IMPORTANCE OF MASLOW-TYPE NEEDS TO BUSINESS COLLEGE SENIORS: BLACKS, WHITES, MALES, FEMALES

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1 Psychological Reports, 1977, 40, Psychological Reports 1977 IMPORTANCE OF MASLOW-TYPE NEEDS TO BUSINESS COLLEGE SENIORS: BLACKS, WHITES, MALES, FEMALES H. JACK SHAPIRO AND LOUIS W. STERN Baruch College, City Universiiy oof N& York Summary.-The present study examined the importance of various hierarchical needs, as described by Maslow, to black, white, male, and female business college seniors. Data support the Maslow postulate that the hierarchical needs he proposed are "more universal" for all cultures than are superficial behaviors or desires. The cultural differences between the races begin to be manifest in the magnitude of the individual needs. Data indicate that 58 blacks placed greater importance on most of the needs studied than did the 249 whites regardless of sex. The graduating class of the School of Business, Baruch College, The City University of New York is one of the first to reflect the effect of the open enrollment policies established by the Board of Higher Education and the City of New York in The prime purpose of open enrollment, which is now under political and fiscal attack by the State and Federal Governments, is to provide any city high school graduate the opportunity to obtain a college education regardless of race, sex, color, creed, or economic background. The composition of this graduating class is unique to the City of New York as it contained comparatively large numbers of males, females, whites, blacks, Hispanics and Orientals. The purpose of this paper is to study the importance of various needs of some of these groups of people, using the logical calculus set forth in Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory (1943, 1954, 1970). Wahba and Bridwell (1976) in their excellent review of the need hierarchy theory conclude that the theory has received little clear or consistent support from research findings but acknowledge that it is a useful theory in generating ideas and as an a prior; logical framework to explain diverse research findings. They also point out that one of the most common instniments used to test the theory, i.e., Porter's ( 1962) Need Satisfaction Questionnaire, suffers from many methodological problems due to response bias. Lawler and Sunle (1972) question the instrument's ability to predict due to the fact that the correlations among the items in the same categories were not high and that all items defining different needs were intercorrelated. The last point, however, seems to support Maslow's interpretation of his theory since he claimed that his need categories were not mutually exclusive but interdependent. Walker and Maronick (1975) using a factor analytic technique examined whether the items cluster in such a way as to represent Maslow's categories. Their study supported previous research (Payne, 1970; Roberts, Walter, & Miles, 1971; Waters & Roach, 1973) that the "deficiency" scores derived from the items are not in agreement with those of a Maslow-type need hierarchy. From the above studies and review it is possible to argue that the "deficiency" scores generated by ob-

2 1228 H. J. SHAPIRO & L. W. STERN taining the difference between "should be" and the "is now" scores do not accurately test the concepts proposed by Maslow. Obviously it is just as erroneous to claim a theory is non-supportable as it is supportable regardless of one's research findings if the basic instrument used in the research is under suspicion. In an attempt to avoid the controversy generated by the use of the "deficiency" scores and still use an established instrument which Lawler and Suttle (1972, p. 282) claim is preferable rather than trying to develop a new set of items, the authors decided to use the importance of need scale only and modified it to reflect the college environment. The rationale behind this decision is that this scale alone may more accurately reflect Maslow's ideas since according to Maslow the dominant needs of the individual determine their rank order of importance. The correlations between the various items making up each of the importance of need categories were determined and found to fall in the 0.3 to 0.6 range. Intercorrelations between the need categories themselves were mixed ranging from 0.2 to 0.6. Wahba and Bridwell (1976) in their review ask among other pertinent questions, (1) What is the predictive validity of the Maslow theory? and (2) does this theory predict differently for different people? Addressing the first question the authors could not find any study which utilizes only the importance of need scale in a rank-ordering methodology to test Maslow's concept of a need hierarchy. Beer (1966), whose sample was made up of 129 insurance clerks, utilized a combination of scores derived from measuring what aspects of a job were important to a subject and also measuring to what extent the basic needs of the subject were satisfied by the individual's present job. A combination of both scores yields a subscale total score for each of the five need categories. His rank-order results were in agreement with the top-down Maslow hierarchy except that the self-esteem need and security needs were reversed. Goodman (1968), whose sample was composed of 24 supervisors and 17 workers, used a scale to test the dominance of the security, social, and ego needs of the subjects. By measuring importance and desirability for each factor and utilizing a multiplicative relationship he obtained scores for each need which was then rank ordered. He found the social need most dominant, the security need next and the self-esteem need placed third. Since Goodman did not attempt to measure either the self-actualization need or the autonomy need, his results are in rough agreement with those of Beers. In both studies the social need came before either the security or self-esteem needs. Blai (1964) used a ranking of importance scale utilizing fourteen needs that included the five Maslow needs on five different sets of respondents. It is difficult to determine whether or not his results support the Maslow hierarchy due to the contamination of the other nine needs, some of which probably loaded on the five Maslow type needs. Does the theory predict differently for different people or different groups?

