Assumption of Douglas Mc Gregor Theory X and Theory Y

Charles M. Carson, (2005),"A historical view of Douglas McGregor's Theory Y", Management Decision, Vol. 43 Iss 3 pp. 450 - 460

are treated in accordance with Theory Y, they will be motivated and committed to the organisational

McGregor first published his ideas in his book, The Human Side of Enterprise. One of the experiences he had that influenced his thoughts was from work that he did at his grandfather’s establishment for temporary workers in Detroit. Because he was a close acquaintance of Abraham Maslow, who developed “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” McGregor wished to counter the scientific approach on management (“Douglas McGregor,” 2008) and named Theories X & Y.

Management is the basis of how any given organization operates and how each activity preformed is organized that makes each day possible and profitable for the overall good of the company. Power

When managing people, McGregor’s model, indicated below, shows to styles of management. Theory X is directive, whereas Theory Y is enabling, and looks at employee engagement/ teamwork in order to achieve the

Theory Y, adopts the participative management style, which operates on the idea that people are inherently motivated to work if they find the job fulfilling

Theory X and Theory Y, developed by Douglas McGregor, grew out of opposition towards classical management methods. Classical management theorists, such as Fredrick Taylor, focused on scientific training and efficiency and did not account for personal and behavioral issues, such as management styles or job satisfaction. McGregor saw these deficiencies in the classical school of management which lead him to develop a theory of management that would factor the importance of the individual worker. If a manager could tap into the feelings and attitudes of their workers, then the manager would be able increase their employee’s motivation which would then increase production. McGregor’s theory viewed the employee as a person and not as a machine

Controlling is monitoring the performance of the organization, identifying deviations between planned and actual results, and taking corrective action when necessary. With all these four functions that are involved in the process of management, if all are followed correctly the organization will be properly ran and will have few complications.

Douglas McGregor, (1906–1964) was a Management professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and president of Antioch College from 1948 to 1954. He also taught at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta . His 1960 book, “The Human Side of Enterprise” had a profound influence on workplace practices. In the book he identified an approach of creating an environment where employees are motivated via authoritative direction, control or integration, and self-control, which he called Theory X and Theory Y, respectively. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_McGregor)

Management in my mind and as the book reinforces the definition to be, to plan, to organize, to staff for the process, and to control the process to the end. These are consider the primary functions of the management role (p.8).

Leadership is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. Care must be taken in distinguishing between the two concepts. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation.

The Human Side of Enterprise, written my McGregor in 1960, was voted the fourth most influential management book of the 20th century by the Fellows of the Academy of Management. The ideas and theories shown in the book have remained relevant and are taught in Universities across

2007). Kermally (2005, p.36) explain that McGregor believed ‘how managers manage people in practice depends on what assumptions they make about workers’. It means that which kind of leadership managers choose, according to how managers perceive workers’ attitudes toward their job. Managers believe their workers related to Theory X and Y normally use strict supervision approaches to reduce workers’ control on their job, in contrary, managers allow workers to be innovative and willing to authorise more responsibility to Theory Y workers (Waddell et al. 2007).

“Management is the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of mankind and other resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively (University, p 4 2011)”. The greatest achievement of an organization is to provide goods and services that customer’s value. The managerial department of an organization has the power to determine the performance of the employee’s, which directly affects the quality of the service or product that is being supplied to the customer. “Managerial tasks are essential for effective management, which involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (University, p 6 2011)”. Planning is the process of identifying the suitable goals of an organization and how they will be implemented in the company. Organizing is the procedure that determines the departments of an organization. When departments have been established the next step is to decide who will work best at a particular job. The development of organization inside a business will form the organizational structure for the company. “Leading is the ability to inspire and organize individuals to work as a team to complete the goals of the business in an efficient and effective manner (University, p 9 2011)”. Controlling is being able to assess the procedures of a company and eliminate or change any strategy plans that are not showing high- performance levels. Controlling may consist of monitoring

Management can be defined as the art or act of doing things or activities through the efforts of other people to accomplish desired goals. It deals with the organising and coordination of people, activities, materials, machines and money.