
2016).
Safety Needs – Security of body,
employment, resources, morality, the family, health, property
Love & belonging - friendship,
family, trust
Self Esteem - confidence, achievement,
respect of others, respect by others
Self-Actualization – Morality,
Creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of
facts (Jerome, 2013).
Considering the theory for the
life insurance company, creating good working place for the employees such as
conducting Cultural events Thai Pongal, Ramzan to build unity among employees,
cultural foods in the festival days, leave for those who celebrate the
mentioned functions, flexi working hours, good environment, not only that but
also for the pandemic Laptops, mobiles, wifi and dongles was provided to work
from home as Physiological needs to
the employees.
Source Union Assurance Facebook Page
As the life insurance company is a subsidiary of a largest conglomerates in SriLanka, financial stability of the group was the security of the body. Company head office and the other branches were located near to the transportation methods such as bus stand, railway station and the parking facility was also available for the staff and the customers. Work from home culture, encourage employees to get vaccination, gym membership, life insurance with medicals for the family, ODOC facility, job security in the pandemic, business processors have been initiated according to the BCP guidelines to minimize the spread of virus to protect the employees and the loved once was driven as Safety needs.
Celebrating sentimental functions
of the employees as mother’s day, father’s day, valentine’s day, half day leave
on birthday, bride to be, Mom to be as to build the relationship between the
employees to share joy, build the friendship among them. Not only that but also
initiating group competitions to the departments as Vesak lantern competition,
Christmas tree competitions, bakthi geetha, Christmas carols, to create trust
in subordinators, accessibility in reaching the immediate supervisor, Skip
level managers, or else the CEO of the company was provided to the employees as
Love and belonging needs.
Source Union Assurance Facebook Page
Providing trainings as for the categories as transformers to the assistant and officer grades, EDT for the executives and senior executives, Manager par excellence, HIPO for the internal back office staffs as to build team work ADC 1, ADC 2, brilliant starter, LDC, and other sales related trainings were provided for the sales staffs to build confidence among the employees and customers. Annual awards, start of the month, employee recognitions were also in the company to celebrate the achievements. Not only that bust also the DEI policy which was driven by the mother company in order to create diversity, inclusion and equity to build good working environment and respective culture, violence against women, were some of the key initiatives that driven in the company to respect each and every one. Lunch with boss, Coffee with CEO initiatives help to create confidence among the employees in front of the top management. These examples can be taken as Self-esteem needs of the maslow’s hierarchy.
Figure 4 – Leadership Programs criteria
Source Annual Report 2019
Urekha, Union Brave wave ideas
were some of the initiatives that create by the management to develop the
skills of the employees as creativity and morality to develop the business as
well as the qualities. Not only that the skip level discussions, Accessibility
to the management was help employees to as to build the spontaneity in
fulfilment of the self-esteem needs to achieve the Self-Actualization to drive the company to achieve the vision.
Amekudzi-Kennedy, A., Akofio-Sowah, M.A., Boadi, R.S.,
Brodie, S.R., Amoaning-Yankson, S., Smith-Colin, J., Fischer, J.M. and Wall,
T.A., 2016. Transportation System Health: Meeting Deficiency Needs and Growth
Aspirations Systemically. Transportation Research Record, 2568(1), pp.31-40.
Benson, S.G. and Dundis, S.P., 2003. Understanding and
motivating health care employees: integrating Maslow's hierarchy of needs,
training and technology. Journal of nursing management, 11(5),
pp.315-320.
Jerome, N., 2013. Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of
need theory; impacts and implications on organizational culture, human resource
and employee’s performance. International Journal of Business and
Management Invention, 2(3), pp.39-45.
McLeod, S., 2007. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Simply
psychology, 1(1-18).
Story, S.Y., 2002. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Swart, A.J., 2010. DEFICIENCY NEEDS OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS:
AN INVESTIGATION OF THEIR INFLUENCE ON ACADEMIC SUCCESS AND SUBSEQUENT
GOVERNMENT GRANTS.
Union Assurance. (2019)annual report 2019. Colombo: Union
Assurance [online] Available from:https://unionassurance.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/UAL-2019.pdf
[Accessed 25 November 2021].
Union Assurance. (2019)post.[facebook]Available rom:https://www.facebook.com/page/119070701477152/search/?q=2019
[Accessed 27 November 2021].
Union Assurance. (2019)post.[facebook]Available from:https://www.facebook.com/page/119070701477152/search/?q=2019 [Accessed 27 November 2021].
Union Assurance. (2020)annual report 2020. Colombo: Union
Assurance [online] Available from: https://unionassurance.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/UAL_AR_2020.pdf
[Accessed 23 November 2021].
Hi Deshani, While agreeing with your comments, Maslow (As cited by Koestner, 2021) states that in order to move to the next level of psychological development, a person must be satisfied in every way and that the characteristics of human life are satisfied when they can take advantage of psychology from where they are today. Motivation was defined as the desire to make high efforts to achieve specific goals (Acevedo, 2018).
