Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss the relevance of Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y with the real life work place situations. A free survey offered by Business Balls has been conducted in order to find out the differences how people want to be managed and how are they actually being managed. Generally, there is a lot of difference found in the way people want to be managed and how they are actually being managed. The scores obtained by the survey will be assessed in terms of relating it to work place.

Discussion

In the 1950's, Douglas McGregor (1906-1964), an emotional professional who was certified at MIT and provided us as chief executive of Antioch Higher education from 1948-1954, belittled both the traditional and contemporary companies as insufficient for details of managing the office effectively. He considered that in the actual sense both companies unveiled a bad point of view of individual response and that another way to control according to an entirely different set of values was needed. McGregor set out his thoughts in his traditional 1957 content "The Human Side of Enterprise" and the 1960 publication of the same name, in which he provided the idea of new humanism (McGregor, 1960).

The concept behind these two theories gives us an idea of how differently things can be managed. Generally, bosses like the idea which tends to be a negative one and believes that employees do not like to work rather they are careless and can avoid work to the maximum they can, and most importantly need a lot of guidance and interference in everything they do. Whereas, employees relate to the theory which provides them an opportunity to be viewed positively, the employees believe that they are creative and can grow themselves and also make the company grow, if they are left free and given an opportunity to work through their own ideas and knowledge. Managers do not like to appreciate while employees love to be appreciated. Bosses prefer an atmosphere which is autocratic while employees want an atmosphere that is friendly and easy to work in.

The scores from the survey conducted from Business Balls reveals that the score for indicating what the situation or management style is '34' which comes under the category of 'generally prefers X theory management'. The next was about how the person prefers being managed and the score was '62' which come under the category of 'strongly preferring Y theory management' (www.businessballs.com).

The huge difference in the scores depicts that the organizations generally prefer to manage its people in an autocratic style which might be effective in short term but it definitely loses its effectiveness in the long run. Whereas, all employees are attracted to a management style which does not lack humanity and gives effective results in both short and long term.

Theory X

It is an authoritative management style. It believes that the employee hates work and will prevent it to the extent he/she ...