Dr. Douglas M. McGregor (1960) was the brainchild behind the theories of human motivation which he called “Theory X and Theory Y”. The concept was developed in 1960s during his academia years at MIT Sloan School of Management and ever since of its
introduction; it has been widely used in human resource management, organizational behaviour, organizational communication and organizational development. Most of the corporate plans and beliefs were developed through the concept of Theory X and Theory Y in many of the successful restaurant chains and franchises today. Later in the next segment, several real case studies of the current restaurant chains and franchise will be introduced and how Theory X and Theory Y have implemented and incorporated into their business managements and corporal beliefs.
As McGregor (1960) described both his Theory X and Theory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is all about attitudes and not attributes. It is an unbalancing scale weighting between Theory X and Theory Y that most managers perceive the human nature and human behaviour within their employees.
In Theory X, a hard approach which McGregor (1960) notes and rests on three core management assumptions that are: 1) The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid at all cause if he can. 2) Because of this human characteristics of dislike work, most people must be coerced, controlled, monitored, persuaded, rewarded, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organizational objectives. 3) The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all (McGregor, 1960).
In sum, Theory X managers only see the laziness in human behaviours and must exercise threats or coercion to achieve corporal goals. Therefore it is unfortunate to realize that managers have no faith in their employees working genuinely and believing they have no productiveness and only direction will lead the way. Finally, their lack of productivity show no
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ambition and work desire because they want the easy way out without taking any responsibility.
Another characteristic of Theory X is that work is segmented, industrially based, and individual tasks where their work environment would be in a machinery factory utilizing technology to control work and minimize human error. Any form of standardized operation set by the organization is considered Theory X. It is a form of absolute control designed to make the subordinates submissive to commands. The nature of this relationship between employees and employers has no trust among one another.
For example, the managers at Walmart took Theory X and view their employees as potential suspects of thefts in retail stores. By taking precaution to the next level, the corporate boardrooms even had video cameras installed and employees were instructed to always keep their hands above the tables in order to ensure no underhanded deals (bribery) were being made. To make matters worse in violating human dignities, an incident occurred in 2004, the New York Times reported that some Walmart stores locked their employees at night to avoid potential theft of merchandise (Greenhouse, 2004). The more overtly practices of Theory X still persist in some of the enterprises and companies, so they are unlikely to be vanished all together. However not all practices from Theory X are deemed inhumane but in Walmart’s case, it had completely violated the laws of constitution in human rights and dignity. It is an unlawful practice to confine a human being in any form of public facility. The excessive nature of total authoritarianism is the way to control human behaviour, and so their work of productivity must remain standard.
Evidently, Theory X has many flaws that no one wants to associate with and so Theory Y was introduced to management by giving some redeemable quality of human nature, that not all human beings are born this way. They can be articulate, productive, resourceful, trustworthy and reliable. In other words; Theory Y is a soft approach that gives hope to all mankind in any managerial setting. Theory Y management views employees to be ambitious and self-motivated and possess the ability of self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and
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physical work duties being challenged. According to them, work is as natural as play. They possess the ability for creative problem solving, but their talents are underused in most
organizations. Given the proper conditions, Theory Y managers believe that most employees will learn to seek and to accept responsibility and to exercise self-control and self-direction in
accomplishing objectives to which they are committed. A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation. Many people interpret Theory Y as a positive set of beliefs about workers which is true as McGregor (1960) believes that Theory Y managers are more likely than Theory X managers to develop the climate of trust with employees that is required for employee development. The employee development is one crucial aspect in any organization because it helps improve strengthening the bonding relationship between managers and subordinates when they are openly communicating with one another. This minimizes the difference between superior and subordinate relationships, creating a comfortable environment in which subordinates can develop and use their abilities. This environment would include sharing of decision making so that subordinates have something to say in decisions that influence them (McGregor, 1960). For instance, Nucor Corporation, a major steel producers in the U.S
contributes its success mainly based on Theory Y that lay out the four employment relations principles and they are: 1) Management is obligated to manage Nucor in such a way that
employees will have the opportunity to earn according to their productivity. 2) Employees should be able to feel confident that if they do their jobs properly, they will have a job tomorrow. 3) Employees have the right to be treated fairly and must believe that they will be. 4) Employees must have an avenue of appeal when they believe they are being treated unfairly (Nucor.com, 2015). Evidently, the four employment principles set by Nucor was designed to protect
employees from unjust treatment and importantly to build up confidence in them so that in return they will enhance their laboring performance in a well-supported corporate environment.
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To conclude Theory X and Theory Y, they are crucial to be implemented in today’s contemporary managerial setting and both are interdependent on one another. A successful firm or enterprise cannot solely rely on just one Theory either X or Y. So it has to be combined harmoniously as one entity. Because there bound to be at times when a manager or leader will need Theory X to manage corporate standards and there are also at times Theory Y is needed to look after employees’ wellbeing. A well-balanced scale of corporate management weighting both Theory X and Theory Y will show no discrimination towards employees and therefore it is an ideal practice to set up the commitment.
Lastly, Theory XY was not included on the table, because it did not acknowledged by McGregor himself. However after analyzing a couple of the modern management by the current restaurant franchises. Managers had figured out a way to design their theories by incorporating both Theory X and Y together as one. For instance, this theory alone is applicable in two scenarios: employee empowerment with limitations and managements that both Theory X and Theory Y workers can use . Empowerment has to deal with the amount of trust established between employees and employers. However that trust still cannot be completely engaged with Theory X and Y workers. Hence, employers would only give them a limited authorization as a precautionary sign. That being say, the limited empowerment is a sign of skepticism in Theory Y workers’ overall honesty. That character trait is inclining towards Theory X spectrum which employers have a hard time trusting both Theory X and Y workers. If employers do have
difficulty trusting Theory Y workers completely, then that means the workers are being treated as both Theory X and Theory Y characters. The final scenario is the management where both Theory X and Theory Y workers can benefit from such as Wowprime’s SOP training institution that trains future employees and managers. There are actual academic credits that must be completed by every newly employed workers in the company.
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Table 2-3
Theory X and Theory Y Approaches
Source: McGregor (1960) The Human Side of Enterprise. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Theory X
The Hard Approach
Theory Y
The Soft Approach
Three Core Assumptions:1. Inherently lazy, dislike doing work and will avoid it.
2. Intimidation through punishment and threats or through persuasion by rewards and appraisals to achieve organizational objectives 3. No desire of climbing the corporate ladder or self-development, avoids any responsibility and tasks, but wants security.
In sum, Theory X managers treat their
workers as irresponsible children who needed discipline through punishment and rewards to make them do their jobs.
There is no trust between employers and employees.
Six Core Assumptions:
1. Enjoys working, and are welcome to challenges. Their physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play.
2. Workers will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which he is committed
3. Committed to fulfill objectives which serves as a function of reward to their achievement
4. Desire to learn, and to accept but to seek responsibility
5. Possess the ability to exercise
imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in problem-solving, which are mostly underused by most organizations.
6. Given the proper working conditions, their intellectuals can be fully utilized.
In sum, Theory Y managers treat their workers as responsible adults who are willing to seek responsibility and fulfilling the given job requirements.
There is trust and loyalty in employees to employers.
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