Douglas McGregor
Douglas McGregor formed
Theory X
/ Theory Y - opposing assumptions about human behaviour behind every
management decision.
Douglas McGregor (1906 - 1964) was a Management professor at the MIT
Sloan School of Management and president of Antioch College from 1948 to
1954. His 1960 book The Human Side of Enterprise had a profound
influence on education practices. In the book he identified an approach
of creating an environment within which employees are motivated via
authoritative, direction and control or integration and self-control,
which he called theory X and theory Y, respectively. Theory Y is the
practical application of Dr. Abraham Maslow's Humanistic School of
Psychology, or Third Force psychology, applied to scientific management.
Douglas McGregor is commonly thought of as being a proponent of
Theory Y, but, as Edgar Schein tells in his introduction to
McGregor's subsequent, posthumous (1967), book The Professional Manager
: "In my own contacts with Doug, I often found him to be discouraged by
the degree to which theory Y had become as monolithic a set of
principles as those of
Theory X, the over-generalization which Doug was fighting....Yet few
readers were willing to acknowledge that the content of Doug's book made
such a neutral point or that Doug's own presentation of his point of
view was that coldly scientific".
Graham Cleverley in Managers & Magic (Longman's, 1971) comments: "...he
coined the two terms Theory X and theory Y and used them to label two
sets of beliefs a manager might hold about the origins of human
behaviour. He pointed out that the manager's own behaviour would be
largely determined by the particular beliefs that he subscribed
to....McGregor hoped that his book would lead managers to investigate
the two sets of beliefs, invent others, test out the assumptions
underlying them, and develop managerial strategies that made sense in
terms of those tested views of reality. "But that isn't what happened.
Instead McGregor was interpreted as advocating Theory Y as a new and
superior ethic - a set of moral values that ought to replace the values
managers usually accept."
Douglas McGregor earned a B.E. Mechanical from Rangoon Institute of
Technology, an A.B. from Wayne State University in 1932, then earned an
M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University in 1933 and 1935
respectively.
Douglas McGregor –
Theory X / Theory Y
1906 - 1964
Douglas McGregor was an American social psychologist best known for
Theory X and
Theory Y; opposing assumptions about human behaviour behind every
management decision or action.
Building on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, McGregor set out two
opposing assumptions about human nature and motivation.
Theory X
People are lazy,
dislike work and need threat of job loss and financial incentives to
work hard. They need direction and control and cannot take
responsibility.
Theory Y
People need to work,
actively seek responsibility, and are generally creative and
resourceful. They will be self-directed to achieve objectives that meet
both organisational and individual goals. Intellectual potential needs
to be utilised.
Douglas McGreogr said that management style and decision-making depends
on which theory management believes applies to their staff.
Theory X was adopted by traditional
Taylor-ist
management, and Theory Y by more modern management thinkers, following
Elton Mayo’s human
relations approach.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_McGregor
http://www.mftrou.com/douglas-mcgregor.html |
