#PLENK2010 Motivation and Needs Hierarchy

This is a further reflection of my previous post on learners needs.   Thanks Mary for sharing the Maslow Needs Hierarchy in her comments.

I like this post on Maslow Needs Hierarchy. There are some common themes with my suggested additional hats here on transformational thinking and additional hats where I suggested the colorless and purple hats as ways of thinking.  In reflection, this seems to align well with the Spiritual Health – on harmony, unity, desire to help others, compassion etc.

Source of : Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs post.

Would the need for self esteem and self actualization provide a pattern for understanding the needs of the participants (both instructors and learners) of PLENK? What are the needs of participants?  Are most aiming to satisfy their social needs, need for self esteem and self actualization?

This paper on Why Share Knowledge? The Influence of ICT on the Motivation for Knowledge Sharing by Paul Hendricks provides an interesting insight into motivation of people in knowledge sharing.

The simple equation that knowledge sharing is good for organizations cannot be sustained. Knowledge can be augmented if it is shared, knowledge sharing may also prove detrimental to knowledge. The first will occur if people truly learn from each other. The second is to be expected if inadequate representations of knowledge are transferred between people. Both the acts of externalization and internalization (see Figure 2) require that knowing subjects should recognize the value of the knowledge to be shared. Otherwise, there is no knowing how both these processes, that require active intellectual involvement of the knowledge sharers, are best constructed. The key to success in knowledge sharing is that the personal ambition should match the group ambition. Therefore, also the touchstone for successful ICT applications for knowledge sharing is the question how they relate to these ambitions, and to the motivation of knowledge workers to match them.

So, based on such learning, is the sharing in networks also sustainable?  What are the motivations behind such sharing of knowledge amongst participants – i.e. networkers or PLENK participants? Would the touchstone for successful PLE/PLN applications for knowledge sharing be based on the ambitions and motivations of participants of PLENK?

If so, what are your motivations as PLENK participants?