Introduction
Waddell, Jones and George (2013, p. 4) define management as, ‘ planning, organizing, leading
and controlling of human and other resources to achieve organizational goals effectively and
efficiently. ’ For establishing efficient and effective organization, many management practices
have developed gradually to arrange with the political, economic and cultural forces of their
time. This paper critically evaluates the theory established by McGregor i.e. Theory X and
Theory Y and also theory of The Open System View. The paper will initially introduce to the
theory. This will be followed by their contributions and limitations in managing employees
today. According to Douglas, human behavior is motivated by the style
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37).
According to Theory X, the only method to motivate people to work are self interest or coercive
methods (Fisher, 2009, p. 356).
According to Theory Y, Management is responsible for organizing humans, machines and
materials to achieve desired results (Halepota, 2005, p. 16) The difference in Theory Y is that
workers are not lazy and they have a hope of achieving something. In this theory workers have
prospective to achieve something and be motivated and are also given freedom to work in their
own way and express their own ideas to dedicate in the success of organization (Halepota, 2005,
p. 16). It is natural for human beings to put effort into work. Employees like to use their
imagination and creativity to make decisions and in solving problems of organization.(Kermally,
2005, p. 38). When Theory Y is applied, employees attain self determination and ample of
opportunities which results in close relationship and mutual trust of employees and
managers.(Sait, Faruk, Onur 2014). Managers are not always idle. They spend time with people,
are engaged in one or the other stuff of organization and are engaged with people who form unity
(Brunsson, 2008). Training and sharing information are important for higher performance of an
Thus, if employees are treated in a Theory X manner, they will become lazy. If they
Theory X takes the position that the average human being is “lazy and self-centered, lacks ambition, dislikes changes and longs to be told what to do” (Stewart, 2010). It portrays the perspective that a worker avoids responsibility and has to be controlled every step of the work process. There is little to no delegation of
* Classical- which assumes most employees are lazy and dislike work but can be convinced in order to satisfy their economic needs.
This is important for high job satisfaction as it can affect an organizations performance. Self-determination theory taps into an employee’s motivation, which increases their effort at work. An organization that has a high level of intrinsic motivation allows their employees opportunity for growth and to participate in management decisions; thus, increasing the incidence of employees being engaged. Whereas, organizations who do not promote an intrinsic motivation environment has employees who are less engaged with less regard for organizational policies. This addresses the third hypothesis of employees report lover levels of intrinsic motivation will more than likely engage in deviant behavior towards the organization.
According to the expectancy theory of motivation, in the workplace an employee’s willingness to work is dependent upon the end result of working and how important the end result is to the employee. An employee will be more compelled to put forth more effort if it is believed that the consequence of doing so will be a positive performance evaluation. The employee must believe that by achieving a positive performance evaluation, an incentive will be achieved. The incentive, whether it is monetary or advancement, must benefit the employee (Robbins, 2012).
Theory Y, adopts the participative management style, which operates on the idea that people are inherently motivated to work if they find the job fulfilling
As stated earlier, only when the basic needs are met, then a person will be motivated to pursue the next level. McGregor stated that because most workers have basic physical and safety needs met, he/she will only be motivated to satisfy higher needs, such as esteem and self actualization. Therefore, management must be able to provide workers with opportunities to satisfy their higher needs or they will not be motivated to perform their organizational duties (Barnett). Because Theory X fails to satisfy the higher needs of the worker, a different set of assumptions need to be made to account for them, thus McGregor developed an alternative he called Theory Y.
Employee Behaviour Works Cited Missing Introduction To organizations, humans are wonderful resources, because they are compact and multi-purpose, capable of simple manual tasks or dealing with complicated machines. However, there is a problem - how to get employees work effectively and productively? Is their behaviour just a reflection of individual differences?
Motivation according to Kelley (2014) is the ‘process through which managers build the desire to be productive and effective in their employees’. If an employee is motivated, they are more likely to be productive and generally staff turnover is low. The problem of worker motivation is that workers are not seen as humans, they have a lack of freedom at the workplace and lack of job fulfilment. Taylor and McGregor Theory X argue that there is not a problem with worker motivation, workers will be obedient because of fear of losing their job motivates them to do well. Whereas Maslow and McGregor’s Theory Y argues that there is a problem with worker motivation because of class conflict between the worker and the manager. The
Below is a definition of how open systems can be explained in a business by Ludwig von Bertalanfty.
this point home, when employees are motivated, it is something that they feel in their
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.
approach (Armstrong, 2003, pp. 217-230). According to both of these theories ‘people only work for
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
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