Of Maslow, motives, and managers: The hierarchy of needs in American business, 1960–1985 (2019)
Lussier, Kira (Author)
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Volume: 55
Issue: 4
Pages: 319-341
Publication date: 2019
Language: English
This paper examines the impact of psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs in American management. I trace how a roster of management experts translated the hierarchy of needs into management through case studies of job redesign programs at Texas Instruments and marketing firm Young & Rubicam's management training. The hierarchy of needs resonated with management, I argue, because it seemed to offer both a concrete guide for management, with practical implications for designing management training and work structures, alongside a broader social theory that purported to explain changing social values and economic circumstances in America. For the management theorists who invoked the hierarchy of needs, the corporation served as both the prime site for people to fulfill their higher psychological needs and the ideal site to study and cultivate motivation. This article contributes to histories of psychology that show how psychology became a prominent resource in American public life.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Matthew J. Hoffarth;
(2020)
From Achievement to Power: David C. Mcclelland, Mcber & Company, and the Business of the Thematic Apperception Test (tat), 1962–1985
Book
Kit Hughes;
(2020)
Television at Work: Industrial Media and American Labor
Thesis
Hersch, Matthew Howard;
(2010)
Spacework: Labor and Culture in America's Astronaut Corps, 1959--1979
Book
Melissa Villa-Nicholas;
(2022)
Latinas on the Line: Invisible Information Workers in Telecommunications
Article
Nicholson, Ian;
(2007)
Baring the Soul: Paul Bindrim, Abraham Maslow and “Nude Psychotherapy”
Thesis
Wisniewski, Theodore;
(2008)
Experimenting with Power: Liberal Psychologists and the Challenge of SocialReform: 1945--1975
Article
Ülle Pärl;
(2017)
25 Years of Change in Management Control Systems and Business Education in Estonia
Article
Väänänen, Ari;
Murray, Michael;
Kuokkanen, Anna;
(2014)
The Growth and the Stagnation of Work Stress: Publication Trends and Scientific Representations 1960--2011
Article
Elizabeth Johnston;
Ann Johnson;
(2017)
Balancing Life and Work by Unbending Gender: Early American Women Psychologists’ Struggles and Contributions
Article
Yates, JoAnne;
(1989)
The emergence of the memo as a managerial genre
Article
Yates, JoAnne;
(1985)
Graphs as a managerial tool: A case study of Du Pont's use of graphs in the early twentieth century
Thesis
Haigh, Thomas David;
(2003)
Technology, Information and Power: Managerial Technicians in Corporate America, 1917--2000
Book
Landsberger, Henry A;
(1958)
Hawthorne revisited: Management and the worker: its critics, and developments in human relations in industry.
Thesis
Yarnell, Damon A.;
(2010)
Behind the Line: Outside Supply, Mass Production, and the Question of Managerial Expertise in the Model T Era
Article
Hedin, Astrid;
(2015)
The Origins and Myths of the Swedish Model of Workplace Democracy
Article
Mary C. Beaudry;
Stephen A. Mrozowski;
(1988)
The Archeology of Work and Home Life in Lowell, Massachusetts: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Boott Cotton Mills Corporation
Book
Joshua Benjamin Freeman;
(2019)
City of workers, city of struggle: how labor movements changed New York
Book
Nate Holdren;
(2020)
Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era
Thesis
Grogan, Jessica Lynn;
(2008)
A Cultural History of the Humanistic Psychology Movement in America
Article
Kyle Stine;
(2024)
The Logistics of Labor and Life at Signetics
Be the first to comment!