Human Relations According to Maslow\'s Hierarchy, Which

Human Relations

According to Maslow's hierarchy, which basic needs did Shank's old boss fail to meet? Explain why the needs have not been met. What could be done to meet these missing needs?

There are five levels of basic needs set up by Maslow which are: physiological needs; safety needs; needs of love, affection and belongingness; needs for esteem; and needs for self-actualization (Goble, 1970; Simons, 1987). Among these needs Shank's old boss only met the first two needs in the hierarchy and failed to meet the rest. Shank's old boss did not get involved with the store and the feeling was that the owners did not care about the workers in the store. This made Shank feel that they were not loved and therefore lost the sense of belongingness, the third level in the Maslow's hierarchy is therefore not met. The third level is the needs for love, affection and belongingness which can only be met when the workers are made to be part of the company and are shown love and affection by the owners of the company. To make it worse the company did not appreciate the workers and their efforts were not recognized, in fact, the company felt that the workers could be replaced so easily, and to quote Shank's statement, the workers were told that "You're just a number. You can be replaced at any time." This was a clear sign that the workers were not respected and thus they lost self-respect and self-confidence too, this is against the needs for esteem. Frustrating the needs for self-esteem makes a person feel inferior, weak, helpless and worthless. The workers need to be given compliments where they deserve, they should be encouraged through feedbacks, this way they will feel respected and will also respect themselves and be able to do better in their duties.

Since the last level which is the needs for self-actualization relies on the satisfaction of the first four levels of needs (Simons, 1987; Maslow, 1954), Shank's old boss could not meet this basic need as well. The need for self-actualization is not easy to know as compared to the other needs which have clear signs, when there is need for self-actualization it is not always clear what a person wants. In order to meet this fifth need, it is important that all the factors that are required to meet the first four needs are provided after which the need for self-actualization will be activated and the person will start pursuing what he/she wants to do in life.

2. Use the Expectancy Theory and/or the Equity Theory of motivation to explain how feeling underpaid might affect the work of a Flight 001 associate and what a manager can do to increase the employee's motivation.

According to the Expectancy theory, the decision for a person to behave or act in a particular way is controlled by the motivation to pick on a particular behavior over the rest due to his/her expectation of the outcome of the selected behavior (Stone and Henry, 2003). This generally implies that the desired outcome is the core motivator of the behavior selection. The whole process of choosing is mental and is all about what a person feels not what is actually happening. Therefore, when an associate of Flight 001 feels underpaid with regard to the work he/she does then the productivity will definitely be affected. In this case, the pay is considered to be the outcome of the work and when the pay is not satisfactory to the worker then the work done will compromised due to lack of motivation. Equity theory is also related to this Expectancy theory and it is based on the principle of balance or equity. This theory also relates the motivation of an individual with his/her perception of equity, fairness and justice practiced by the management (Management Study Guide, 2011). When an individual has a higher perception of fairness then he will be highly motivated and vice versa. What this means is that when workers perceive the pay the get to be below the work they do then they will not get motivated. In order to decide whether the pay is fair or not the workers will compare their contribution in the job and the terms of compensation and go ahead to compare the same with that of another peer of equal category. With the feeling of being underpaid, the workers may change their input or even decide to quit the job.

In order to increase the employee's motivation when such a negative perception exists it is necessary to find a way of changing this perception. It is essential for a manager introduce rewards and to relate the rewards directly to the performance of the worker and to ensure that the rewards offered are deserved and wanted by the workers. The worker should not be under-rewarded or over-rewarded as this will lead to equity tension. These rewards can work towards motivating the worker even without an increase in the pay, especially when the rewards meet the immediate needs of the worker.

3. Based on Herzberg Two Factor Theory, what hygiene factors can you identify that are being met within Flight 001's work environment based on comments made by employees in the transcript? How are they being met? Is Flight 001's work environment meeting any motivation factors? If so, which ones and how?