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One of the most enduring influences in motivation theory is Maslow's needs hierarchy. The empirical basis for the needs hierarchy was Maslow's own studies of dominance in monkeys and humans. In both cases, Maslow concluded that one individual's ability to be dominant over others was due to that individual's acknowledged superiority, and that differences in human or monkey groups occurred because of differences in the exercise of dominance by the individuals in those groups. The incorporation of these ideas into the needs hierarchy explains its intuitive appeal: the hierarchy justifies managerial power, while at the same time absolving managers of accountability for ineffective motivational practices. However, recent primatological research reveals serious flaws in Maslow's understanding of the nature of dominance in monkeys and apes. As a consequence, Maslow's theory is based on research which is no longer considered valid by the discipline in which it was done.

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs has had an enduring influence on management theory, both in and of itself and in past and present theories of employee motivation and performance. However, management theorists have not been the only ones to embrace Maslow's hierarchy. Betty Friedan also accepted and used it in The Feminine Mystique. Friedan seems to have been attracted to Maslow's theory because of his earlier research on women's self‐esteem and sexuality, research which was central to the development of the needs hierarchy. Thus, management theory and liberal feminist theory have a common base in Maslow's hierarchy and self‐esteem research. This paper analyzes that common base, beginning with an examination of the masculine and hierarchical bias in the needs hierarchy. Then, after establishing the link between the needs hierarchy and the self‐esteem research, the paper moves to an analysis of the latter, and demonstrates the ways in which it misinterpreted women's experience and sexuality and valued only those women with stereotypically masculine characteristics and behaviours. The paper concludes with a discussion of the effect of the acceptance of Maslow's ideas on the women in management literature.

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One of the most enduring theories in management is Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in that its basic concepts, such as the needs for selfesteem and self-actualization, are accepted without question. This adoption of Maslow's theory has generally occurred without an examination of its empirical basis, which was his own 1930s' study of the relationship between self-esteem and sexual behaviour in young college women. In this article, we locate Maslow's study of women's sexuality in the sexological research of his time, and contrast it with a study undertaken by Katharine Davis in 1929. These two studies present very divergent pictures of women's sexuality. We argue that Maslow's portrayal, which is subsequently embedded in the needs hierarchy, has implications for our understanding of dominance and subordination in organizations, because implicit in Maslow's portrayal is an assertion of the naturalness of female submission and the eroticization of male dominance.