What’s in Name – X or Y ?

What’s in Name – X or Y ?

Although the names sound a bit confusing these were developed by  Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s that have been used in human resource management, organizational behavior, organizational communication and organizational development. They describe two contrasting models of workforce motivation.

Theory X and Theory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is attitude not attributes.

v  Theory X workers could be described as follows:

v  Individuals who dislike work and avoid it where possible

v  Individuals who lack ambition, dislike responsibility and prefer to be led

v  Individuals who desire security

The management implications for Theory X workers were that, to achieve organisational objectives, a business would need to impose a management system of coercion, control and punishment.

Theory Y workers were characterised by McGregor as:

v  Consider effort at work as just like rest or play

v  Ordinary people who do not dislike work. Depending on the working conditions, work could be considered a source of satisfaction or punishment

v  Individuals who seek responsibility if they are motivated

The management implications for Theory X workers are that, to achieve organizational objectives, rewards of varying kinds are likely to be the most popular motivator. The challenge for management with Theory Y workers is to create a working environment or culture where workers can show and develop their creativity.

The perception of the manager and actual employee behavior is shown in the diagram as follows:

McGregor views Theory Y to be more valid and reasonable than Theory X. Thus, he encouraged cordial team relations, responsible and stimulating jobs, and participation of all in decision-making process.

Implications of Theory X and Theory Y

Quite a few organizations use Theory X today. Theory X encourages use of tight control and supervision. It implies that employees are reluctant to organizational changes. Thus, it does not encourage innovation.

Many organizations are using Theory Y techniques. Theory Y implies that the managers should create and encourage a work environment which provides opportunities to employees to take initiative and self-direction. Employees should be given opportunities to contribute to organizational well-being. Theory Y encourages decentralization of authority, teamwork and participative decision making in an organization. Theory Y searches and discovers the ways in which an employee can make significant contributions in an organization. It harmonizes and matches employees’ needs and aspirations with organizational needs and aspirations.

EXAMPLE

A person is a mixture of theory X and theory Y attributes; it only depends on the situations and the attitude of the person. I would like to share an example where I considered myself as both theory X and theory Y employee.

When I was working in Shivalik Bimetals I did not find the work interesting enough. There was no chance of growth. Whatever I had studied during my masters had no link with the job. Apart from that I was convinced that there was no value addition or any learning while I was doing work. So eventually I started losing interest in the work. I could hardly wait for the job hours to pass and I shrugged responsibility. There was no new initiative or creative thought process from my side. I could hardly contribute to the organization. And then I decided to quit and made a shift to Bhushan power and Steel.

With Bhushan power and Steel thing were pretty different. I was provided with a handsome salary, interesting work profile and good work timings. I enjoyed going to work. I won many accolades at work place and was also responsible for improvements at work place. It was due to my performance only that I was promoted to Senior Engineer and with bigger team and work responsibilities. Since I was satisfied at my job I was able to perform well everywhere be it family life or office life. So I feel that theory X or theory Y or a combination of both of them exist in every person but at different phases of life and at different times. But at the end one must keep ones attitude right for growth and satisfaction at workplace

Thank you for reading J