Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in Public Administration

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs plays a crucial role in Public Administration (Pub. Ad.) through understanding employee motivation, organizational behavior, and policy development.
• Maslow's hierarchy consists of lower-order needs (physiological, safety, and social needs) and higher-order needs (esteem and self-actualization).

Physiological Needs (Basic Survival Needs)

• These are the most basic needs for human survival, including food, water, shelter, and healthcare.
• Fair wages and benefits for public employees, such as teachers, police officers, and healthcare workers, are necessary to afford basic needs.
• Public administration ensures wages meet minimum living standards.
• Policies are created to prevent hunger and malnutrition through food assistance programs and agricultural subsidies, ensuring people have access to affordable living spaces.
• Medical treatment is accessible to prevent disease and improve overall wellbeing.
• Sanitation, clean water, and medical care are essential services provided to the population through waste disposal, sewage systems, public water utilities, and emergency services.

Safety Needs (Security and Stability)

• This includes the need for protection from physical harm, financial uncertainty, and workplace hazards.
• Labor laws protect workers from unfair treatment, such as wrongful termination, discrimination, and exploitation.
• Employers are required to provide safe working conditions, protective equipment, training, and emergency procedures.
• Employees can't be dismissed without valid reasons.
• Policies on crime prevention, national security, and disaster management involve police patrols, surveillance, and legal measures to reduce criminal activities, protection from external threats (terrorism, cyberattacks), and border security.
• There should be preparation for natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and pandemics.
• Employee benefits, health insurance, and pension plans provide financial support for medical expenses and ensure financial stability for retired employees.

Social Needs (Belongingness and Relationships)

• These represent the human need for relationships, belonging, and connection with others, and feeling accepted, valued, and included.
• Fostering teamwork, inclusivity, and job satisfaction in the workplace involves creating a work environment where employees cooperate and share responsibilities effectively.
• All employees, regardless of background, gender, or ability, have equal opportunities, and job satisfaction increases with a sense of belonging.
• Community development, social welfare, and civic engagement involves strengthening connections among citizens through local development projects, youth programs, and senior care services, and providing support for vulnerable populations (low-income families, healthcare access, and education support.)
• There should be opportunities for people to participate in governance (voting, public consultations, community meetings).
• Promoting inclusivity, mutual respect, and communication in public institutions ensures fair treatment of employees and citizens, treating everyone with dignity and fairness, and building trust through transparency.

Esteem Needs (Recognition and Respect)

• Represents the human desire for recognition, respect, and a sense of accomplishment; to feel valued for contributions and abilities.
• Motivating employees through recognition, awards, and promotions can occur when efforts are acknowledged, and recognition programs are established to reward achievements.
• Employees of the Month encourage taking pride in contributions.
• A clear path for career growth increases job satisfaction and motivation.
• Developing a sense of purpose and responsibility in public service involves inspiring employees by emphasizing the importance of their work, providing meaningful tasks, and allowing them to take responsibilities, enhancing confidence.
• Encouraging professional development, such as training and mentorship occurs.
• Building public trust through transparency and accountability involves operating openly and honestly, and preventing corruption.
• Regular communication with the public happens via public consultations and transparent budgeting.

Self-Actualization Needs (Personal Growth and Fulfillment)

• Refers to the desire for personal growth, achievement, and fulfillment by reaching full potential, improving skills, and taking on challenges.
• The meeting of self-actualization needs in public administration ensures that employees remain motivated, creative, and committed to serving society effectively.
• Providing professional development, leadership training, and opportunities for creativity can occur through training programs.
• The equipping of employees with skills needed to take on higher responsibilities, problem-solving, and research projects allows employees to develop new ideas and improve government services.
• Encouraging innovation and autonomy in policy implementation happens when ads are given freedom to propose new policies or improve existing ones.
• Encouraging innovation such as the use of technology to improve efficiency, helps deliver better results.
• Allowing employees to make decisions within their roles empowers them and increases job satisfaction.
• Promoting excellence and meaningful contributions in public service, employees who feel they are making a difference are more likely to be dedicated to their work.
• Employees should be encouraged to strive for excellence to improve the quality of services provided.
• Recognizing employees for contributions reinforces the importance of their role in shaping society.
• Deficit Principle: Once a need is satisfied, it no longer serves as a motivator because once a need is fulfilled, it no longer influences a person's behavior.
• Progression Principle: Must satisfy lower-level needs before moving to higher-level aspirations.
• People can only focus on higher-level when lower-level needs are satisfied.

