Abraham Maslow's Life and Unfinished Legacy

Abstract

Abraham Maslow was a visionary who saw psychology as having great potential importance for management and organizational achievement. This article presents an overview of Maslow's life, together with a synopsis of his major concepts related to management theory. Maslow's unfinished projects are also highlighted, particularly his interest in methods of assessing self-actualization in the workplace. The author presents a new psychometric instrument for assessing self-actualization at work and offers empirical results with this instrument in Brazil. Finally, future avenues for research based on Maslow's unfinished legacy are discussed.