Leadership - Douglas McGregor's X and Y theory
Motivation - Douglas McGregor's X and Y theory
Background
Douglas McGregor, an American social psychologist, developed his theory X and theory Y of human motivation at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s.
It has been used in human resource management, organizational behavior, and organizational development.
They describe two very different attitudes toward workforce motivation.
McGregor felt that companies followed either one or the other approach.
He was president of Antioch College from 1948 to 1954.
His theories were contained in his book ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’ published in 1960.
More recent studies have questioned the rigidity of McGregor’s model.
They are two opposing perceptions about how people view human behavior at work and organizational life.
Theory X
In this theory management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can.
Because of this workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed.
A hierarchical structure is needed with a narrow span of control at each level.
According to this theory employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can.
According to McGregor, most managers (in the 1960s) tended to subscribe to Theory X, in that they took a rather pessimistic view of their employees.
A Theory X manager believes that his or her employees do not really want to work, that they would rather avoid responsibility and that it is the manager's job to structure the work and energize the employee.
The result of this line of thought is that Theory X managers naturally adopt a more authoritarian style based on the threat of punishment.
Theory Y
In this theory management assumes employees are ambitious, self-motivated, anxious to accept greater responsibility, and exercise self-control and self-direction.
It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work activities.
It is also believed that employees have the desire to be imaginative and creative in their jobs if they are given a chance.
There is an opportunity for greater productivity by giving employees the freedom to be their best.
A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work and that there is a pool of unused creativity in the workforce.
They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation in itself.
A Theory Y manager will try to remove the barriers that prevent workers from fully actualizing their potential.
In general this gave the false impression that Theory X managers were the bad guys and that Theory Y managers are the best.
Abraham Maslow
The existence of Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ gave credibility to McGregor’s Theory X and Y.
With the publication of the Theory X and Y Maslow’s views on motivation increased in fame.
Business life in the West was sharing a reaction against the 1940's experiences of totalitarianism and the perceived threat of world communism in the 1950's.
McGregor argued that there was nothing wrong or bad about exercising authority or giving instructions.
However, if the Theory X approach for management is less than effective then the alternative Theory Y with more democratic involvement offered more returns than more doses of authority.
Humanistic values were introduced into management thinking.
However, these values reflected managerial efficiency, measurement and control – this holds well with traditional scientific management.
The practice of staff appraisal was an important extension of McGregor's argument.
Comments
Many years ago industry was very automated. Production lines were the epitome of efficiency.
Workers had to follow a simple set of instructions and production would be fine.
Industry has moved away from the early robotic nature of factory production to where new ideas, computers and worker input have added to variation in order to create that unique selling point of a product to gain the all important market share.
Theory X is useful where predictability, a lack of mistakes, monitoring and control are required, for example, in insurance companies.
Theory Y thrives on adaptability and change, for example, in the advertising industry.
Many managers will find that Theory Y is the most difficult management approach to adopt.
Theory X communication style is largely one way.
It is simple and to the point.
Employees, if things go wrong, can be blamed for inattentiveness, lack of interest, unreliability.
The Theory Y manager has to be more sensitive.
They might need to:
- Take time to explain.
- Know the traits of the individual.
- A need to engage coaching and other interpersonal exchanges.
For this you need to build trust.
It is not really acceptable to revert to a Theory X manager when the going gets tough.
Theory Y is the opposite of abdication, giving staff license to interpret and implement organizational objectives themselves.
The manager remains at the centre facilitating the initiation and control processes.
Essential to the Theory Y culture is a monitoring, feedback and control system.
It has been thought that Theory Y is just a rehash of Theory X with a few allowances to human emotions with the ultimate aim of improving motivation [see The Complete Motivation package] and encouraging higher performance.
In the Theory X and Y systems, managers are still responsible for the planning process, getting workers on board and recognizing goals.
Managers set the parameters but work systematically and conscientiously with junior staff defining jobs and priorities, planning operations, agreeing programs, and reviewing achievements.
Theory Y recommended what Frederick Herzberg in 1964 called "job enrichment" and Peters in 1982 and 1985 called "empowerment ".
Re-designing jobs to expand opportunities for self-control and self-direction would, it was stressed, contribute to improved performance.
The manager was encouraged to remove job restrictions and create more scope for job development enabling employees to grow and give more of their innate potential to the business.
Theory X and Theory Y are two poles of motivational thinking.
Even in a Theory Y environment some direct instructions are bound to happen.
The truth is probably that the exact position on the line is somewhere in between Theory X and Theory Y depending on the situation and the individual.