Page 147 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Project Name: Manual for Soft Skills
ACE Pro India Pvt. Ltd.
\\mtpdy01\Womat\Indesign\Bhatnagar-Manual for Soft skills\06-Pagination\06-A-Finals\06-AA-Appl\Bhatnagar_Chapter 06.indd

Psychology and Communication | 135

can people devote energy in seeking satisfaction of the needs on the
next level.
2. Only unsatisfied needs can motivate behaviour. Once a need is satis-
fied, it no longer acts as a motivator.
Maslow identified five basic need levels. They are as follows:

• Physiological needs: Physiological needs include the most basic
necessities which sustain life - the needs of air, water, food, sleep,
excretion, and sex. They are the most basic of all needs and, if frus-
trated, take precedence over other needs. If you have not eaten for
several days you will be solely motivated by your desire to get food. It
is difficult to lift the spirit of a person with an empty stomach. If you
have not slept for a long time the need for sleep will take precedence
over any other need.
• Safety needs: The second level of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy is the
need for safety or the desire for protection from danger, threat, and
deprivation. People look to their home as a generally ‘safe’ place to be.
From an organizational standpoint, safety needs are manifested in a
desire for job security and steady or increasing monetary income.
• Social needs: It is only when physiological and safety needs are rela-
tively well satisfied that social needs - those on Maslow’s third level
of hierarchy - motivate people’s behaviour. Social needs are related
to people’s desire for companionship, belonging, acceptance, friend-
ship, and love. Some people will go to great lengths to belong to par-
ticular groups they value. Family reunions, searching for ‘roots’, and
keeping in touch with relatives are all related to the social needs of
a family unit. The need to belong, formally as well as informally, to
a variety of human groups is indeed a powerful motivator for those
who derive their sense of identity from their membership in social or
professional groups.
• Esteem needs: Esteem needs on the fourth level do not act as moti-
vators until the previous levels of needs have been reasonably well
satisfied. Esteem needs consist of (1) the need for self-esteem, which is
characterized by a desire for self-confidence, self-respect, and feelings
of competence, achievement, and independence; and (2) the need for
esteem from others, which includes a desire for recognition, status,
appreciation, and prestige. You look to your friends and family mem-
bers to help you fulfil this need at a very personal level. In most large
organizations there are relatively few opportunities through formal
channels for the satisfaction of the esteem needs at the lower levels
of the organization. However, one of the functions of the informal
system which exists in all organizations is to provide a means for

Bhatnagar_Chapter 06.indd 135 2011-06-23 7:56:45 PM
Modified Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2011 11:33:24 AM Output Date: Thu, Jun 23, 2011 07:56:43 PM
TEMPLATE Page Number: PB