Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs In Relation To A Bank

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 Introduction

Abraham Maslow, founder of humanistic psychology developed the hierarchy of needs which has five levels. His identification of needs has played a major role in the development of organizational leadership which gave him the title ‘the father of modern management and leadership’  further his theory is mainly based on personal motivations and desire of fulfilling their personal potentials. In this motivational theory, needs in the lower down hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to the higher level needs (J Venter Ph.D., 2012). This theory played an important role in job satisfaction and improvement in organizational performance (Kaur, 2013).

In modern days, managers should recognize that motivation is the main determiners of success. Therefore, managers need to understand and create a culture of motivated employees who put up the production. Motivation causes someone to get into the work and get it done (Sekhar et al., 2013). And also, it makes to spend more or less to increase the quality and performance of the organization. It increases the production of mental efforts which links to knowledge and skill. Therefore, if employees are not motivated, it will reduce the performance of the organization (L. Elliott, Turgeon and Atik, 2017).

As described by Maslow, people have various needs because of biological, psychological, and social aspects followed by a hierarchical order which is beginning with physical needs, social and psychological needs at the top and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory which is considered as the most important study about motivation has created the “hierarchy of needs pyramid” by putting the needs into a certain order (Uysal, Genç and Aydemir, 2017).

Figure 03 : Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Source : (McLeod, 2018).

Factors Explanation.

Physiological Needs

This is the lowest order need and the most basic need in the triangle. Food, air, water and shelter are fundamental biological needs that are in the physiological needs. As Maslow said, organizations must provide enough wages to every employee to facilitate their adequate living conditions (Kaur, 2013).

As an example, from the financial institution where I work, the bank is paying their employees a competitive salary to meet their physiological needs. Further, the bank considers the increases in the cost of living and offers wage revisions periodically.

Safety needs 

This represents the second stage of the hierarchy. This will be applied after satisfying the physiological need. This means employees need an environment without any harms and threats; protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear (McLeod, s. A., 2018). The rationale of this is, employee needs a free harmless environment to work well in an organization. 

Governments all over the world impose compulsory safety standards for organizations to ensure the health and wellbeing of their employees. Further, my current employer, a leading private bank in the country also ensures that the work environment is safe for employees by providing adequate health and safety measures, medical insurance facilities for employees and their immediate family members.

Belongings and love needs

Maslow (1987) states when physiological and safety needs are fulfilled; people are in hunger for searching supportive relations. Interpersonal attachments and feeling a sense of belonging with others are essential for people. So, those who have developed belongingness with other individuals or groups can increase survival with these attachments (Ainsworth 1989). To meet these needs, organizations encourage employees to participate in social events such as trips, informal parties.

Likewise, banks organize family trips, inter-branch get-togethers to fulfill their employees’ love and belonging needs.

 Esteem Needs

This includes the need for self-respect and the approval of others. A human being needs others with whom he can interact to feel good about himself within a network of social relationships and also to have a fulfilling sense of esteem, one needs the respect of others as well (Taormina and Gao, 2013).

The bank organizes awards ceremonies to celebrate the noted achievements of the employees. Also, by facilitating internal promotions, and reimbursing higher education expenses, employees get motivated.

 Self-actualization needs 

Highest theory in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As described by Maslow (1987) this helps a person to become actualized in what he is capable of and his desire for self-fulfillment and tendency. These are needed to be appreciated and respected by others related to that person’s reputation.  The rationale of this stage is a self-actualized employee is a valuable asset to the organization (Kaur, 2013).

Bank has spent Millions of Money on employee training and development to make them attached to the organization and develop their carrier in it. The bank is expecting to protect the Trustworthiness of its customer base through its highly motivated employees.

References

  •       Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachment Beyond Infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709–716.
  •     C. Sekhar, M. Patwardhan & R.Kr. Singh, “A Literature Review on Motivation,” International Network of Business and Management, Glob. Bus. Perspect, 1:471–487, 2013.
  •  J Venter Ph.D., H., 2012. Maslow’s Self-Transcendence: How It Can Enrich Organization Culture and Leadership. International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology, 02(07).
  •   Kaur, A., 2013. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory: Applications and Criticisms. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, [online] 3(10). Available at: <http://www.ripublication.com/gjmbs.htm>.
  •  L. Elliott, R., Turgeon, E. and Atik, A. ed., 2017. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in 21st century: The Examination of Vocational Differences. In: researches on science and art in 21st century turkey, 1st ed. Gece Kitaplığı, pp.221-227.
  • Maslow, A. H. (1987). Motivation and Personality (3rd Ed.). Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.     
  • McLeod, S., 2018. Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs. [ebook] Available at: <https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html>.
  •  Taormina and Gao, 2013. Maslow and the Motivation Hierarchy: Measuring Satisfaction of the Needs. The American Journal of Psychology, 126(2), p.155.
  •  Uysal, H., Genç, E. and Aydemir, S., 2017. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in 21st Century: The Examination of Vocational Differences. 1st Ed.


