Abraham Maslow
"Eupsychian Management"
Republished
as "Maslow on Management"
The word
eupsychian (pronounced "you-sigh-key-un") was coined
by Abraham Maslow. It comes from eu meaning good (i.e.
euphoria) and psyche meaning, basically, mind or soul.
So
eupsychian essentially means "having a good mind/soul"
or "toward a good mind/soul"; eupsychia is where nice
people live and work.
Enlightened management assumes that everyone prefers to be a
prime mover rather than a passive helper. And what follows are
the 36 principles of enlightened management as defined in Maslow
on Management:
In his Eupsychian Management (p. 17, et. seq.), Abraham Maslow
states: These assumptions underlie Eupsychian Management Policy
I.
Trust in human nature
1. Everyone is to be
trusted.
2. It is good-will present
among all the members of the organization rather than rivalry or
jealousy.
3. Everyone is more likely
to get more pleasure out of loving than out of hating.
4. Everyone is more likely
to prefer responsibility to dependency.
5. Hostility is primarily
reactive rather than character-based.
6. Everyone is courageous
enough for eupsychian processes.
7. Everyone has a
conscience.
8. There is the wisdom and
the efficacy of self-choice by everyone.
9. Every well-developed
people would rather create than destroy.
10. Every well-developed
people would rather be interested than be bored.
11. Assume that people can
take it, that they are tough, stronger than most people give
them credit for.
II.
Strong belief in the need for self-actualization within human
nature
12. Everyone has the impulse
to achieve.
13. Everyone has a tendency
towards selfactualization.
14. Everyone is open to
development.
15. Everyone prefers to be
respected.
16. Everyone has the
potential to grow through delight and boredom.
17. Everyone prefers to be a
whole person, not a part.
18. Everyone prefers to be a
prime mover rather than a passive helper.
19. Everyone has the
potential tendency to identify with more and more of the world.
20. Everyone has metamotives
and metapays.
21. Everyone prefers
meaningful work to meaningless work.
22. Everyone prefers
personhood, uniqueness as a person, identity (in contrast to
being anonymous or interchangeable).
III.
Strong belief in capacity, cooperation and productivity of
workers
23. Everyone has the same
ultimate managerial objectives.
24. Everyone can enjoy good
teamwork, friendship, good group spirit.
25. Everyone has the
preference for working rather than being idle.
26. Everyone has a tendency
to improve things.
27. Everyone involved in the
organizations are healthy enough.
28. The organization is
healthy enough, whatever this means.
29. People in eupsychian
plants are not fixated at the safety-need level
IV.
Preference for mutual exchange and fair performance evaluations
within working environments
30. Everyone dislikes
fearing anyone (more than he likes fearing anyone), but that he
prefers fearing the boss to despising the boss.
31. Everyone likes to be
justly and fairly appreciated, preferably in public.
32. Everyone prefers or
perhaps even needs to love his boss (rather than to hate him),
and that everyone prefers to respect his boss (rather than to
disrespect him).
33. Everyone has the
"ability to admire”.
34. Assume that there is no
dominance/subordination hierarchy in the jungle sense
or authoritarian sense (or "baboon" sense).
35. Everyone is to be
informed as completely as possible of as many facts and truths
as possible, i.e., everything relevant to the situation.
36.
Every time we talk about a good trend in human
nature, we must assume that there is also a countertrend.
V.
Complexity of human nature
1. Assume everyone is to be
trusted. [Everyone in the work group, not in the world. Ed.]
2. Assume everyone is to be
informed as completely as possible of as many facts and truths
as possible, i.e., everything relevant to the situation.
3. Assume in all your people
the impulse to achieve...
4. Assume that there is no
dominance-subordination hierarchy in the jungle sense or
authoritarian sense (or "baboon" sense). ["No
monkey business" as in Third.ORG -Ed.]
5. Assume that everyone will
have the same ultimate managerial objectives and will identify
with them no matter where they are in the organization or in the
hierarchy.
6. Eupsychian economics must
assume good will among all the members of the organization
rather than rivalry or jealousy. [No sociopaths at the top, etc.
-Ed.]
6a. Synergy is also assumed.
7. Assume that the
individuals involved are healthy enough.
8. Assume that the
organization is healthy enough, whatever this means.
9. Assume the "ability
to admire"...
10. We must assume that the
people in eupsychian plants are not fixated at the safety-need
level.
11. Assume an active trend
to self-actualization--freedom to effectuate one's own ideas, to
select one's own friends and one's own kind of people, to
"grow," to try things out, to make experiments and
mistakes, etc.
12. Assume that everyone can
enjoy good teamwork, friendship, good group spirit, good group
homonomy, good belongingness, and group love.
13. Assume hostility to be
primarily reactive rather than character-based.
14. Assume that people can
take it, that they are tough, stronger than most people give
them credit for.
15. Eupsychian management
assumes that people are improvable.
16. Assume that everyone
prefers to feel important, needed, useful, successful, proud,
respected, rather than unimportant, interchangeable anonymous,
wasted, unused, expendable, disrespected.
17. That everyone prefers or
perhaps even needs to love his boss (rather than to hate him),
and that everyone prefers to respect his boss (rather than to
disrespect him)...
18. Assume that everyone
dislikes fearing anyone (more than he likes fearing anyone), but
that he prefers fearing the boss to despising the boss.
19. Eupsychian management
assumes everyone prefers to be a prime mover rather than a
passive helper, a tool, a cork tossed about on the waves.
20. Assume a tendency to
improve things, to straighten the crooked picture on the wall,
to clean up the dirty mess, to put things right, make things
better, to do things better.
21. Assume that growth
occurs through delight and through boredom.
22. Assume preference for
being a whole person and not a part, not a thing or an
implement, or tool, or "hand." ["What shall we
think of a well-adjusted slave?"]
23. Assume the preference
for working rather than being idle.
24. All human beings, not
only eupsychian ones, prefer meaningful work to meaningless
work.
25. Assume the preference
for personhood, uniqueness as a person, identity (in contrast to
being anonymous or interchangeable).
26. We must make the
assumption that the person is courageous enough for eupsychian
processes.
27. We must make the
specific assumptions of non-psychopathy (a person must have a
conscience, must be able to feel shame, embarrassment, sadness,
etc.)
28. We must assume the
wisdom and the efficacy of self-choice.
29. We must assume that
everyone likes to be justly and fairly appreciated, preferably
in public.
30. We must assume the
defense and growth dialectic for all these positive trends that
we have already listed above.
31. Assume that everyone but
especially the more developed persons prefer responsibility to
dependency and passivity most of the time.
32. The general assumption
is that people will get more pleasure out of loving than they
will out of hating (although the pleasures of hating are real
and should not be overlooked).
33. Assume that fairly
well-developed people would rather create than destroy.
34. Assume that fairly
well-developed people would rather be interested than be bored.
35. We must ultimately
assume at the highest theoretical levels of eupsychian theory, a
preference or a tendency to identify with more and more of the
world, moving toward the ultimate of mysticism, a fusion with
the world, or peak experience, cosmic consciousness, etc.
36. Finally we shall have to
work out the assumption of the metamotives and the
metapathologies, of the yearning for the "B-values,"
i.e., truth, beauty, justice, perfection, and so on.
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