3 IMPORTANCE OF MASLOW-TYPE NEEDS 1229 Maslow's theory asserts that human motives emerge in a sequential pattern according to a hierarchy of five need levels and are instinctive. If so, then his need formation should hold true for all groups regardless of race or sex. The graduating class at the college gave the authors the opportunity to test the Maslow assertion since the class was comprised of blacks, whites, females and males among other groups such as Orientals and Hispanics. Many studies have been conducted that purport that males and females and blacks and whites differ statistically significantly from one another when the constructs of motivation and satisfaction are considered. Shapiro ( 1975) found that there were important differences between the sexes in regard to the correlates of job motivation when job level was controlled. Shapiro and Stern (1975) in a study of male and female professional and non-professional workers found that satisfaction with work and promotion was higher for males than for females. In a parallel study to this one Stern and Shapiro (1977) utilizing the same set of respondents as in this study found important differences between self-fulfillment and motivations, social comparisons and motivation among other relationships for blacks and whites. Other research (Dreger & Miller, 1968; Bowerman & Campbell, 1965; Antonovsky & Lerner, 1959l) has shown that blacks have higher aspiration levels but lower expectations about occupational opportunities than whites. Greenhaus and Gavin (1972) found that blacks tend to see a stronger relationship between hard work and rewards than do whites. It appears from an analysis of the above research that groups based upon race and sex do differ from one another when compared along the dimensions of satisfaction and motivation but do they differ from each other in their ranking of dominant needs as judged by the importance they place on these needs? In addition to the above findings there seems to be a marked difference demographically between black and white students. Trow (1975), who directed the 1969 Carnegie Commission Sutvey of Faculty and Student Opinion, reports a comparison between black and white 1368 entering freshman students' families. Of all black families 80% had incomes of less than $7,499 as compared to 46% of the white families, 71% of all black fathers between the ages of 45 and 54 yr. had not completed high school compared to 40% of the white fathers in the same age group* and 3% of all black fathers were professionals in 1960 compared to 13% of all white fathers. These facts ate indicative of the economic and social differences of entering white and black freshman students and these differences should logically have an effect on their need-level perceptions. In light of the above referenced research which was evaluated within the framework of Maslow's need hierarchy, i.e., the categories of need hierarchy are structured in a hierarchy of prepotency and probability of appearance with a de- 'E. G. Youmans, S. F. Gugsby, & H. C. King. After high school what? (Mimeo, Cooperative Extension Service, Univer. of Florida, 1963)

