Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Essay Example Maslow’s hierarchy of needs entails five levels. The first level entails the satisfaction of biological and psychological needs like water, air, food, shelter, warmth, and sleep. The second level is the safety needs and these needs include order and law, stability and freedom from fear (McLeod, 2014). The third level entails the sense of love and belonging needs like intimate relationships, friendship, and affection from family, peers, and workmates. The fourth level entails esteem needs that include prestige, dominance, self-respect, and respect from others. The final level of needs is self-actualization needs that include realizing one’s personal potential and personal growth. Later, the five stage model was expanded to include cognitive needs like knowledge and meaning, aesthetic needs like appreciation for beauty and finally transcendence needs which involves helping others to achieve their self-actualization. In each level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, their character of being ‘wanting beings’ motivates people. When one need is satisfied, it stops becoming a motivator and another need emerges (NetMBA Business Knowledge Center, 2010). If the things that satisfy the lower needs are gone, people do not care about achieving the higher needs. Indeed, the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs asserts that we must follow a defined order to satisfy our needs. To move a person to a higher level of the hierarchy within the work group, employers and organizations must help people to identify, pursue and reach their own personal potential (McLeod, 2014). Successful organizations are those that understand and encourage their employees towards self-actualization to help them achieve their personal growth. For instance, an employee in sales and marketing department can only achieve the sales targets if a conducive working environment is provided which includes friendship from the