Use of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory in motivating Employees in the Garment Industry

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory

Maslow has proposed a theory which included five hierarchy of needs and this model is used to be applied to understand about organizations and employees’ performances (Gorden,1965). In a company, these physiological requirements are taken cared of using various approaches out of which compensating and providing different benefits being the most common method being used (Sadri & Bowen, 2011). This usually indicates the company’s attitude towards its workers. If the candidates chosen for the workplace do not think that the workplace, they work for is not engaged enough or if they feel ignored, the fulfillment of these needs isn’t completed properly (Kaur, 2013). 

Figure 6- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

                                                        Source: (Sadri & Bowen, 2011)

                                                        

According to the above model, it describes that a particular person does not feel the second need until the time that person is satisfied with the prior need. This would repeat till the end of the last stage. The above different stages are described as below.

1. Physiological needs

These kinds of need could be identified as biological needs which are considered as food, air, water. These needs are the strongest needs which makes person to be fulfilled in the first place. Without these needs, existence of the people cannot happen and as a result of that people would seek for the physiological needs to satisfy themselves.

2. Safety needs

Once all the physiological needs are satisfied by people, their mind would shift towards achieving the safety needs. These needs are basically illustrating the protection from danger, being confident and not feeling fear (Daft, 2013). Considering about the safety needs, these are highly required by the children due to their feeling of insecurity. But adults have little awareness over their security needs such as in cased of emergency or kind of disorganization in the society.

3. Belongings and love need

Once the needs of physiological and safety are fulfilled, people would eventually go to satisfy the next level of needs which is the needs of belonginess and love. At this stage, Maslow has defined people as social beings (Adair, 2013). Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging. 

4. Need for esteem

The next level of need is the need for esteem within the people. At the moment people satisfied with the first three levels of needs, eventually they are expected to consider about satisfying their esteem needs. Under this it shows the need for self-appreciation and self-esteem, such as self-confidence, independence, success and talent (Griffin,2013). Considering about esteem needs, it can be urge in two ways which can be identified as self-esteem and esteem a person gets from others around them. By nature, people are having a need for maintaining a stable, firmly based, self-respect and respects from others. Once a person fulfils this kind of need, he is considered as a valuable person in his surrounding or in the world. Also, in return, when these needs are frustrated, it makes that person feel inferior or helpless. 

5. Needs for self-actualization

When all the above needs are fulfilled, a person would create the urgency in fulfilling self-actualization needs. Here it does not mean that people need one hundred percent satisfaction to move on to this stage (Hodgetts, 2006). Based on Maslow, self-actualization is all about a person’s need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." This simply means that once a person has fulfilled all the needs, they would feel restlessness in satisfying self-actualization needs. However, it is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization

This model is highly important when considering about the existence of an organization. Work force is the ultimate asset for an organization’s success. Therefore, fulfilling their needs within the organizational level would highly affect in achieving greater performance. Therefore, the organization should necessary measurements to identify the demands and needs. Fulfilling necessary needs and wants will attract more candidates to the organization increasing the efficiency of recruitment and selection. Letting the candidates know they are a crucial role in the operation process and confident that the company will respond towards them is a good way of this Maslow’s theory of needs being met in a workspace (Ugah & Arua, 2011).

When applying this model for an organizatoion, most of the time lower level staffa re expecting to satisfy their psyciological and safety needs within the organization. For an example, considering about a garment industry, there are lot of people who are working at a low rate such as machine operators. These people are mainly expecting in satifying their basic needs. Providing a suffieicent salary would help them to satisfy their basic psyciological needs such as food, shelter. Also, through providing free main meal would help them to feel more satified with the company. Also consiering about the safety needs, main thing would be their safety at work and job secuirty. Those would satisfy to a greater extenet where they would positively contribute towards the company.  Another factor is that the company is not keeping the forced labor nor child labor. Also, the company is already certified with the current health and safety needs according to Osha standards. Considering about achieving need for belogings and esteem needs, these are highly required by the top level management of such companies.  These employees are already satisfied the first two stages of needs and they are willing to receive care, affection, recognition from the working surroundings. These could be provided through organizing events and providing rewards for their performance to get a good recognition within the orgaization. Hence, these various needs should be evaluated and should be incorporated in the recruitment and selection process. So that, organization would be in an effective place in hiring the right candidate to fit in the relvant position to fulfill their need catergory at the right point (Greenberg & Baron, 2003).

References

• Adair, J. (2013) Develop Your Leadership Skills, Kogan Page Publishers.
• Daft, R.L. (2013) Management, : Cengage Learning Publishers.
• Gordon, G.G (1965). The relationship of satisfiers and dissatisfiers to productivity, turnover and morale, American Psychologist. 20,499-502
• Greenberg, J., and Baron, R. A. (2003). Behaviour in Organizations: Understanding and Managing the Human Side of Work. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
• Kaur, A., (2013). Maslow's need hierarchy theory: Applications and criticisms. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(10), pp. 1061-1064.
• R. Griffin, “Management,” Boston: Houghton Mifflin Comp., 3rd Edition, 2013.
• Sadri, G. and Bowen, C., (2011). Meeting employee requirements: Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still a reliable guide to motivating staff. Industrial engineer, 43(10), pp. 44-9.
• Ugah, A. and Arua, U., (2011). Expectancy theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and cataloguing departments. Library Philosophy and Practice, 4(1), pp. 1-5.