Page 41 - IMDR - Journal of Management Development and Research - March2019-20

contrast, a professional living in a two-bedroom apartment with material facilities

may have a stunted desire to fulfil his potential which is a facet of self-actualisation.
Certainly, Maslow’s model needs re-examination and we need to revisit his theory of

motivation with ‘self-actualisation’ need, in the context of SMEs where one can see a
lot of frustrated and demotivated professionals.

Hence, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of human needs and also the
contemporary socio-economic perspective of how middle class in general and

professional in particular aspire for and satisfy their needs.

Disillusioned professionals

Present day professionals in Indian SMEs define their professional roles too narrowly
in terms of their expertise or specialisation. Modern knowledge has

compartmentalised professions in terms of specialised roles based on functional
expertise. Other challenges for professionals in Indian SMEs are as follows :

- Owner driven and highly randomized decision-making

- No systems for HR e.g appraisal, compensation etc..
- Lack of resources for personal development which causes demotivation

- Long working hours and no work-life balance

- Automation
For example, in the manufacturing industry, professionals often get into roles

which are highly specialised and over a medium to long term period, the above factors
can cause a high level of dissatisfaction. Similarly, if we look at the IT sector closely,

it is very easy to find examples of professionals who are consumed by their careers
and have lost the capacity to look beyond their job roles. In fact, life for them has

become their job or career and they do not have the ability to maintain a simple work

life balance, let alone work beyond the boundaries of their expertise areas. Let us
understand the impact of specialisation on satisfaction of human needs.

We are not referring to usual debate of generalist versus specialist
professionals. The point is that, in today’s context, life space occupied by specialised

expertise tends to be larger than the space available for living processes. If we accept
that primary business of life is living a full life and not just being busy 24/7, it also

implies that only professional or business success may not make a person complete.

Human potential and fulfilment are always larger than professional success. Life is
larger than professional careers. This is a concept which is especially applicable to the

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