The motivation and need satisfaction of Papua New Guinea managers

Maslow theorised that people share a concern for five levels of needs. These are arranged in a hierarchy in which higher level needs become more dominant as lower level ones are satisfied. In order of prepotency the needs are: security, social, esteem, autonomy and self actualisation. Haire et al (1966) and Clark and McCabe (1971) found a different but consistent ranking of need importance and satisfaction from that proposed by Maslow. They surmised that despite cultural differences and different stages of economic development, managers from different countries attached similar importance to the five need categories.The applicability of the Haire et al conclusion was tested by comparing the feelings Australian and Papua New Guinea (PNG) managers attached to the five need categories. Australia and PNG are neighbours. Australia is a developed country where individualism is a feature of life. PNG, however, is a developing country where wantokism permeates almost every facet of people interaction. It was found that the PNG results on need importance and satisfaction was dissimilar to that of Australia. The PNG results showed a remarkable similarity with those of the developing countries. Cultural differences and differing stages of economic development, it appears, affect the degree of importance attached to the five need categories and these factors should be taken into account when designing organisation structures and setting up reward systems.