Strategic IQ: Creating Smarter Corporations

3.4

ADDRESSING BASIC HUMAN NEEDS

Introduction

Humans have a range of basic needs which can often be threatened by organizational change. When this is the case, they will resist fiercely, creating significant inertia. Firms must reduce this fear of change. Ideally, they should also try to meet their employees' basic needs as part of the process of change.

Basic Human Needs in Business and Society

Maslow identified a hierarchy of human needs (Figure 36), each of which must be satisfied before the next one becomes important.¹ Maslow's most basic class of needs was physiological, in which he included the need for sex, food, water, shelter and clothing. Today, we might also add healthcare.

In modern societies, employment typically provides us with ...