Do Supervisors Focus On The Nature Of People

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

Abraham Maslow developed a Hierarchy of Needs (appendix 3) which is used to understand human motivation, management training and personal development. This hierarchy is used to determine the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential.

Theory X & Y was officially expounded (and named) by Douglas McGregor, a social psychologist at MIT in the 1960s. His idea was that there are two fundamentally different styles of management. Theory X is an authoritarian concept where one assumes that individuals work reluctantly, without motivation. On the other hand, Theory Y is a libertarian concept where one assumes that people will perform beyond their duties if they are motivated and are dedicated to the overall goals set forth for them.

Is your workplace safe? Do you encourage camaraderie and team building exercises? Some examples might be: company picnics, luncheons or holiday pot-lucks. These lower level needs will need to be addressed and achieved in order for workers to move onto the issues that management wants to focus on such as productivity, innovation and efficiency. Looking at McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y I would determine if Marshall’s management is using the negative aspects of the classical management theory and making assumptions about the workers (p. 43). If I found that Marshall’s management was adhering to Theory X more than Theory Y I would suggest a shift towards Theory Y thinking and managing. Theory Y states that workers will seek out satisfaction of the higher-order needs if management treats them as such and if those lower-order needs are satisfied. I would focus particularly on point number five of Theory Y, which states: the capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population (p. 43). Looking at this point could address participation levels in the team management system. For example instead of allowing employees to elect the same people to represent each production area in the Marshall Team monthly meetings, perhaps try a

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

This particular theory was developed by two men by the names of Fredrick Taylor and Max Weber. Fredrick Taylor thought that the way for a business to reach maximum efficiency was to study how work was performed by the employees which he called the scientific management. Taylor primarily wanted to put all of his time and effort during the study on the employees rather than the employers which was rather unheard of for the time period in which the study took place. The author makes a great point at one point in the book by stating that the assumption that man was rational played one of the more dominant roles in Taylor’s theory (pg. 95). This means that he thought that workers did their work for a reward such as money or a promotion and once they received said reward they would be productive for the company.

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

On the other hand, here comes to the theory Y. On the contrary, it based on positive assumptions, and also more positive view of workers and the possibilities that create. For instance, they assumed that employees are ambitious, self-motivated and anxious to accept greater responsibility. Employees exercise self-control, self-direction, autonomy and empowerment, also exercise creativity and become forward looking. So, once the managers are adopted this theory, they believes that people want to do well at work, have a pool of unused creativity and that the satisfaction of doing a job

McGregor created two belief systems Theory X states that managers believe that subordinates need to be controlled if organizational goals are going to be met. These managers are most likely to uses reward and punishment to control employees. In contrast Theory Y managers believe employees are active and responsible, and they would be motivated to meet the goals without overbearing control form the organization (Landy & Corte, 2007). In the movie Intech's management was definitely managing the company by McGregor's Theory X. And Bills management skills made everyone feel small and controlled, the employees comfort was not the managements priority.

Organizational theory studies the various variables that influence the behavior of an individual(s) working within an organization, but also, “prescribes how work and workers ought to be organized and attempts to explain the actual consequences of organizational behavior (including individual actions) on work being performed and on the organization itself.” (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013, p.145). Of the many approaches to organizational analysis, Classical Organizational theory has been, even to this day, extremely influential by focusing on more formal concepts such as bureaucracy, rationalization and scientific management. Although, over the decades organizational management has taken on a more human relations approach to getting more productivity out of employees, it is contributors like Max Webber, Fredrick Taylor, and Luther Gulick that laid down the basic foundation organizational theories by recognizing the need for control and procedures.

According to Kreitner and Kinicki (2013) McGregor contrasted two views on human nature by insisting that Theory Y assumes that people are more positive at work, and believed managers could accomplish more by viewing employees as such (p.9). The other outdated theory, is Theory X, which is a more negative and pessimistic assumption about workers.

Douglas McGregor was a management professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He introduced a new motivational theory in his book ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’, stating that all workers were divided into two groups: Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X workers were lazy, irrational and unreliable, and were only motivated by money and threatened by punishment. Theory Y workers were able to seek and accept responsibilities and fulfil any goals given.

McGregor (1960a) assumed workers refer to Theory X are lazy, hate to work, responsibility aversion and more concern about lower levels of human needs rather than pursuing self-achievement. McGregor (1960a) suggests that managers should supervise and control the workers in order to adjust their behaviour and neutralise heir negative attitudes toward work, even punish and push them to achieve a minimal level of performance. Punishment is necessary because of the nature of inherently lazy. Managers would find encouraging them to perform better by reward maybe only valid in a short-term as lazy workers eventually submit adequate effort as they do not pursuit self-actualisation (McGregor 1960a). in a word, managers centralise the decision making power, set rules, SOPs and procedures to guide workers what they should process and monitor the process in order to safeguard the minimal requirement of performance is achieved

McGregor 's revolutionary assumption, Theory Y contends that individuals are self-motivated and self-directed while his other assumption, Theory X insists that employees must be commanded and controlled. Every day managers that utilize McGregor’s assumptions have the choice to either believe Theory X and control their

Theory X assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be