ERG Theory

• Provides a practical framework for understanding employee motivation, recognizing simultaneous needs and the potential for regression.
• This can lead to more empathetic, responsive, and effective leadership that aligns with evolving needs.
• The theory condenses Maslow's five-tier hierarchy of needs into three core categories: existence, relatedness, and growth needs.
• Existence needs cover basic material and physiological necessities (salary, job security, and safe working conditions).
• Relatedness needs concern interpersonal relationships (supervisor support, teamwork, and recognition). Growth needs focus on personal development and fulfillment (skill enhancement, autonomy, and meaningful work).
• Clayton Alderfer based this theory on the idea that people have different kinds of needs.
• Existence needs allow a person to live and work without fear or worry.
• Salary or income allows one to buy food, pay for transportation, housing, and family support.
• Safe and healthy working conditions include a clean and hazard-free workplace, proper equipment, and access to health services.
• Relatedness needs involve a person's social and emotional connections with others, about belonging, being accepted, and being valued.
• In the workplace, relatedness needs include having a good relationship with the boss, and being part of a team where one feels like they are contributing to something with others.
• Feeling recognized and appreciated includes receiving compliments or praise, being thanked or acknowledged, and feeling that the work has value and purpose.
• Growth needs are focused on personal development.
• In the workplace, growth needs include learning new skills, being given new responsibilities, and being allowed to try different tasks or roles.
• Being trusted to make decisions about one's tasks, having freedom to manage one's own time, and being involved in planning or problem-solving.
• Feelings of being valued and empowered is linked to work feeling meaningful or important.
• Satisfaction occurs when believing that believing what you do helps others or makes a difference, and feeling proud of your role.
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs state we satisfy needs step by step by meeting one level of need before moving to the next.
• Once a need is satisfied, it loses power and only unsatisfied needs motivate people.
• Frustration-Regression Principle: If a higher-level need (like growth) cannot be fulfilled, a person might go back to focusing more on a lower-level need (like existence or relatedness).
• A satisfied need can return if others are blocked.

Motivation-Hygiene Theory

• Developed by Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s, the Two-Factor Theory of Motivation is also known as Motivation-Hygiene Theory.
• Has significant implications for public administration in areas of human resource management, organizational behavior, and public sector performance improvement.
• Hygiene Factors (extrinsic to the work itself): elements of the work environment that do not motivate employees to work harder or better, but their absence causes dissatisfaction.
• In civil service and public sector organizations, these factors are foundational to ensuring employees do not feel frustrated, demotivated, or undervalued.
• According to the standardization Law (SSL), government employees in the Philippines are paid to ensure fairness and uniformity.
• Perceived inequality in salaries contributes to dissatisfaction.
• While salary hikes reduce dissatisfaction, tenure security is one of the most attractive hygiene factors in public service once employees gain permanent (itemized) status through civil service eligibility and appointment.
• Lack of security for contract-of-service and job order (JO) is a source of frustration.
• Though tenure can reduce anxiety and provide stability, it does not automatically translate to higher morale or commitment.
• Many public offices face inadequate infrastructure, obsolete equipment, and limited access to digital technologies, especially in far-flung or rural areas.
• Examples include outdated facilities in municipal halls, overcrowded offices, or lack of proper ventilation or sanitation.
• Improvements (e.g., air-conditioned offices, digitization of processes) help reduce dissatisfaction but do not ensure job satisfaction.
• The bureaucratic nature of public administration often results in rigid rules, red tape, and slow decision-making processes.
• Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) aims to improve efficiency, but without effective implementation and cultural change, policies may not eliminate dissatisfaction entirely.
• Supervision practices vary widely in government agencies where authoritarian or micromanaging supervisors cause stress and dissatisfaction, particularly in hierarchical institutions
• Supportive and empowering supervisors help reduce dissatisfaction, though they do not automatically inspire higher performance, and the challenge remains to professionalize supervision in line with meritocracy and civil service ethics.
• The workplace culture is often described as relational, where personal relationships, "pakikisama" (smooth interpersonal relations), and harmony are highly valued.

