Management books tend to reflect the positive side of management theories, but it is important that students of management realise that management theories aren’t the same as scientific principles because they should be constantly reviewed and re‐evaluated. Therefore, the various theories of management need to be appraised in terms of the evidence supporting them and their relevance to practising managers. For example, a theory such as Maslow’s was developed on the basis of clinical data about neurotic people. It was not based on information from a work setting. Indeed, Maslow himself had reservations about whether his theory could be generalised to explain work motivation. Furthermore, empirical testing of Maslow’s theory has provided little support for its ability to explain work behaviour. Despite this, in the mid 1970s it was still the most widely accepted theory of work motivation and ranked as the second most significant contribution in management and it is still widely accepted as an important motivational theory today. It is important that managers take a multi‐perspective view that would allow them to cover a number of different explanations of people’s behaviour instead of relying on just one theory.

QUESTION

If Maslow’s theory of needs is now regarded as largely obsolete, what do we replace it with? Daniel Pink’s famous TED Talk about motivation suggests that we are less likely to be motivated in our behaviour by money than by our desire for mastery of some particular skill, our sense of purpose in an activity in which we are engaged and autonomy.50 He suggests that monetary rewards are effective only in very limited circumstances with simple tasks. Is this a new management theory in the making?