Policy Capturing Applied to the Maslow Need Hierarchy.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to address some questions that Maslow's hierarchy suggests and to provide some insight into the decision making behavior of NCOs. To accomplish this, 234 NCOs completed a decision making exercise, based on policy capturing. The cues in the decision making exercise were a modified set of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. The needs used in the exercise were: security, affiliation, esteem, autonomy, and self growth. Maslow hypothesized that the hierarchy was governed by a satisfaction-importance relationship. As a need is satisfied, it recedes in importance and the next higher need emerges. Regression analysis is used to determine the relative weights that a subject places on each of the need levels and analysis of variance is used to determine if any interactions of the cues are perceived. Some of the results of these analyses were: most subjects emphasized self growth and autonomy in their evaluation of the desirability of a job; many subjects had a moderate importance on a need that was nonadjacent to a need that had a primary importance; and most NCOs are consistent and linear in their decision making behavior. The major implications of the findings were: Maslow's hierarchy is not a hierarchy at all and NCOs want to use their full potential in their jobs. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA052904
Entities
People
- Richard L. Lamontagne
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology