Eupsychian Approach to Management
Question 4
One of the main criticisms of Abraham Maslow’s “eupsychian” approach to management is that it was developed for American workplaces. Are needs theories of motivation appropriate in other parts of the world such as Asia?
This essay is a discussion as to whether Abraham Maslow’s eupsychian approach to management and needs theories of motivation is applicable to Asian work environment. I will briefly discuss the differences between an American and Asian workplace and then give an example of how the theory is applicable to an Asian workplace despite it being developed for an American one.
Abraham Maslow was born Abraham Harold Maslow on 1st April, 1908 in the city of Brooklyn in New York. He was the oldest of his parents’ seven children who were uneducated Jewish immigrants from Russia. As his parents had hopes for their after leaving Russia, they focused very much on his academics. As such, he did not have many friends and sought companionship with in his books (Boeree 1997). Against his parents’ wishes, he pursued an education in psychology at the University of Wisconsin instead of law and married his first cousin Bertha Goodman (Hindle 2008).
Together, they had two daughters. Upon graduation, Maslow worked in the psychology industry before becoming a professor in his field at the Brandeis University in Massachusetts. During the 1950s, he became a leader in the Humanistic School of Psychology; an external force that he hoped would break through the divide between Freudian psychology and behaviourism (The Economist 2008). Maslow was in poor health in his later years and spent the last few years of his life in semi-retirement in California where he finally died of a heart attack on 8 June 1970 as a result of his poor health. During his time of study, Maslow came up with two theories. First, it was the theory of “Eupsychia”. Eupsychia was a neologism, meaning it was a new term, coined by Maslow himself. The word is derived from the Greek word
One of the main criticisms of Abraham Maslow’s “eupsychian” approach to management is that it was developed for American workplaces. Are needs theories of motivation appropriate in other parts of the world such as Asia?
This essay is a discussion as to whether Abraham Maslow’s eupsychian approach to management and needs theories of motivation is applicable to Asian work environment. I will briefly discuss the differences between an American and Asian workplace and then give an example of how the theory is applicable to an Asian workplace despite it being developed for an American one.
Abraham Maslow was born Abraham Harold Maslow on 1st April, 1908 in the city of Brooklyn in New York. He was the oldest of his parents’ seven children who were uneducated Jewish immigrants from Russia. As his parents had hopes for their after leaving Russia, they focused very much on his academics. As such, he did not have many friends and sought companionship with in his books (Boeree 1997). Against his parents’ wishes, he pursued an education in psychology at the University of Wisconsin instead of law and married his first cousin Bertha Goodman (Hindle 2008).
Together, they had two daughters. Upon graduation, Maslow worked in the psychology industry before becoming a professor in his field at the Brandeis University in Massachusetts. During the 1950s, he became a leader in the Humanistic School of Psychology; an external force that he hoped would break through the divide between Freudian psychology and behaviourism (The Economist 2008). Maslow was in poor health in his later years and spent the last few years of his life in semi-retirement in California where he finally died of a heart attack on 8 June 1970 as a result of his poor health. During his time of study, Maslow came up with two theories. First, it was the theory of “Eupsychia”. Eupsychia was a neologism, meaning it was a new term, coined by Maslow himself. The word is derived from the Greek word
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