Book Review: Subject - Management Philosophy

Title: Maslow on Management
Author: Abraham H. Maslow with Deborah Stephens and Gary Heil
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc.
ISBN: 0-471-24780-4

OK I admit it. I am a Maslow groupie. I put him in the same league as Einstein, Newton, Deming and Freud. Dr. Maslow's work on human behaviour and motivation transcends all others'. I believe his "Hierarchy of Needs" theory is even more relevant today then when he first introduced it in 1943. You can see Maslow's influence in the works of Daniel Goleman, Peter F. Drucker, Warren Bennis, Douglas McGregor and Stephen Covey who are considered by many, to be the leading management thinkers of our times.

Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to meet Maslow but Deborah Stephens and Gary Heil have done a masterful job in painting a picture of what that meeting would have been like. Maslow on Management gives the reader a rare look into the mind of a true genius and visionary. (I had to keep reminding myself that Maslow penned this journal in the summer of 1962!). Maslow saw what he called "enlightened" management as the key to an organization's longevity.

Quote:
"All the experiments on enlightened management and humanistic supervision can be seen from this point of view that in a brotherhood situation of this sort, every person is transformed into a partner rather than an employee."

He knew the importance of giving employees a sense of ownership. He understood that if a worker had a vested interest in the outcomes that she/he would be more likely to "buy into" the process and put in the extra effort needed to succeed. (Most successful companies today reflect this thinking when they offer some form of employee profit sharing or stock option plan.) Maslow was convinced that the only competitive advantage one company could have over another would be in the quality of it's people.

Quote:
"Management theory can stress roughly two products, two consequences: one is the economic productivity, the quality of the products, profit making, etc., the other is the human products, that is the psychological health of workers, their movement towards self-actualization, their increase in safety, belongingness, loyalty, etc. On the international scene, the latter takes on huge importance."

I found the book to be a difficult read at times and repetitive in some places. But it was always enlightening and thought provoking. I'm not an academic by any stretch of the imagination. Reading some passages from Maslow's journal reminded me, at times, of an ethics textbook I had to use in my very first teaching assignment. It had so many unfamiliar words in it that I needed a dictionary just to figure out what the author was saying.

I, like so many managers, will be forever indebted to Dr. Maslow for introducing me to the one key quality that all successful leaders, managers, and supervisors' possess and that is, the ability to make people feel that they are important, that their opinions count, that they are a valuable asset and a much-needed ingredient. It's an understanding, in other words, of human motivation. "Emotional Intelligence" is more than just the flavour of the month. It's the key to making the managerial grade.