Maslow and Herzberg do offer practical applications in today's modern organization. First, this blogger will explore Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory. If an organization has a team member who is experiencing domestic violence at home, it is safe to say that this individual's safety needs are not being met. This individual is likely to suffer as far as work production as for some, working provides an element of esteem; however, this individual is fearing for their lives, so having esteem at work is not a priority. They inevitably are stuck at securing safety and until such time as this individual feels safe again, work will continue to take a back seat to feeling safe.
Managers and leaders in all organizations should take an active role in discovering issues in employee's lives that might prevent someone from doing their job to the fullest potential. Therefore, using the illustration above, a manager should intervene and determine the most suitable course of action for the employee to get them back on track. This could include offering Employee Assistance in the form of counseling for the employee or granting a Leave of Absence until such time as the employee can return to work.
With Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory, employees are motivated by two sets of factors (Ikwukananne, 2009). The two factors are what satisify employees and what does not satisfy employees. For example, having a nice office to work in may not motivate an individual while a healthy bonus at the end of each quarter may motivate this same individual. There is a duality of sorts in what does and does not motivate someone. For this blogger, having a nice office is great; however, a large bonus would be extremely beneficial as there is more value to this than an office.
Using Herzberg's theory, a manager would need to know what does and does not motivate their employees and use these tools as often as possible.
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