Maslow on Management | |
Author: | Abraham Maslow |
Title Orig: | Eupsychian Management: A Journal |
Language: | English |
Subject: | Psychology |
Publisher: | R. D. Irwin (1965) |
Pub Date: | 1965 |
Media Type: | |
Pages: | 277 |
Maslow on Management (originally Eupsychian Management: A Journal) is a work on industrial psychology by Abraham Maslow, first published in 1965. Maslow's work is frequently invoked in attempts to explain and predict work behavior.[1] In his work Maslow advocated the eupsychian (meaning moving towards psychological health or self-actualization)[2] management as the ideal model for industrial organizations.[3] Maslow took a keen interest in the application of humanistic psychology beyond one-on-one therapy to larger endeavors in organizations and education settings, where greater numbers of people could be positively affected.[4]
The idea for Eupsychian Management originated with a journal of Maslow's impressions of his 1962 observations of a California electronics plant. The study resulted in Maslow conceiving a theoretical framework on which research in the area of self-actualization may be applied to industrial organizations.[5] Not wanting to use the word "utopian", Maslow coined the term "eupsychian" to describe human-oriented institutions generated by self-actualized people. He said it could also be used to mean "moving toward psychological health".[6]
Maslow noted the commitment to work in self-actualizing people's lives: "These highly evolved individuals assimilate their work into the identity, into the self, ie, work actually becomes part of the self, part of the individual's definition of himself."[7] These most highly evolved persons would actually assimilate work as part of their personal identity.[8]
Maslow's industrial motivation theory has been criticized for tending to emphasize only identification of second-level outcomes.[9]
Maslow wrote extensively concerning the application of humanistic psychology to management. Relevant publications include: