The Concept Of Equity Management And Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs In The Workforce

A motivated, enthusiastic workforce should be the benchmark every manager strives for, and can be realized through the concepts of equity management and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Both are excellent concepts that if applied correctly can lead to a highly motivated workforce. These two concepts differ in that equity theory is based on perceptions of worth and rewards, well Maslow’s hierarchy of needs focuses on factors that can affect the employee’s performance by ensuring their needs are met. We will begin with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs since meeting employee’s basic needs is the foundation of creating a motivated workforce. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a ranking of people needs, consisting of psychological, safety, belongingness, esteem, …show more content…
First we will discuss our lower order needs, psychological, and safety. Psychological needs consist of food and water, and is obviously a very basic need that will have a substantial impact on an employee’s motivation. For instance if an employee were made to work through their lunch, and then later in the day were required to attend a meeting with potential clients. Since the employee missed lunch and is hungry, they would most likely not be focused on the potential client. Their hunger would have an impact on their dealings with the client. Safety is the other low order need, consisting of physical and economical needs. If an employee is concerned with their physical safety or economical problems this will also seriously affect their motivation. An example of this is if an employee’s house burned down, obviously they would be worried about where they are going to sleep and the possession’s that were lost in the fire. Maslow found that until these low order needs are met, higher order needs will not motivate an employee. The higher order needs consist of Belongingness, esteem, and …show more content…
There are five components to this theory: inputs, outcomes, referents, distributive justice, and procedural justice. Inputs are the contributions an employee makes to the company, consisting of hours worked, education, training, intelligence, ability, etc. Outcomes are the rewards an employee is given from their inputs. Referents is who an employee compares their outputs and inputs to, so they can determine if they are being treated fairly. Distributive justice deals with the perception of the rewards being distributed fairly. Procedural justice is the perception of fairness in the process of deciding on rewards. If all of these factors are not met, and after comparing themselves to their referents the employee may feel either under rewarded or over rewarded. Obviously under rewarded is a larger issue, and is the outcome of an employee comparing their inputs and outputs to another employee, and feeling they did not receive the outcome for similar inputs. This can obviously cause issue’s by creating feelings on unfairness and frustration. Over reward is caused when an employee after comparing their inputs and outputs to their referent feel that they received a greater output than their referent. Obviously this doesn’t come up as frequently as feelings of being under rewarded, but it can lead to feelings