Summarized these two approaches and named them Theory X and Theory Y.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 414.

Douglas McGregor, a well-known American theorist of the psychology,

There are two different ways in which employers can treat their employees.

Reading 1.

Which of the following statements seem to you to be generally true? Why?

1. People dislike work and avoid it if they can.

2. Work is necessary to people's psychological well-being.

3. People avoid responsibility and would rather be told what to do.

4. People are motivated mainly by money.

5. Most people are far more creative and ingenious than their employers realize.

6. People are motivated by anxiety about their security.

7. You can only motivate people by providing them with appropriate incentives (rewards).

8. People want to be interested in their work and, given the right conditions, they will enjoy it.

9. Under the right conditions, most people will accept responsibility and

want to realize their own potential.

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In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor proposed two different sets of assumptions about what motivates people, which he called Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X is a pretty gloomy view of human nature, while Theory Y is a more optimistic view. In brief, Theory X is the traditional approach to workers and working which states that the average human has an inherent dislike of work, will avoid it if he can at all costs. Because of their dislike of work most people must be coerced, controlled, directed and threatened with punishment (for example, with losing their job) to get them to make any effort at work. Theory X assumes that most people are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and have to be looked after.

Theory Y, on the contrary, is the sunny, optimistic view of people, and the one which best characterizes human nature. At least for a substantial majority of the population, Theory Y states that most people will devote their energies to work as long as certain conditions are met. Firstly, they need set objectives and get

rewards for achieving them; secondly, they need responsibility; and thirdly, they need opportunities to apply their imagination, creativity and ingenuity to solve organizational problems. So, under the right circumstances, people want to work, are eager to work, derive satisfaction from work, and are good at work. Besides, they need achievements and responsibilities.