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the satisfaction of the esteem needs at all levels of the organizational
structure. Respect from coworkers often means more to a person than
recognition from the boss.
• Self-actualization needs: Self-actualization needs on the fifth level
include the need for self-fulfilment, creative expression, and the reali-
zation of one’s potential. It is not unusual to meet people who are
highly respected in a field, whose lower needs are satisfied in large
measure, yet, who feel restless and experience discontent. The highly
successful executive who suddenly turns an artist or the eminent
scholar who starts a business venture are not uncommon examples
of people motivated by the need for self-actualization who shift gears
in mid-career.

Schutz and the Theory of Interpersonal Needs

William Schutz has identified three basic interpersonal needs, which under-
line most of your behaviour around other people. These needs can be best
represented as dimensions or continuums along which most people fall.
Schutz terms these interpersonal needs the ‘need for inclusion’, the ‘need for
control’, and the ‘need for affection’.
• Inclusion: According to Schutz, the need for inclusion is the need to
be recognized as an individual distinctively from others. A person
with a very high need for inclusion needs recognition and attention
from others. Such a person likes to be in the spotlight, to be signed
out, and to be noticed. At one of the extremes of the continuum, we
find the prima donna, or the obnoxious little kid who does anything
simply to attract some attention, even if it results in punishment. For
him/her to be punished is better than to be ignored. On the other
hand, a person with a low need for inclusion prefers not to stand out,
would rather not receive too much attention, and does not like to be
prominent in the public eye.
Schutz holds that people at both extremes are motivated essentially
by the same fear of not being recognized as individuals. The people
high on the inclusion need will combat the fear by forcing others to
pay attention to them Those low on the inclusion need have con-
vinced themselves that they will not get any attention, but that it is
just the way they want it. Most people are probably somewhere in
the middle of that continuum. Your needs for inclusion may change
as the people you associate with differ, and as the situations you find
yourself in change. We may want very little recognition from a pro-
fessor when we have not done an assignment and do not wish to
be called upon. At the same time we may have a strong need for

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