Management With Maslow

The best managers know that employees, on every level, are human beings with basic psychological needs. Recently, even viral news stories have told us loud and clear that we need more respect, fairness, and understanding in the workplace. This week, Fast Company features a story about how Chip Conley, founder of the Joie de Vivre hotel chain saved his sinking company by turning to the work of mid-20^th-century psychologist Abraham Maslow. It’s an interesting concept, if we use it carefully.

If you took Psych 101 in college, you may remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. Unlike psychologists before him, who focused on disorders, Maslow decided to study successful, well-adjusted people and try to learn how we could all be more like them. He defined the goal of a healthy psyche as self-actualization: always working to be the best person one can be, and always searching for peak experiences. Before we can do that, though, each person has to have specific needs met: First, we have to have what we need for physical survival, such as food, warmth, and sleep. Next comes security, like basic safety, access to healthcare, and knowing where our next paycheck or meal is coming from. Only when those needs are met can we focus on higher needs: social acceptance, esteem (both self-esteem and respect from others), and finally self-actualization. In short, a person who is starving or afraid of being attacked is not going to be interested in “becoming a better person.” Basic needs have to come first.

After an in-depth study of Maslow’s work, Conley decided that, in order to get peak performance from his hotel employees, he had to pay more attention to their needs further down Maslow’s hierarchy. In the Fast Company interview, he tells how his company focused on the level right below self-actualization, creating new programs to give recognition to employees, and to encourage people at every level, from housekeeping to senior management, to find meaning in their work.

Conley’s plan is an interesting one, but it has its risks. Too many companies have made shallow attempts at inspiring their employees, pushing for surface signs of meaning without addressing people’s deeper needs. The result is ineffective and easy to make fun of, the stuff of Office Space, Dilbert cartoons, and Despair.com’s “Demotivator” posters. So how can we bring real meaning and respect to our companies, without coming off as fashionable fakes?

Let Maslow be your guide, but remember the whole spectrum of human needs. In today’s struggling economy, your employees may be genuinely worried about their most basic survival. Are they sure they will be able to put food on their tables and roofs over their heads? Do they feel secure in their jobs, or are they worried about layoffs, demotions, or the company folding altogether? If these needs are being met, do your employees feel a sense of belonging, as if they really matter to the company and its culture? Recognition, motivation, and a drive for excellence are our ultimate goals, but until the basics are there, pushing for these will just make the company look, well, comical.

Posted by: John Cushman on September 2nd, 2010 // View Comments
Posted in: News
Tags: Business, Business Tips, Leadership, Management
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