If you have ever used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs out of context, and especially as they relate to motivation in the workplace, I will track you down and tape you to a lamppost with a sign around your neck explaining your major error. Maslow’s theory dates back to ideas from the 1940s, and research has progressed since then. Some people, including Mahmoud Wahba and Lawrence Bridwell, have found there is little evidence to support Maslow’s hierarchy actually existing. (Rant over, for the moment.)

Particularly in the workplace, the art of motivation is firmly based on psychological and scientific principles. Companies spend vast sums on industrial psychologists to help change their “culture,” or to assist in promoting an expensive solution to improve some deep-seated issue within a poorly performing organization.

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