Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Kaspars Osis and Janis Grundspenkis
stands out <strong>the</strong> social and psychological aspects <strong>of</strong> PKMS. It is important to realize individual’s
everyday needs, motivation and task accomplishing satisfaction.
A well-known hierarchy <strong>of</strong> needs was published more than a half century ago (Maslow 1954). Maslow
proposed that individual’s needs are hierarchically ordered in five levels: biological and physiological,
safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization. Hierarchy <strong>of</strong> needs usually is depicted
in <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> pyramid where at its basic level are positioned biological and physiological needs
(Chapman 1995). In 1970-s this hierarchy was extended with cognitive and aes<strong>the</strong>tic needs levels,
but in 1990-s <strong>the</strong>re was added transcendence needs level (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Eight-level hierarchy <strong>of</strong> needs (adapted from Maslow 1954 and Chapman 1995)
Needs hierarchy <strong>the</strong>ory has been also criticized being subjective and <strong>the</strong> order <strong>of</strong> needs levels being
not appropriate (Boeree 2006). However from <strong>the</strong> perspective <strong>of</strong> PKMS <strong>the</strong> Maslow hierarchy order is
not important. More essential is to realize that such individual needs exist and <strong>the</strong>y clearly have an
impact on KW. Thus <strong>the</strong>se needs have to be taken into account when developing a PKMS.
Maslow realized <strong>the</strong> existence <strong>of</strong> attitude problems regarding workers such that <strong>the</strong>y have certain
human basic needs and that <strong>the</strong>y have <strong>the</strong> rights for self-actualization (Chapman 1995). There are
also some o<strong>the</strong>r problems KW-s have to deal with (Etzel and Thomas 1996). KW-s have to identify
problems within <strong>the</strong>mselves and should be willing to tackle <strong>the</strong>m. Thus <strong>the</strong>y can improve PKMS
performance from all <strong>of</strong> its three aspects.
Motivation and satisfaction about <strong>the</strong> done task are also important traits <strong>of</strong> KW. In regard <strong>of</strong>
satisfaction a valuable research is done by Herzberg developing <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>of</strong> two factors (Herzberg et. al.
1959) which can be directly referred also to KW-s. Regarding motivation a considerable research
effort is done by McClelland who developed a <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>of</strong> motivation and research and individuals
needs for achievements (McClelland 1967). As follows it is considered that individual’s needs are
developing during his/her life. Haslam states that individual’s motivation is dependent on his/her selfcategorization
(Haslam 2004).
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