Maslow's heirachy of needs and a business
The topic of this entry has to do with this in relation to businesses. I have no clue what I'll be writing here yet, i wanted to explore while I wrote, so I might find the comparison doesn't work well, or i might find it does. We shall see.
1) Physiological Needs:
"the literal requirements for human survival." becomes the literal requirements for a business to survive. I don't quite know what that would be, but I imagine things like all the legal stuff and paperwork and the office building and the office supplies and all the employees (including boss) and all that.
2) Safety needs:
"These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like." that pretty much says it right there - except this isn't for an individual's needs, it's the business's need. the working aspect of someone's life is a sub part of where their needs are met within an individual's needs. This is applying an individual's needs to an abstract concept's needs - though i may find the 'business' itself is really representative of the employees who make it up. Safety against competitors, against bankruptcy, health/accident/financial safety...
3) Social needs: (Love/Belonging)
" * friendship
* intimacy
* having a supportive and communicative family"
A business can have partners, can have supporters, can support others through charity. A business might not necessarily feel the need to be loved or to love others, but in it's own way, a company usually has 'friends' that it wants to help and be helped by.
4) Esteem
"All humans have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect, and to respect others." - this is a hard one. Who ever heard of a business having esteem issues. But I suppose you could argue a case for morale. Low morale at a company. I mean, within the company there could be micro esteem things going on, but that's at the individual level. Higher up on the scale of the business itself, how well is the business respected in its field? Does it respect others? That's the best i can do there.
5) Self-Actualization
"The motivation to realize one's own maximum potential and possibilities is considered to be the master motive or the only real motive" - this is hard cause I'm not sure how to measure this in the form of a business. I mean, obviously businesses want to be successful. They want to reach their maximum potential. But providing the best service or producing the best toys or helping the most people can easily get mixed up with making more money, or being greedy. I would say the businesses that succeed to the top of Maslow's heirachy of needs would be the ones realizing their non-monetary goals.
Why did this come up and why am I blabbering about it? I don't know, i was just sitting there at work last week that I found it funny that our company didn't have clearly defined mission statement and goals until just recently, and it was this whole big thing... like "I don't know how we have gotten along this far without these statements of purpose. They really define us and I think has clarified a lot for us as a company." And I started to think I wonder if a company can become more self aware, after it's basic needs are met. And that is how this topic formed.
Thoughts, anyone?
1) Physiological Needs:
"the literal requirements for human survival." becomes the literal requirements for a business to survive. I don't quite know what that would be, but I imagine things like all the legal stuff and paperwork and the office building and the office supplies and all the employees (including boss) and all that.
2) Safety needs:
"These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like." that pretty much says it right there - except this isn't for an individual's needs, it's the business's need. the working aspect of someone's life is a sub part of where their needs are met within an individual's needs. This is applying an individual's needs to an abstract concept's needs - though i may find the 'business' itself is really representative of the employees who make it up. Safety against competitors, against bankruptcy, health/accident/financial safety...
3) Social needs: (Love/Belonging)
" * friendship
* intimacy
* having a supportive and communicative family"
A business can have partners, can have supporters, can support others through charity. A business might not necessarily feel the need to be loved or to love others, but in it's own way, a company usually has 'friends' that it wants to help and be helped by.
4) Esteem
"All humans have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect, and to respect others." - this is a hard one. Who ever heard of a business having esteem issues. But I suppose you could argue a case for morale. Low morale at a company. I mean, within the company there could be micro esteem things going on, but that's at the individual level. Higher up on the scale of the business itself, how well is the business respected in its field? Does it respect others? That's the best i can do there.
5) Self-Actualization
"The motivation to realize one's own maximum potential and possibilities is considered to be the master motive or the only real motive" - this is hard cause I'm not sure how to measure this in the form of a business. I mean, obviously businesses want to be successful. They want to reach their maximum potential. But providing the best service or producing the best toys or helping the most people can easily get mixed up with making more money, or being greedy. I would say the businesses that succeed to the top of Maslow's heirachy of needs would be the ones realizing their non-monetary goals.
Why did this come up and why am I blabbering about it? I don't know, i was just sitting there at work last week that I found it funny that our company didn't have clearly defined mission statement and goals until just recently, and it was this whole big thing... like "I don't know how we have gotten along this far without these statements of purpose. They really define us and I think has clarified a lot for us as a company." And I started to think I wonder if a company can become more self aware, after it's basic needs are met. And that is how this topic formed.
Thoughts, anyone?