Maslow on Management

The Neglect of Individual Differences in Management Policy

It seems that the core of my outlook—at least so far as management is concerned—is the notion that everything springs from the individual’s own character structure, that is, whether it is essentially democratic or authoritarian. It is also my firm conviction that the empowered management approach is the difference between people leading active lives rather than existing as helpless pawns. . . .

The general principles that Drucker and others talk about are for the most part far too general. Certainly managing women is different from managing men. So also do the people who are fixated at the safety-need level or who are stuck at the love level, etc. This point becomes clearer if we ask about the possibility of applying Drucker’s principles in Colombia, Iran, Syria, and South Africa. There are many places in the world where only authoritarian management, cracking the whip over fearful people, can work. Authoritarian characters confronted with human relations principles of management based on all sorts of beneficent and benevolent assumptions would consider the manager certainly weak in the head and at the very least sentimental, unrealistic, etc.

Frequently it turns out that the profoundly authoritarian person has to be broken a little before he can assimilate kindness and generosity. Some people have to be frightened before ...