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INTRODUCTION The literature on criminal justice management is replete with an emphasis on management which seems to be either explicitly or implicitly based on theories.(1) Needs theories focus on explaining the needs of employees which must be satisfied in order for the individual to be the most effective worker (Pfeffer, 1985). The idea is that motivation, positive work attitudes, and better performance will result if an individual's basic needs have been met. Perhaps the best known of these theories is Maslow's (1943) hierarchy of needs. In this perspective, Maslow provides a conceptual framework for describing various levels of individual needs. At the bottom of his hierarchy are physical and safety needs, followed by social, esteem, and competence needs and, at the top of the hierarchy, self-actualization. Within this perspective, lower-order physical and safety needs must be satisfied before the individual can work toward achieving higher-order needs. Other needs theories have delineated needs for existence, relatedness, and growth (Alderfer, 1972) as well as power, affiliation, and achievement (McClelland, 1961). Through the 1960s and 1970s, needs theories dominated management research concerning the effects of job design on the attitudes of employees (Pfeffer, 1985). This research tends to emphasize the importance of modifying various aspects of job tasks in order to increase employee satisfaction, assuming that intrinsic satisfaction is paramount. As with the management field in general the criminal justice research literature also reflects several studies and recommendations along these lines. For example, the National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals (Jones and Jones, 1976) called for a management work climate that was highly conducive to motivation and self-actualization of employees. Kuykendall and Unsinger (9182) used a needs theory framework in a study examining the relationship between leadership styles of police managers and their tasks and relationship orientations. These approaches assume that employees have relatively fixed levels of certain traits, such as motivation and competence and, based on their levels of these traits, have differing needs from management. Similarly, another police study (Griffin, Dunbar, and McGill, 1978) used a needs theory framework when concluding that older police officers attempt to become self-actualized by completing work tasks. Needs theory has also been used in correctional research. Jurik and Winn (1987) suggested that one reason corrections officers leave their job is because the organization fails to meet their needs for an improved work environment. They cite factors intrinsic to the position, such as lack of learning opportunity and low degree of authority and autonomy, as playing central roles in creating high rates of turnover. After reviewing these and many other studies relying on a needs theory rubric (e.g., Bennett, 1981; Cordner, 1978; Tosi, Rizzo, and Carroll, 1986), one comes to the conclusion that this framework underlies a great deal of the management research in criminal justice. Furthermore, the research itself, as well as its prescriptions, indicates that this may be one of the dominant perspectives within criminal justice agencies. The focus on needs theory is somewhat curious as a number of scholars have pointed out problems inherent in the framework. White (1978:278) reviewed more than thirty needs theory management studies and concluded that, ...years of theory building and empirical research have not provided much hope for finding generalizable individual difference moderators of the relationship between job quality and worker responses. Salancik and Pfeffer (1977) described how needs theories were formulated in such a manner that they are almost impossible to refute. Further, Pfeffer (1985) claims that research using needs theories serves as a classic example of a perspective being accepted regardless of empirical evidence. …
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