Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is comprised of five categories, which begin with physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. Physiological needs refer to basic needs, such as food, shelter, and water, whereas safety needs include assets, employment, and assets. Social needs revolve around belonging, friendship, and family, and esteem needs are centered around confidence, accomplishment, and self-worth. The highest need is self-actualization, which primarily refers to an individual’s inner fulfillment.
Clayton Alderfer’s ERG theory is comprised of three needs, which are existence, relatedness, and growth. Both theories use similar frameworks for understanding human behavior and motivation, where Alderfer’s existence, relatedness, and growth are compatible with Maslow’s physiological and safety needs, social and self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs, respectively. Therefore, these theories are similar in regard to the categorization of human needs. However, the key difference between the given concepts is the fact that, according to Maslow’s theory, one cannot pursue higher needs without fulfilling the lower ones.
For example, a person struggling with a lack of shelter will not be interested in adhering to his or her social needs. In the case of Alderfer’s theory, one is able to pursue different levels of needs regardless of the hierarchic order. For instance, an individual might attend the local Church despite experiencing hunger or sleep deprivation. Therefore, the advice for a Canadian manager will be centered around advocating for focusing on harnessing growth and self-actualization. Although Maslow’s theory suggests that all lower needs need to be fulfilled in order for people to seek self-actualization, an organization should ensure that it provides an opportunity for fulfilling this need.
In addition, it is possible that Alderfer’s theory is more accurate than Maslow’s, which would mean that employees can seek growth without having lower needs met. Thus, the specific advice for the manager is to incorporate major opportunities for employee self-actualization and growth because lower needs, such as relatedness and existence or physiological and safety needs and social and esteem needs, and their fulfillment is a responsibility of a person himself or herself. An organization should not seek to fulfill these needs for their employees because modern society enables an individual to meet the lower needs without much effort. However, an organization should ensure that self-actualization needs are met because it will lead to job satisfaction.