Motivator Factors (intrinsic to the job)

• Elements relate directly to the nature of work and factors that lead to true job satisfaction and intrinsic motivation.
• The presence of motivator factors can energize employees, inspire commitment, and boost performance, and their absence often causes lack of interest, disengagement, and underperformance.
• Ability to complete tasks, meet goals, or contribute to public welfare can provide a strong sense of fulfillment.
• Employees who meet targets feel a stronger sense of accomplishment.
• In offices without clear success metrics or recognition mechanisms, even competent employees may feel their achievements go unnoticed.
• Recognition, when genuine and timely, reinforces motivation.
• Formal recognition systems such as awards, commendations, and performance-based bonuses are in place but not always uniformly implemented.
• Informal recognition, such as verbal praise or public appreciation can be a powerful motivator that remains underutilized in many agencies.
• Opportunity to contribute to societal well-being can be deeply satisfying where those who perceive work as meaningful tend to exhibit higher levels of engagement.
• Clerical or repetitive roles that lack challenge or clear public impact may lead to boredom and especially without job enrichment
• Giving public employees greater responsibility over their tasks can boost motivation, especially on supervisory or technical levels.
• Opportunities for promotion and career growth are critical.
• Advancement is largely guided by Merit Selection Plan (MSP) and Civil Service Commission rules, which promote meritocracy.
• Slow promotion processes, political unfluence, and seniority-based systems can discourage ambitious and talented workers, and the availability of in-service training, scholarships, and government-funded graduate studies support professional growth but are not accessible to all. Personal growth opportunity is important.

Implications for Public Administration

• Improving salaries or benefits (hygiene factors) may reduce complaints but won't increase motivation. True motivation comes from meaningful work, opportunities for recognition, and responsibility (motivators). Job can make civil service positions more engaging.
• Performance appraisal systems in the public sector often heavily rely on hygiene factors.
• Governments globally push for New Public Management (NPM) and more citizen-centric service delivery, motivating public employees becomes crucial.
• Training and development are often seen only as a necessity in public service.

Criticisms and Considerations

• Methodological Concerns include:

  • Critical Incident Technique Bias: Bias based on interviews where participants describe past experiences.
    • Self-reporting bias: Positive experiences to own abilities (intrinsic motivators), while blaming external factors (extrinsic hygiene issues) for dissatisfaction.
    • Retrospective distortion: Memory-based accounts can be inaccurate or subjective.
    • Causal ambiguity: Hard to determine whether a factor truly caused satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
    • A triangulated approach is needed (surveys, performance data, supervisor feedback)

• Context-Specificity and Cultural Considerations involve:

  • Non-universality of the theory: Theory developed in Western, industrial setting and may not fully account for the cultural values, economic realities.

• Over-Simplification of Complex Workplace Realities include:

  • Promotion may be a hygiene factor if viewed primarily as a way to secure higher pay or job security but it is a motivator if seen as recognition for performance and a step toward self-actualization.
• • In public agencies where performance is hard to measure, the distinction between “the work itself" and "the conditions under which work is done" can be ambiguous.

• HR practitioners should consider continuums rather than dichotomies and apply context-sensitive assessments.

• 4. Limited Consideration of External and Political Factors.

• Static Framework: does not account for how motivation changes over time.