ReplyDeleteHi NIrmika, True. Further as you mentioned, psychological needs have to be fulfill by the employer to get the fullest output from the employee as well. As this is the basic needs of an human being (Deci and Ryan, 2008), it is not only related to employees but also related to each an every one including yourself and myself to look forward for a betterment (Aming'a, 2016). Considering to the employee scenario, these can be improved through implementing work life balance, as some organizations offer meal tokens for the employees, good organization culture in order to provide the psychological needs (Unionassurance, 2020).
DeleteHi deshani, agree with you, adding to your points, the theory makes the unrealistic assumptions about employees in general that all employees are alike, all situations are alike and that and there is only one best way to meet needs(Nadler & Lawler, 1979).
ReplyDeleteHi Dineth, Thanks for your feedback. Further would like to add as you mentioned when the employees meet their needs and satisfy with the requirements will simply motivate the employees of the organization (Schepers, De Gieter, Pepermans, Du Bois, Caers and Jegers, 2005). When it reached the maximum as mentioned by the Abraham Maslow the employee reached the growth need or the Self-Actualization (Jerome, 2013).
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ReplyDeleteHi Deshani, Agreed on the article. Further, Maslow model is established to explain human motivation and employees' personal development needs (Andreassen et al., 2010). Accordingly, this theory is well explained by the Maslow pyramid. Maslow’s theory is very useful for understanding the needs of employees. Further, the theory explained actions that can be taken to satisfy them. The theory also helps top managers to recognize that deprived needs may negatively affect attitudes and behavior's (Udechukwu, 2009)
ReplyDeleteHi Dileep, Agree with you. As mentioned the deprived needs as not treated equally, lack of resources, Comparison between received and not received from the organization will drive towards the deprivation (McCann, Bull and Winzenberg, 2015). Therefore it is important to identify the ground level grievances and the behaviors and provide prompt solutions for the said facts might mitigate the creating deprivation communities in the organization (Eibner and Sturm, 2006).
DeleteAgree with you Deshani. In addition to your points, According to Aruma and Hanachor (2017), Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs later included two extra levels of needs: understanding needs and aesthetic needs. As a result of the addition of two more levels of needs, Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs now focuses on people's motivation through seven levels of needs.
ReplyDeleteHi Janakan, Thanks for your valuable thoughts. I second your comment. self-transcendence the seventh need of the Maslow's hierarchy will explains the transition or else the growth of an employee who experience in the life (Koltko-Rivera, 2006). Further this will contain morality, creativity, spontaneity and acceptance as a key features that can be fulfill through the need (Venter, 2016).
DeleteHi Deshani, well written article and adding to that Maslow has identified the basic needs in terms of physical, biological, social and psychological where according to those needs, he has come up with a hierarchy with five stages (Jerome 2013). But there are criticisms that he has missed the social connection where several researchers were believed that without social connection there is no survival physically as well as emotionally (Rutledge, 2011).
ReplyDeleteHi Lakshan, Thanks for your feedback As mentioned the social connectivity is the relationship that a person will have the people around (Mogilner, 2010). When it considered to an organization it is important to maintain a good social connectivity among the colleagues to improve the relationship within the organization to engage (Inagaki, 2018). Not only for the employee but also for the employer is always good to maintain a social connectivity.
DeleteYes. Deshani, Success can be aided by the ability to discern needs and ensuring that those needs are addressed in a positive way. Your attitude may influence people around you when you feel comfortable, supported, have a sense of belonging, and are self-actualized at work. Because engagement and motivation are often group-based attitudes, a group of people who believe their needs are being addressed can contribute to the development of a more positive, engaging workplace culture (Kulhar, 2011).
ReplyDeleteHi Isuru, Yes. As you explained the employee motivation is inter related with the employee engagement as well. More over the the levels of the employee engagement of Highly engaged, Moderately engaged, Barely engaged and Disengaged (Jha and Kumar, 2016). employees will be the highly motivated, moderately motivated and demotivated employees in an organization as well (Bent and Freathy, 1997).
DeleteHi. Deshani, Maslow's ideas began as generic descriptions of human behavior, but they immediately became a substantial contribution to working environment motivation theory, and they are being utilized by managers to know, anticipate, and affect employee motivation today (Chartered Management Institute, 2012).
ReplyDeleteHi Indika, Yes. As you mentioned, The immediate supervisor has to be monitor the employee's needs. As such the the Maslow's hierarchy will help to identify the needs and it is really easy on implementing the theory when it considering to the practical context (Watkins and Kavale, 2014).
DeleteHi Deshani. Would like to add more points. Kaur (2013) mentions that, Maslow proposed that if people grew up in an environment in which their needs are not meet, they would be unlikely to function healthy, well-adjusted individuals. Research testing Maslow’s theory has supported the distinction between the deficiencies and growth needs but showed that not all people are able to satisfy their higher-order needs on the job.
ReplyDeleteHi Gihan, Agree with your comments. However the responsibility on keeping the employee motivated will falls under the human resource team in the organizational context. The differentiation of the needs are also help to improve the ladder for the management when considering the factors of improvement in the hierarchy (Werdhiastutie, Suhariadi and Partiwi, 2020).
DeleteHi Deshani , well explained on this topic and agreed with you, meantime would like to highlight one point which Armstrong( 2014) highlight on this theory, Maslow himself expressed doubts about the validity of a strictly ordered hierarchy.But he did emphasize that the higher-order needs are more significant.
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