The Limitations of Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

Definition of Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs- This theory was first created by Abraham Maslow
in 1943. The Hierarchy of Needs is a chart, based around the assumption that each individual
has five levels of needs which in turn affects the motivation of individuals.

The five levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs:

1. Physiological Needs- These are the basic needs of an individual, and includes air, water, food,
clothing, and shelter. All the basic needs that an individual needs to live and breathe is
categorized under physiological needs.

2. Safety Needs- The most common safety needs are physical and emotional protection. Health
Benefits are counted as physical protection and counselling services fall under emotional
protection. The needs are necessary for an individual to feel secure and comfortable within
any given environment.

3. Social Needs- The individual’s need for love, care belongingness and acceptance. Once
a healthy individual feels secure in any given work place, they must try to be part of the
workplace culture and earn their acceptance.

4. Esteem Needs- Can be broken down into two types; Namely Internal Esteem Needs (Self-
Respect, Increase In Self-Confidence, learning of new skills, autonomy) and External Esteem
Needs (recognition, attention, and admiration of their peers). Internal Esteem Needs are more
towards the need for intrinsic rewards, while external Esteem needs is gaining
acknowledgement from their peers that they are now officially a part of the workplace
society.

5. Self-Actualization Needs- The peak of the hierarchy chart can never be fully satisfied, and
this becomes the ultimate motivator for each and every individual to try to strive for self-
improvement. An individual will continue to experience growth in the area to achieve self-
contentment. The hunger for more knowledge, creativity, and self-expressions are few of the
goals that an individual may want to achieve.

Five important Limitations about maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory:

1. The Theory is lacking about the motivators of extrinsically driven individuals: At stage 4
and stage 5 of the chart (Esteem Needs and Self-Actualization Needs ), the theory is
of questionable relevance to individuals that are driven by extrinsic rewards.

The reason being that it is not common nowadays for people to be unhappy about their co-workers
and bosses, yet can still maintain high and consistent performances as they are being promised
a promotion, higher pay, or a lavish vacation which the company will pay for.

So an individual might be stuck at the third stage (The social needs phase) for having a bad
relationship overall with his/her peers, but is motivated by the unlisted motivator on the chart,
which is money.
2. Difficult for manager to identify the need level for employees- There will be some difficulty
for managers in deciding which need level employees are on, and this might curb the
motivation of employees at the workplace.

Take for example a particular employee that is moving from stage 3 (Social Needs) to Stage 4
(Esteem Needs). In simpler words, said employee feels the need for his contributions to be
accepted by someone within the company.

If the manager of the company does not give sufficient appraisal towards his efforts soon, then the
employee’s efforts motivation will go into decline. Because different managers view efforts
subjectively, it might be that his best effort was perceived as insufficient and motivation goes down.

3. The Most Powerful unsatisfied Need provides the most motivation- This is often due to the
fact that different individuals are driven to satisfy different needs at a certain time.

To illustrate, take a certain employee which find himself hard to be accepted by others, but presents
very innovative ideas that makes the manager favouring him and appraising him more than anyone
else within the company.

Based on Maslow’s theory, the employee is at stage 4 of the chart (Esteem Needs) and
should focus on doing more things that pleases his boss so he can move up to stage 5 (Self-
Actualization Needs).

However in reality, the employee has a strong urge to fulfil stage 3 in his hierarchy of needs (Social
Needs) and it is possible that he might put in less effort at work in order to fulfil the unsatisfied
motivator of his.

The point of this illustration is that in the real world, the needs aren’t fulfilled in chronological
order, as people will make the effort eventually to satisfy latent needs in the hierarchy.

4. The theory is not empirically supported- The definition of empirical is ‘something that can
be proven or verified through studies or experiments’.

Maslow’s theory cannot be proven to be 100% true due to certain inconsistencies (Point
number 3) and also due to human factors in the 21st centuary (Point number2)

5. Basic Needs may not need to be satisfied to acknowledge higher needs- Based on the
theory, we assume that if an individual that is lacking in basic amenities or in a questionable
working environment, he/she will never unlock the higher needs in the hierarchy.

However the ‘starving artist’ scenario says otherwise. The scenario is about an artist whose base
needs in the hierarchy are not fulfilled, but yet he will still strive for fame and recognition
This scenario proves that Maslow’s theory might not work in certain cases.it is not impossible
for someone who is desperate for fame and recognition to neglect his/her own well-being in
order to attain them