4 1230 H. J. SHAPIRO & L. W. STERN scending hierarchy as follows: the self-actualization need, the esteem need, the social need, the safety need, and the physiological need; the following hypotheses could be derived: ( 1) The rank order of the importance of the needs tested, which will reflect the dominance of those needs, will be in substantial agreement with the order presented in Maslow's hierarchy. (2) The rank order of the importance of the needs tested will be substantially the same for all the groups involved. (3) There will be substantial differences in the magnitude of the importance of the individual needs across groups. A questionnaire was distribured to 350 studenrs, not including the Oriental and Hispanic students, and was completed during school hours. The students were seniors in the school of business and were familiar with the ideas and concepts presented in Maslow's need hierarchy from previous course work in management and industrial psychology. The response rate was 307 out of 350 or 88%. The following method was used by the researchers to introduce the students to the ideas they wanted to test. At each class meeting the test instrument and the purpose of the study were fully explained to the students. The researchers and in turn the instructors in the individual classes explained to the respondents that the purpose of the study was to collect factual data for research purposes and that the responses would be treated in strict confidence. The instruments were distributed at the beginning of the class session and were collected after they were completed. The data were obtained from 307 members of the senior class. The sample consisted of 217 white males, 46 bladc males, 32 white females, and 12 black females. The average age of the black student was 23.5 yr. and of the white student 22.5 yr. The whites had an average work experience of 4 yr. while the blacks had 7 yr. Average number of dependents per black student was 1.25 compared to 0.5 dependents for the white students. Test Instrument The Need Satisfaction Questionnaire, one of the most commonly used instruments in this field of study, was formulated by Potter (1962) in his study of perceived need satisfactions. It was validated by Potter and Lawler (1968) by advancing two propositions related ro satisfaction prior to their research on managerial anirudes. One proposition was confirmed. See Price (1972) for a fuller description of the validation process. The reliability of this instrument (s = 0.72) was established by the tesr-retest method. Data were obtained utilizing a modified instrument. Porter designed the test to measure all of the Maslow need levels with the exception of the physiological need, which was assumed to be relatively well satisfied for most Americans. He also included in his taxonomy an autonomy need as an independent categoq. This need was placed between the esteem and self-actualization need categories. In Maslow's formulation the esteem need included the autonomy need. For this study, as previously discussed, the "importance of need" portion of the instrument was used. For each item in the questionnaire the respondents were asked "how important is this to me?" The responses were scored on a seven.point scale ranging from minimum to maximum importance (the higher the number chosen the greater the perceived importance to the respondent). The numeri-

5 IMPORTANCE OF MASLOW-TYPE NEEDS 1231 cal value for each category was determined by totaling the mean score for each item in each category and then dividing that total score by the number of items in the particular category. The security category contains one item, the social category two items, the esteem category three items, the autonomy category four items and the self-realization or actualization category three items. Analysis of Data The total sample was divided into eight groupings, i.e., males, females, blacks, whites, white males, black males, white females, and black females. The mean and the standard deviation for each "importance of need category" was calculated for each of the eight groups. A rank order of each importance of need category was then determined. A T test for difference in sample means (Walker & Maronick, 1975) was run testing the null hypothesis that the difference in means between the groups was due to experimental error and was actually equal to zero. The test was based upon the premise that if the T statistic was greater than 1.96 (large sample, 2-tail test) the null hypothesis was rejected. Even though there were only 12 respondents in the black female group, when evaluated against the other groups for statistical significance the number of respondents used to determine the number of degrees of freedom was the sum of respondents for both groups being considered. In all cases the sum of the number of respondents which included the 12 black females was greater than 30 and was considered a large sample. Therefore, the Table of Areas of the Normal curve applied rather than the Student's r distribution for small samples. Produn-moment correlations between the individual need categories were obrained to determine the interrelationships between needs in addition to relationships between individual items used to make up the individual need categories. All relationships were tested for statistical significance. RESULTS Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations for each group tested. It also rank orders each of the "importance of needs" for each group based upon the magnitude of each of the needs. The magnitude of means as shown range from 5.50 for white females to 6.33 for black females for the importance of the security need, from 5.31 for white females to 5.86 for black males for the importance of the social need, from 5.17 for white males to 5.90 for black females for the importance of the autonomy need, from 4.85 for white males to 5.75 for black females for the importance of the esteem need and from 5.94 for white males to 6.61 for black females for the importance of the self-actualization need. The rank order for atl males, all females, all whites, all blacks, and white males is identical and is in agreement with Maslow's hierarchy of needs except the self-actualization need is completely out of phase. Black males rank their importance of needs the same as the other groups except they place the social need above the security need. White females place the social need below the autonomy need and black females place the social need last or below the autonomy and esteem needs. Actually all rankings for all groups ate essentially the same except the females seem to place less importance on the social need than do males. Indicated also are the significant differences in sample means between

