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Article ID: CBB530698938

Of Maslow, motives, and managers: The hierarchy of needs in American business, 1960–1985 (2019)

Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Volume: 55
Issue: 4
Pages: 319-341
Publication date: 2019
Language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.21992

URI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jhbs.21992

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Psychology Work environment Labor and laborers Business and commerce Management techniques 20th century, late United States Maslow, Abraham Harold

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.

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