Five sentences, describe Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow developed a need hierarchy, which describes the manner in which the personality would be acting. Based on the need hierarchy, the employees of the organization could be motivated, so that the organization could develop (along with the staff members) and achieve its objectives.

There various needs could be classified into 5 groups, namely, physiological needs (such as food, clothing, housing), safety and security needs (such as protection, financial security, etc), belongingness needs (such as relations, children, spouse, elders, etc), esteem needs (such as respect, confidence, etc), and self-actualization needs (urge to work ones skills). The lower level needs usually dominate the higher level needs, and once these needs have been achieved, the individual would go on to fulfilling the higher level needs.

The Maslow hierarchy of needs can effectively be demonstrated in the form of a pyramid (Simon, Irwin & Drinnien, 1997).

References: Simon, J. A. , Irwin, D. B. & Drinnien, B. A. (1997), Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Retrieved on August 15, 2007, from University of Hawaii Web site: http://honolulu. hawaii. edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow. htm.