6 H. J. SHAPIRO & L. W. STERN TABLE 1 RANKING OF NEEDS, MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIA'I~ONS Group Importance of Need N M R M U R M U R M U R M U R Self-acmalization Security Socia1 Auton- OmY Esteem Males Females Whites Blacks Males White Black Females White Black Note.-R indicates comparative ranking of needs. Significant differences in sample means: Social need: B-W (p <.02), BM-WM (p <.05); Autonomy need: L W (p <.005), BM-WM (p <.Ol), BF-WF (p <.005); Esteem need: %W (p <.02), BF-WF (p <.01); Self-actualization: BF-WF (p <.01). groups. There is a statistically significant difference (1) between blacks and whites in the importance of the social, autonomy and esteem needs, (2) between black males and white males in the importance of the social and autonomy needs, and (3) between black females and white females in the autonomy, esteem, and self-actualization needs. Note in all significant cases the black group places a higher value on the importance of the need than does the white group. Hypotheses The first hypothesis stated that the rank order of the importance of the needs tested, which will reflect the dominances of those needs, will be in substantial agreement with the order presented in Maslow's need hierarchy. The evidence indicates strong support for the hypothesized general relationship except for the importance of the self-actualization need which ranks first for all groups. The second hypothesis stated that the rank order of the importance of needs tested will be substantially the same for all the groups involved. The evidence indicates strong support for the hypothesized general relationship except for the difference in the importance of the social need between males and females. The third hypothesis stated that there will be substantial differences in the magnitude of the importance of the individual needs across groups. The evidence indicates there is moderate support for the hypothesized general relationship between blacks and whites and no support for the hypothesized general relationship between males and females.

7 IMPORTANCE OF MASLOW-TYPE NEEDS DISCUSSION The findings of this study provide some support to the acceptance of Maslow's need hierarchy theory when evaluated by means of an importanceof-need-type instrument. Wahba and Bridwell (1976) state that the interpretation of Maslow's need categories as overlapping is more reflective of Maslow's ideas since he claimed that his need categories were not mutually exclusive but were interdependent. They also claim that if the interpretation is accurate the need categories should show greater overlap between adjacent rather than non-adjacent need categories. The findings in this study support that interpretation except for the importance of the self-actualization need. Wahba and Bridwell again seem to supply the answer to why the importance of the self-actualization need does not conform to the hierarchical order proposed by Maslow. They claim self-actualization may be culturally determined rather than a basic need. Certainly in this study the self-actualization need seems to emerge as an independent factor. The study supports the Maslow postulate that the hierarchical needs he proposed are "more universal" for all cultures than are other Superficial desires or behaviors. These findings show that the rank order of importance of needs is nearly the same for all of the eight groups. Admittedly some of the groups are interrelated. White males and white females are grouped together and categorized as the white group while black males and black females together are classified as the black group. Also all black males and white males are grouped into a male group while black females and white females are grouped into a female group. Even so the single categories such as black females, white females, black males and white males tend closely to duplicate each other in their rank-order of the importance of needs except for the importance of the social need. There undoubtedly are many cultural differences between the groups studied. Trow (1975) statistically exhibits and charts many more differences between blacks and whites than were initially referred to in the introduction of this paper. It is shown that the education level of the black male and the black female adult American is substantially below that of their white counterparts and the average black adult earns appreciably less than does the average white adult. In spite of these and many other important differences between the races, regardless of sex, their children's rank ordering of the Maslow needs is the same with the exception noted above. The cultural differences between the races begin to be manifest when the differences in magnitude between the individual needs are examined. There are statistically significant differences between blacks and whites in the importance they place on their social, autonomy, and esteem needs. The black places greater importance on these needs than does the white. In fact an evaluation of the data indicates that blacks placed a greater importance on all of the needs than did the whites regardless of sex. The sole exception being

