AND THEORY Y
DOUGLAS MCGREGOR
(1906-1964)
•
Management professor at MIT Sloan School of Management
•
Earned his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Rangoon Institute of
Technology
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Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University
•
Professor at Harvard where he helped to set up the University's
Industrial Relations section
•
His book, The Human Side of Enterprise made his mark on the history
Enterprise,
of organizational management
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Proposed the two theories by which managers perceive employee motivation. •
Work is based upon Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
•
Grouped the hierarchy into lower-order needs (Theory X and higherTheory X) order needs (Theory Y
Theory Y).
•
Better results would be gained by the use of Theory Y, rather than Theory
X.
These two views theorized how people view human behavior at work and organizational life.
UNDERSTANDING THE THEORIES
Your management style is strongly influenced by your beliefs and assumptions about what motivates members of your team:
If you believe that team members dislike work, you will have an authoritarian style of management
On the other hand, if you assume that employees take pride in doing a good job, you will tend to adopt a more participation style.
THEORY X
In Theory X assumes that employees are naturally
• Work is inherently distasteful to most people, and they will attempt to avoid work whenever possible.
• are not ambitious have little desire for responsibility, and prefer to be ambitious, directed.
• need to be supervised at every step, with controls put in place.
• have little aptitude for creativity in solving organizational problems.
• self-centered.
• resist change.
Essentially, theory x assumes that the primary source of most employee motivation is monetary, with security as strong second.
THEORY X (CONTD.)
Under Theory X, management approaches to motivation range from a hard approach to a