Self-actualization is a term which has been used in various psychology theories, in slightly different ways. The organism theorist Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realize one is full potential originally introduced the term. Expressing one's creativity, quest for spiritual enlightenment, pursuit of knowledge, and the desire to give to society are examples of self-actualization. Maslow's need hierarchy and model of the self-actualizing personality is reviewed and criticized. The definition of self-actualization is found to be confusing, and the gratification of all needs is concluded to be insufficient to explain self-actualization. Self-actualization is redefined as the perceived competence to satisfy these basic needs in due time. This competence has three components: material, cognitive and subjective. Material and/or cognitive incompetence during childhood create subjective incompetence, which in turn inhibits the further development of cognitive competence, and thus of self-actualization.

One of the main values driving systems research is to provide concepts and methods for stimulating learning, growth and development, as well in individual persons as in society, thus enhancing well-being and the overall quality of life.

Professional development refers to the acquisition of skills and knowledge both for personal development and for career advancement. Professional development encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. It has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage

A human-being can only prosper and develop when his/her need is satisfied; because satisfaction of need is essential for the sustainment of life. Once these needs are satisfied and a person has achieved full satisfaction, gives rise to more complex and higher level of needs –leading to higher level of understanding and spiritual growth.

A REVIEW OF MASLOW'S THEORY:

According to Maslow, human behavior is motivated by a set of basic needs. Which needs are most active in driving behavior depends on two principles: (1) A need, which is satisfied, is no longer active: the higher the satisfaction, the less the activity. (2) Needs can be ordered in a hierarchy, such that from all the non-satisfied needs, the one, which is lowest in the hierarchy, will be the most active. A lower need is more "urgent” in the sense that it must be satisfied before higher need can take over control. The lowest level of needs may be called physiological needs. These are needs of the body as a physiological system, which tries to maintain homeostasis. They consist of the need to breathe air, hunger, thirst, avoidance of extreme heat and cold, etc.

These needs are such that if they are not satisfied the organism dies. If the threat of dying because of perturbation of the physiological equilibrium has vanished, the organism can direct its attention to more indirect threats, such as the danger of being caught by a predator, and try to avoid them. This corresponds to the second need level: the need for safety. Once safety and physiological needs are met, higher, more typically "human" needs come to the foreground, in the first place the need for love and belonging. This is the basic social or affiliation motive, which drives people to seek contact with others and to build satisfying relations with them. Satisfaction of belongingness needs triggers the emergence of the esteem need. In this stage of need gratification, persons also want to be esteemed, by the people they are in contact with, as well as by themselves: they want to know that they are capable of achievement and success.

When all these needs are satisfied, we are left with the last one, the highest need, the need for self-actualization. This need is fundamentally different from the previous ones, in the sense that all the previous ones can be conceived as drives towards the reduction of a deficiency. Such a deficiency means that there is a discrepancy between the actual state of the individual, and some fixed optimal and equilibrium state, characterized by adequate values of the basic variables, as well physiological variables such as temperature, level of sugar in the blood, etc., as psychological ones such as feeling of safety, of belongingness, of esteem. The control which deficiency needs exert over the individual's behavior is implemented as a negative feedback loop, which diminishes deviations from the goal state.

The diagram, which depicts the order of needs as and when they arise. Needs always start from lower level shown by arrow facing upwards. The basic and foremost need for survival is food, water, clothing and shelter; forming the base of needs Hierarchy theory, commonly known as Basic /Physiological Needs. As and when these needs are satisfied next order of need arises called as Safety and/or Security Needs. Safety need means, for instance food is stored in granery so that it can be utilized during drought and providing protection from seasonal changes like-rain, flood etc.

Security need means having a sense of security like job security, financial security etc.

The third level/order of need is love/ social needs. It means people have a sense of belongingness, companionship; they want to be a part of group and want to be accepted in society by its members. Fourth level/order of need is self-esteem or self –ego needs, means an individual wants to be recognized, gain approval and achieve what he/she wants to. This need is also known as asthetic need.

Fifth and the last level /order of need are self-actualisation need. This a never-ever ending need, never –ever fulfilled need because it means capable of achieving what one desires to be and capable of but as soon as it is met, another need arises that is why upper portion of triangle is shown by dotted line; as desire is never satisfied.

CRITICISMS OF MASLOW'S THEORY:

Though the need hierarchy seems relatively simple and consistent, the concept of self-actualization is not clearly defined. There is a difficulty with the concept of” actualization" itself, because it presupposes that there is somehow a well-defined set of potential talents an individual is capable of developing, but a human system is much too complex to allow the discrimination between "potential" developments and” impossible" ones. Moreover the definition of self-actualization as fulfillment of all the basic needs does not always correspond with self-actualization as observed in existing persons: Maslow himself acknowledges that sometimes self-actualization seems to spring from the frustration of ascertain need rather than from its gratification.

EMPIRICAL VALIDATION:

The hierarchical emergence of needs seems easier to test in an objective way, and some empirical research has been effectively done, in the area of management and work satisfaction, but the results are mixed at best, sometimes seeming to support the theory, sometimes contradicting it. In particular the specific order in which needs (e.g. love and esteem) emerge, seems to be ambiguous.

At each level of need, an individual requires some skills for professional development, slowly and steadily they move upward satisfying each level of need so that they can finally reach the level of self-actualization. At this level, people have inner or self-motivation, which is a continuous process in self-fulfillment of desire.

The process of professional development starts from the very basic need and it goes on hand-in-hand. People acquire expertise, develop and create market for self because a person can be successful on professional front, if and only if he/she is capable of achieving what they are capable of i.e. self-actualization using their potential and through on-going process of ‘motivation’. The charisma of such individuals makes them leaders and inculcates inspiration in the heart and minds of other people /individuals.

Some traits can be-

(1) Goal-oriented-People with high spirit are always goal-oriented. They have a fix aim in their mind and work with heart and soul to achieve it.

(2) Individualistic approach- Such a person is independent, creative and innovative. They mainly like personal space and privacy though; they abide themselves with the society norms.

(3) Realistic-Such individuals believe in reality and have parity in judgments and leadership. They have sense of equality.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION:

The classification of basic needs, their emergence from more or less urgent perturbations, and the way they interact, must be further elaborated. In addition, the different components of perceived competence and their very complex interactions must be analyzed with much more detail, and their effect on concrete behavior, such as social interaction, must be examined.

A significant correlation between independent and dependent variables will confirm the present theory, a lack of correlation would point to basic difficulties. However, one should not rely too much on such tests, since perceived competence presupposes an analysis of basic needs and their relative urgency.

Thus, we can easily say that people at a higher professional front have higher level of spiritual growth and on achieving the goal the journey of development and growth does not ends but a new journey begins with new hopes. Therefore, a need drives professional development and self-actualization.

REFERENCES:

· cleamc11.vub.ac.be/Papers/Maslow

· en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

· Newspaper. The Hindu.

Received on 03.12.2013 Modified on 15.12.2013

Asian J. Management 5(3): July-September, 2014 page 283-285