Effective School Management

Figure 3.1
A hierarchy of needs, based on ‘Hierarchy of needs’, in Maslow,  A.H. (1970) Motivation and
Personality (2nd edn), copyright © by Abraham H. Maslow

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MOTIVATING PEOPLE
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The physiological needs. Undoubtedly physiological needs are the most basic
of all needs. For the person who is missing everything in life, it is most likely
that the major motivation will be the physiological needs. A person who
lacked food, security, love and esteem would probably hunger for food more
strongly than for anything else.
The security needs. If the physiological needs are gratified, there then
emerges a new set of needs, which are categorized roughly as the security
needs. Robinson Crusoe’s first thoughts on reaching his desert island were to
find water, food and shelter. His second was to build a stockade and to get in
reserves of food and water.
The social needs. If both the physiological and the security needs are fairly
well satisfied, then there will emerge the needs for love and affection and
belongingness. Now the person feels keenly the need for friends, a special
relationship with one partner, or children. There is a hunger for affectionate
relationships with people in general, for a place in the group.
The ego needs. Having established a base of friendship, acceptance and
affection, most of us want to prove our worth within whatever group or
groups we belong to. We seek to demonstrate to ourselves and others that we
are as good as, or better than, other members of the group. We pursue
promotion, influence, status, power, reputation, recognition, prestige,
importance, attention.
The need for self-realization. Even if all these needs are satisfied, we may still
be discontented and restless if we feel that we have talent and potential
within us which we are not fully exploiting.
Why do people write poetry, plays, books and music, play sports, act in
plays, take up hobbies, climb mountains? We have a need to achieve, fulfil
ourselves, become what we are capable of becoming, meet new challenges.
In his later writings Maslow identified an even higher need, self-
transcendence, to describe the inner grace of a person who feels called to
serve a cause above and beyond him or herself, such as a deity.
THE RELEVANCE OF THE HIERARCHY
There are a number of important points to be made about the hierarchy:
(1) If an individual is really deprived at a lower level, he or she may lose
interest in the higher-level needs. How often do we hear someone who
suddenly finds him or herself in pain in hospital make a remark like: ‘To
think that I was worrying yesterday because I hadn’t been invited to…
This puts things in perspective’? Serious financial hardship or threats of
redundancy can take the mind off thoughts of achievement.
(2) On the other hand, a ‘satisfying’ job at the higher levels will raise the level
of tolerance or deprivation at the lower levels. Teachers, doctors and

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2 8
EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
nurses are prepared to tolerate conditions of employment which would
not be acceptable to someone with a boring job – though even they have
their limits.
(3) When a need at a given level is satisfied, the law of diminishing returns
sets in. When I have eaten a meal, I do not wish to eat another
immediately. While I may like friends and parties, too many become a
nuisance. Even prestige can pall and those who courted publicity on their
way to promotion and fame may seek, when they have ‘arrived’, to avoid
the limelight.
(4) ‘Oversatisfying’ of a need may produce a sense of guilt and/or deliberate
self-deprivation. Drop-outs are often the children of well-to-do families,
and young people will undertake ventures which involve frugal living
and risk in order to prove themselves.
(5) Different people will feel needs with differing intensity. One person’s social
needs may only be satisfied when surrounded by friends, whereas another
will be content simply to have the companionship and love of his or her