                                         

Comments

  1. Nivethini Manoharan28 April 2021 at 20:22

    Totally agreed with the facts. Maslow arranged employee needs like physiological needs, safety needs, need for love and belonging, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs should be implemented in a workplace. Companies also need to implement with equal compensation. Compensation plays a significant role in attracting and retaining good employees especially those employees who give outstanding performance to achieve organizational goals (Lahida et al., 2017).

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    1. Pernalla Vincent3 May 2021 at 21:23

      Adding to your comment Maslow identified a sixth tier of need and human motivation. He referred to this level as self-transcendence. During his research, Maslow noted that some individuals have gone beyond the level of self-actualization as a salient motivation (Koltko-Rivera, 2006).

      Delete
  2. Harsha Wijesinghe9 May 2021 at 12:21

    I completely agree with you. Maslow's Hierarchy helps employers understand human nature, needs, and motivation systematically, which is essential when dealing with people from different cultures (Abulof, 2017). Furthermore, this model is a good management tool that allows managers to recognize their subordinates' needs, which improves the mutual understanding among the workforce (Ozguner and Ozguner, 2014).

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    Replies
    1. Pernalla Vincent9 May 2021 at 15:30

      Thankyou Harsha, It is not possible for any organization to solely motivate and satisfy employees without support of the senior management active participation and interest (Solanki, 2013).

      Delete
  3. Sandun Madusanka14 May 2021 at 00:51

    Yes Pernalla, The theory explains five levels of human’s need, the need for the next level arises with the fulfillment of the earlier need, Following are the needs, physiological needs, safety and security need, social need, self-worth and self-actualization, sometime the need may not follow the hierarchy due to unpredictable attitude & behavior of the human being (Varma,2017).

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    1. Pernalla Vincent14 May 2021 at 10:19

      Thankyou Sandun, in addition Rutledge (2011) says, it has identified that Maslow has missed the role of social connection where according to her, nothing is possible without social connection and collaboration and there is no survival physically as well as emotionally without collaboration.

      Delete
  4. Chamara D. Jayaweera14 May 2021 at 14:46

    Agree with you Pernalla. Maslow’s ideas are very helpful for understanding the needs of people at work and for determining what can be done to satisfy them. His theory advises managers to recognize that deprived needs may negatively influence attitudes and behaviors (Ozguner & Ozguner, 2014).

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    1. Pernalla Vincent14 May 2021 at 21:22

      Agree Chamara, Further as said by Onah(2015) Self-actualization depends on creativity and desire for an improvement in human capital to enable better living standards in the society . In addition, self-actualizing varies independently in predictable ways across the life span as a motivational factor (Krems et al 2017).

      Delete
  5. Oshadee Wanasinghe14 May 2021 at 22:47

    While agreeing to your argument, let me point out the fact that the biggest challenge for bank‘s is to motivate employees to provide a better services according to customer expectations. The study of Rahman and Nurullah (2014) indicates that “employees of commercial banks have high use of lower level needs and moderate use of upper level needs”. Further the study reveals that private commercial bank’s employees have a slightly higher motivational score of each level of Maslow’s model compared to public sector bank employees. However, these motivational differences are significant for safety needs and insignificant for physiological, social, esteem and self-actualization needs.

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    1. Pernalla Vincent14 May 2021 at 23:02

      Agree with you Oshadee, Rahman(2013) emphasize that there is a massive gap between public and private commercial bank when it comes to motivational factors. Jahiruddin & Hasan(2004) stated that managers of private commercial banks seemed to be more motivated than those in public sector.

      Delete
  6. ERANDA ELLEPOLA16 May 2021 at 13:22

    Agreed with you adding to that, Maslow states that when needs are satisfied, individuals tend to have an inspirational motive in their life (Robbins et al 2014). Developing from the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, content theories of job satisfaction rotate around employees’ needs and the factors that bring them a reasonable degree of satisfaction (Saif et al., 2012).

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    Replies
    1. Pernalla Vincent17 May 2021 at 22:43

      Thank you Eranda, Adding further satisfied employees are needed to the organization to lead the honesty and continuity of the employee, which will lead to perfect job performance(Gruban,2002).

      Delete

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