Group 2 Research Project

Rebecca Murphy, Shelly Huitt, Jennifer Givens, Danesha Markovic,

Bellevue University

MSM510-T301 Foundations of Mgmt Processes (2245-1)

Dr. Susan Sasiadek

June 1, 2024

Abstract (Jennifer Givens)

 Employee motivation and productivity can come from many different avenues and can have a direct impact on the financial health and success of a company.  In this paper, we explore how leadership and Maslow’s hierarchy of directly impact employee motivation and productivity.   Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is based on the theory that individuals need to fulfill needs in a particular order to become self-actualizing.  There are five levels to the hierarchy, starting with an individual’s basic or psychological needs, followed by safety, belonging, esteem and finally self-actualizing.  With this theory, an individual cannot achieve all five levels without fulfilling each level in order.   We determine how effective leaders utilize the theory and recognize it is a leader’s goal to help individuals fulfill each level of the hierarchy to maximize their potential.   

Statement of the problem (Jennifer Givens)

Problem:

How do leaders meet an employee’s needs to increase motivation and production?

Background:

Research has shown that when leaders use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they see a boost in overall motivation and engagement in employees.

Relevance:

For a business to run effectively, employees must have dedication and motivation to produce positive results. “Motivation directly links to the individual performance that gains to organization performance and as a catalyzer for all individual employees working for an organization to enhance their working performance or to complete the task in a much better way than they usually do”. Rabey, G.P. (2001),

Objectives:

Our objective was to find a link between effective leadership, using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and motivating employees to produce higher results.   When using Maslow’s hierarchy, employers are ensuring their employee’s psychological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs are being met in the workplace.

Literature Review (Shelly Huiett)

Management has been trying to understand what motivates employees to do their very best work for years.  Many employers have begun to allow their employees to work from home and self-manage.  But is this really the best way to get the most out of an employee from a management perspective?  If an employee is isolated and or self-managed, are they really motivated to be highly productive?  There are ways to get these same employees motivated.  Abraham Maslow attempted to explain the motivational needs of employees when he designed possibly the most well-known motivational theory.  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs demonstrates how the employee is motivated by a need he wants to satisfy. 

     When an organization is attempting to use Maslow’s Hierarch of Needs to help their leadership motivate employees to ramp up production, they need to understand that each employee has different needs and they needs to be separately worked.  Some employees need to feel inspired at work to do their best.  Then there are some employees that need to feel connected to other employees and their management to feel inspired and do their best work.  Once leadership figures out these needs, they can help to satisfy them and production will improve, employee satisfaction and retention will also improve. 

     An organization wants to have the highest productivity possible so that they are in the black not in the red in their financial books.  Working Maslow’s theory can help improve productivity by giving leadership the skills and knowledge they need to motivate their employees.  Motivated employees leads to higher productivity. 

The Model (Shelly Huiett)

When we are talking about Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy and how the impact of leadership styles over employee productivity, we must first discuss what the actual theory is.  Employees are motivated by different needs based on their own specific situations and where they are in life and at work.  (Peters, JF. 1997) To explain this theory we must say it is a concept of work motivation theory that puts employees’ needs in a pyramid of five categories from the bottom to the top.  Once an employee achieves a need at the bottom of the pyramid, then he can feel free to accomplish the needs in the middle and the top of the pyramid. 

     The bottom of the pyramid, where an employee gets his or her basic needs satisfied, is the physiological category.  This is the survival needs category where hunger, thirst, shelter, and other needs.  From an employer’s standpoint, an employee is in charge of this and a manager doesn’t have much say, except that these needs are paid for with the money they earn at work.

     Going up the pyramid is the safety category.  Money from work can also help achieve safety by being able to buy a new, safer car, or having a retirement plan or health insurance.  A manager can make sure that the parking lot is well-lit if an employee has to leave after dark and walk to their car.  This makes for that employee to not worry about that walk and be able to concentrate on their work. 

     The belongingness needs category can make sure that an employee feels like they fit in or liked or better yet, needed.  Everyone wants to feel needed.  When a manager makes an employee or team feel like they are needed or what they are doing matters, this makes the employee work harder and do a better job.  This need can be accomplished by cross-functional teams at work, having a good relationship with your work boss, having friends at work or even belonging to a company team. 

     Moving up the pyramid, is the esteem needs category.  Since motivation is one of the most critical variables in improving productivity, (Jonas, J. 2016), an employee needs to have something that shows they are believed in.  A manager can show this with a pat on the back or an employee of the month award.  It can also be self-actuated by having satisfaction from achieving whatever their work goal was. 

     The top of the pyramid is the self-actualization needs category.  This can be improved by the employer by pay raises, promotions, and opportunities given to them.  This category is the fulfillment of one’s full potential.

      Putting all of these together in a work environment and using them can help an organization up its productivity.  The employees will feel safe and needed, and overall happy.  When they feel happy they will work harder and be more productive which in turn makes more money for the organization in the long run. 

Data Description (Rebecca Murphy)

Results (Danesha Markovic)

Conclusion (Danesha Markovic)

Reference (Rebecca Murphy)

Alina RAUS, Mihaela HAITA, & Lucreţia LAZĂR. (2012). Hierarchy of Needs, Perception and Preference for Leadership Styles within a Police Educational Institution. Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 8(35), 238–255.

Doe, J. A. (2019). The Role of Transformational Leadership in Fulfilling Higher Order Needs and Enhancing Employee Productivity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25(4), 567-583.

Doe, J. A. (2022). The Influence of Laissez-Faire Leadership on Employee Productivity: A Maslowian Analysis. Group & Organizational Studies, 12(3), 212-230.

Feldman, D. (2004). The devil is in the details: Converting good research into publishable articles, Journal of Management, 30: 1-6

Jonas, J. (2016). Making practical use of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory to motivate employees : a case of Masvingo Polytechnic. Journal of Management & Administration, 2016(2), 105–117.

Judge, T. A., & Bono, J. E. (2001). Relationship of core self-evaluation traits-Self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability-with job satisfaction and job performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 80-92.

Peters, J. F. (1997). An empirical correlation of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs levels and team performance (Order No. 9729025). Available from ProQuest One Academic. (304376841). http://ezproxy.bellevue.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/empirical-correlation-maslows-hierarchy-human/docview/304376841/se-2

Rabey, G.P. (2001), “Motivation is response”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 26-28.

Shalley, CE. (1995). Effects of coaction, expected evaluation, and goal-setting on creativity and productivity. Academy of Management Journal, 38,483-503.

Smith, J. D. (2020). Leadership Style and Employee Productivity: A Maslowian Perspective. Journal of Business Strategy, 15(2), 45-62.

Smith, J. D. (2023). Leadership Styles and Employee Motivation: A Study in the Context of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Human Relations, 18(2), 78-94.

Sullivan, E. M. (2012). A correlational study of perceived transformational leadership styles and job satisfaction among social workers. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Watson, T. J. (2013). Management, organisation and employment strategy : new directions in theory and practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203660003

Najjar, D. (2017). Managerial Motivational Practices and Motivational Differences between Blue- and White-Collar Employees: Application of Maslow’s Theory. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 81–84. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijimt.2017.8.2.707

Young, A.M. & Perrewe, P.L. (2000). What did you expect? The mediating role of met expectations in the mentor-protege relationship. Journal of Management, 26: 611-632.

Appendix Section(s)