The Maslow Pyramid as Related to WORK/JOB Needs

The Maslow Pyramid

1. The Maslow pyramid is associated with the hierarchy of need theory that Abraham Maslow originated circa 1943. According to this theory the most basic need is related to physiological survival - air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat.
*(This chart can also be applied to a person’s work and or job needs. For instance our basic (minimum wage) jobs can be viewed, as the Physiological work/job needs. These jobs provide just enough to keep us alive ‘to feed us’ but not enough to provide any safety or security.)

2. Next in order of precedence comes a set of needs for such things as safety and security.
*(This level of work of jobs can be viewed as entry-level job with benefits that provide for a person of family to acquire the next basic needs for a family. Such as the ability to purchase a second ‘sometimes first’ car ‘probably used’ and or the ability to purchase a first ‘small’ home.)

3. Once an individual has taken care of his or her basic physiological needs and feels safe and secure some degree of need for love and belonging may well rise to the forefront of their concerns.
*(This is the level of promotions and the possible entry into 1st line management or supervision. With this comes the feeling of some sort of accomplishment which leads to the next natural level of feeling and expectations of entitled to and expecting the next step to follow. Which is more responsibility and money. This is the time that a new car and or a new ‘larger’ home are usually purchased.)

4. Need for the respect of our fellow's, and for self-respect, are seen as being next in order of precedence.
*(This level can be viewed as one of “I have arrived”. The person has the money to do the things they have always wanted to do. They take the vacations, travel, and do things that they have been working all of these years for. They have or are in the process of purchasing their dream home. They have the cars or they are in the process of getting the cars they have always wanted. This is the level of feeling that they have “made it”.)**

Maslow referred to the (4) four levels of needs already mentioned as deficit needs, or D-needs. If you don’t have enough of something -- i.e. you have a deficit -- you feel the need. Maslow saw all these needs as essentially survival needs. Even love and esteem are needed for the maintenance of health.The last level of the pyramid is a bit different. Maslow used a variety of terms to refer to this level: - growth motivation (in contrast to deficit motivation), being needs (or B-needs, in contrast to D-needs), and self-actualization. People might particularly try to realize their being needs once they have enough of food, security, belonging and respect but!!! Enough of self-actualization is harder to attain. In point of fact self-actualization is seen as being somewhat addictive, once experienced it is something that people tend to want more and more of! Moreover people can only really pay attention to self-actualization needs once their more basic needs are satisfactorily met! Very few people actually live, move, and have their being, within the realms of such self-actualization - mainly because people are generally involved in meeting the other needs already outlined.Several things are associable with "self-actualization" - being independently confident in meeting life's challenges - in choosing between that which is more and that which is less worthwhile - and in feeling that one's time has been used creatively and inventively.The Abraham Maslow hierarchy of need theory was later adapted to include a greater complexity in the area of self-actualization. Under this adaptation human needs included a thirst for knowledge and a need for aesthetical order and beauty prior to self-actualization and a "Transcendence" need beyond self-actualization where people would feel a need to help others to find fulfillment.

**These levels have a beginning, middle, and ending stage, which takes the person to the next level with its beginning, middle, and end stages. For example a person at the end of stage/level 3 and at the beginning of stage/level 4 can look rather similar. Just as the person at the end of stage/level 2 and the person at the beginning of stage/level 3 will look very similar. How long a person stays in a stage or at a level can determine if they will ever reach the next stage or level. For instance a person at level 1 for most of his or her life will not likely ever make it to stage 3 or 4.

The lower and middle class in our Society seemed to not have learned or even understood this concept. We seem to continue in the same struggles that our ancestors did, not learning very much. Until we realize that we are the ones that should control our destiny and not society or government, only than will we move away from this mentality (the mentality that we are owed something by someone). And the only way we can develop this mentality is to develop an entrepreneurial spirit. A spirit that seeks to satisfy our basic and deficit needs in order to strive to fulfill our self-actualization needs. These needs involve giving back to our communities, society, and our fellow human beings.

***The words in italics & Color are the words, thoughts, and beliefs of: Minnie Patmon-McLaurin (7/4/06). The words in Black & not in italics are from: The 'age-of-the-sage.org' Website & Brian J. Hayes retrieved from the World Wide Web on 7/4/06.