Abraham Maslow (1998) spent time studying workers in factories in the early 1950s, and in his published diary he agreed with Owen, “Proper management of the work lives of human beings, of the way in which they earn their living, can improve them and improve the world and in this sense be a utopian or evolutionary technique” (p. 1). The research of Clare Graves (1974), on the levels of existence, supported Maslow and Owen in the claim that people need to have their basic physiological needs met before they can evolve to higher levels. Beck and Cowan (1996) built on Graves’ research by expanding the biological-psychological-social life conditions that provide the context for any worker’s work life. Graves sought to understand why some people were able to navigate change and human chaos with relative ease, while others struggled. In his own words, “The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiralling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behaviour” (p. 28).

The spirals and charts used throughout the research paper are meant to present an integrated and dynamic look at the research findings. Cacioppe and Edwards (2005) presented an interesting synthesis of spiral dynamics and integral theory. Their article quotes Ken Wilber, the creator of integral theory, and explained, “Integral theory is an over-arching model of human and social development that attempts to incorporate as many approaches to development as possible into its explanatory framework” (p. 3). These theories are the basis for seeing the complex challenge ECs have in helping people find and keep employment under harsh economic, social, and living conditions. The first topic in the literature review presents a view of the EC occupation.