Top Business Psychology Models

50 Transforming Ideas for Leaders, Consultants and Coaches

Stefan Cantore, Jonathan Passmore

• Editorial: Kogan Page
• Año: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780749464660
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Business
• Categoría: Mentoring & Coaching

Top Business Psychology Models is a quick, accessible overview to the fundamental theories and frameworks that will help you understand human behaviour, emotions and cognition at work. Each model is presented in a short and crisply written summary, which could be easily converted into materials for use in training or in coaching conversations. Clear, succinct and well-referenced chapters also offer routes into accessing further information. Free of academic jargon, Top Business Psychology Models explains all the main theories and models used by psychologists, giving you all the essential information to immediately implement business psychology techniques in your organization.

PART ONE

The individual at work

Introduction

What makes individuals tick?

Personalities

Leaders are continually looking to better understand their people in the search for improving performance. This first part of the book captures a wide range of psychological theories, supported by some evidence about how individuals think and behave in a work context. The focus is on differences between individuals, their personalities and the way they interact with their colleagues, managers and the environment. We also look at ways in which people can get a better understanding of their own preferences and approach to work. It’s this self-awareness that not only helps employees cope with challenges but is vital for leaders if they are to manage their own reactions and role-model positive behaviour.

Change

The impact of change on individuals in a work context varies hugely. We take a look at some of the more recent theories about how leaders can tailor their mindsets and actions to create positive, energy-filled responses to change while acknowledging the loss and emotional transitions that people experience. This part of the book also considers how leaders can effectively support people through change even when they are manifesting wildly different reactions.

Decisions

Given that one of the most critical decisions a leader will take is whom to employ, or whom to fire, the theories we have chosen offer insights into matching people with roles. There are plenty of psychological tests on the market claiming to help leaders make decisions about whom to employ or promote. We offer ideas that help you evaluate their claims.

Putting someone into a job is just the start. To get the best out of them you need to commit to develop them. We have included models that will help leaders do that practically. These ideas will shape attitudes and behaviours that ultimately deliver results and achieve business goals.

Your leadership

Whatever your role, our belief is that if you are reading this book you are probably contributing in some way to the leadership of one or more organizations. The ideas in this part of the book are in here because we think they also offer you a personal challenge about how you express that leadership and what you can do to develop it.

01

What makes people do things?

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

The big idea

Abraham Maslow (1908–70) is one of the most well known psychologists of the 20th century, and his theory of human motivation, first published in a paper towards the end of the Second World War (Maslow, 1943), remains one of the most popular theories explaining human behaviour.

In a nutshell, Maslow argued that people have a variety of needs and that their behaviour at work, or elsewhere, is directed towards getting these needs met. His initial model set out five classes of human need:

1 Physiological: to have the food, drink and sex you require. He described these as the most basic and biological needs.

2 Safety: to be in an environment that is safe physically and psychologically.

3 Social: to have a sense of relationship with people as individuals and groups.

4 Esteem: to believe yourself to be successful and worthwhile in your own eyes and the eyes of others.

5 Self-actualization: to desire to become all that you are capable of becoming.

Maslow (1954) proposed that the needs are activated in a hierarchical manner. So once basic physiological needs are satisfied, people will aim to meet their safety needs and so on up the list. He defined the first three needs on the list as ‘deficiency needs’ which, if not met, will prevent the person from becoming a healthy person. The top two, esteem and self-actualization (a term he coined and which has now become part of everyday language), are ‘growth needs’ which help people develop their full potential as humans. Maslow suggested that the hierarchy is open-ended, so once we reach the top we become aware of even more potential in us to grow than we at first appreciated. This spurs us on to seek more opportunities to develop. In later work Maslow (Maslow, Frager and Fadiman, 1970) expanded the notion of self-actualization to include personal growth needs, the appreciation of beauty, and self-transcendance (to find something beyond oneself and to commit to helping others grow).

The theory has frequently been applied to understanding behaviour in the workplace. Figure 1.1 illustrates some of the ways in which this has been done.

FIGURE 1.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

So what?

While Maslow never offered specific applications in his writings, management theorists have subsequently readily suggested what managers can do to motivate employees. These recommendations range from ensuring safe work environments to pension schemes, positive team working, job titles, promotion opportunities, public recognition awards and development opportunities. These all make sense to most people and have meant that Maslow’s ideas have remained popular. It is, in part, the all-encompassing nature of the theory that has contributed to its longevity.

What remains problematic is being able to be clear both about what needs people are trying to meet at work at any point in time, and what actions managers can reasonably take to meet those needs in a way that motivates for better performance. This has consistently been viewed as a major flaw in the theory. Critics like Buchanan and Huczynski (1997) say that what works for one person may not work for another. People try to meet a range of needs at the same time and not necessarily in a systematic hierarchical order.

These critiques have been confirmed by researchers over the years (for example, Neher, 1991; Salancik and Pfeffer, 1977; Ventegodt, Merrick and Andersen, 2003; Wahba and Bridwell, 1976). The consensus is that no empirical research has confirmed the validity of the theory in its entirety. Buchanan and Huczynski (1997: 62) helpfully describe Maslow’s theory as more like a social philosophy than a ‘psychological theory’, with its concerns about the values implicit in the idea of the ‘good life’. Hofstede (1980) added to the criticism by arguing that it was middle-class American ideals that Maslow wrote about, rather than a more universal approach to motivation which needs to incorporate a multicultural perspective.

To be fair to Maslow, he acknowledged at the outset that the hierarchy model was not a perfect one. He wrote of reversal in the order of the hierarchy being observed at times and that all individuals may not require all needs to be met under certain circumstances. He also recognized that there may be determinants of behaviour other than specific motivations.

What else?

In spite of the criticism, Maslow’s model has remained popular for reasons that in...

Índice

• Cover
• Title page
• Dedication
• Imprint
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the authors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part One: The individual at work
• Part Two: Team effort
• Part Three: Organizations
• Full Imprint