Challenges for the rediscovered theory

While these suggestions might help correct the "seriously inadequate" (Koltko-Rivera, 2006, p. 306) textbook descriptions of Maslow's theory, they could pose a new problem for Maslow's ideas in the academic and business worlds. Maslow's acknowledgment of the spiritual side of human nature seems to have taken his theory far outside of measurable science and toward unquantifiable mysticism. Adding a spiritual dimension to a theory that academia has already concluded is difficult to validate might cause even more academics to simply ignore Maslow. If self-actualization is challenging to define and measure, how do researchers measure self-transcendence?

Donaldson (1996) suggests that the lack of empirical support for dynamic processes may be due to simplistic analytical models, not the processes that the models attempt to measure. In addressing critics who argued that contingency theories could not be validated with research, Donaldson integrated divergent contingency theories to develop a model for analyzing dynamic processes in organizational environments. Using his model, Donaldson was able to validate key elements of contingency theory that appeared universal among 87 organizations in five countries. This is not to say that Donaldson's model can be used to verify Maslow's dynamic holistic theory but to suggest that the lack of empirical support may say more about the measurement than it does about the process being measured.