8 1234 H. J. SHAPIRO & L. W. STERN that white females scored slightly higher than black males on the importance of the self-actualization need. If Maslow's premise is correct, i.e., that the dominant needs of the individual determine their rank order of importance, then in turn one could argue the greater the magnitude of the need the more dominant that need is to the individual or group being studied. If the argument can be substantiated, then it would appear the blacks in this study place greater importance on the Maslow hierarchy needs and that these needs are more dominant to them than to the whites. Although all the groups studied rank-ordered the Maslow hierarchy needs nearly the same the blacks placed more importance on these needs than did the whites. The question is why? Is it possible that these black students, members of one of the first open-enrollment graduating classes at Baruch College, have been able to break the barriers previously imposed upon them due to prejudicial constraints? If so, then have the needs enumerated by Maslow and modified by Porter become more readily obtainable to them and therefore more important? Are these needs more important to the blacks than to the whites because the black has had to fight much longer and harder to be in a position where he or she can satisfy these needs? Are the goals of need achievement now feasible goals for the blacks and therefore worth pursuing? These among many other questions need answering in order to increase our knowledge so as to be able to fight intolerance and inequities in our society. It is the hope of the authors that further research in the field will be continued in a search for answers to the questions posed. REFERENCES ANTONOVSKY, A., & LERNER, M. J. Occupational aspirations of lower Negro and white youth. Social Problems, 1959, 7, BEER, M. Leadership, employee needs, and motivaion. Columbus, 0.: Bureau of Business Research, Ohio State Univer., BLAI, B., JR. An occupational study of job satisfaction and need satisfaction. Journal of Experimental Education, 1964, 32, BOWERMAN, C. E., & CAMPBELL, E.. Aspirations of southern youth: a look at racial comparisons. Transactions, 19? 5, 2, 24. DREGBR, R. M., & MILLER, K. S. Comparative psychological studies of Negroes and whites in the United States: Psychological Bulletin, Monograph Supplement, 1968, 70, GOODMAN, R. A. On the operationality of the Maslow need hierarchy. British Journal of Industrial Relationr, 1968, 6, GREENHAUS, J. H., & GAVIN, J. F. The relationship between expectations and job behavior for white and black employees. Personnel Psychology, 1972, 25, LAWLBR, E. E., & SUTIZB, J. L. A causal correlation test of the need hierarchy concept. Organizatiod Behavior and Humun Performance, 1972, 7, MASLOW, A. H. A theory of human motivation. Psychological Reuiew, 1943, 50, SLOW, A. H. Motwbion and personality. New York: Harper, BO SLOW, A. H. Motivation and personulity. (2nd ed.) New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

9 IMPORTANCE OF MASLOW-TYPE NEEDS 1235 PAYNE, R. Factor analysis of a Maslow-type need satisfaction questionnaire. Personnel Psychology, 1970, 23, POR~ER, L. W. Job attitudes in management: perceived deficiencies in need fulfillment as a function of job level. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1962, 46, PORTER, L. W., & LAWLBR, E. E. Managerial atritudes and performance. Homewood, 111.: Irwin, PRICE, J. L. Handbook of organizational measurement. Lexington, Mass.: Heath, Pp ROBERTS: K. H., WALTER, G. A., & MILES, R. E A factor analytic study of job satisfaction items designed to measure Maslow's need categories. Personnel Psychology, 1971, 24, SHAPIRO, H. J. Job motivation of males and females, an empirical study. Psychological Reports, 1975, 36, SHAPIRO, H. J., & STBRN, L. W. Job sarisfaaion: male and female, rofessional and non-professional. Personnel lournal, 1975, 54, 7, , STERN, L. W., & SHAPIRO, H. J. Motivations of bladc and white college seniors: an empirical study. Eastern Academy of Management Proceedings, 1977, in press. TROW, M. (Ed.) Teachers and students. New York: McGraw-Hill, WAHBA, M. A., & BRIDWELL, L. G. Maslow reconsidered: a review of research on the need hierarchy theory. O~ganizationd Behavior and Human Performance, 1976, 15, WALKER, B. J., & MARONICK, T. J. A factor analytic study of a Porter-type need satisfaction questionnaire. In M. W. Hopfe & H. C Schneider (Eds.), American Institure of Decision Sciences Proceedings. Cincinnati: Amer. Institute for Decision Sciences, P WA~RS, L. K., & ROACH, D. A factor analysis of need-fulfillment items designed to measure need categories. Personnel Psychology, 1973, 26, Accepted April 5, 1977.