The theories of X and Y were introduced to scientific society in 1960 by Douglas McGregor, American social psychologist. He elaborated those theories trying to explain motivational factors from different dimensions by rational and acceptable basis. The theories of X and Y are in the center of the fundamental topic of classical McGregor’s (1960) book “The Human Side of Enterprise”.
Theory X represents a traditional system of the carrot and stick approach, based on preconditions of “crowds’ mediocrity”. It supposes that workers are initially lazy, have to be controlled and be motivated “from above”. They treat labor as an inevitable evil on the path of income earning. According to McGregor’s opinion (1960) the theory X can be brought to the following conclusions: an average corporate slave has an aversion to labor and a direct inclination to hang off from work, therefore in order to make people work in accordance with corporate interests these people have to be forced working, controlled, directed and threatened by management. As a rule people, prefer to take orders, escape liability, are unambitious and want to be on the safe side. McGregor complains on the fact that the X theory influence a substantial impact on the management strategy in the broad spectrum of American industry. McGregor underlined the sole commonly accepted organizational theory postulate: power and attitude are chief and irreplaceable means of control and management. He concluded that such a behavior is dictated merely by nature of industrial organizations, philosophy of its management, policy and everyday practice. Employees do not cripple organizations but rather organizations distort perspectives, expectations and behavior of employees.
Another extremity, McGregor called it the theory Y, proceeded from the premise according to which organizations should nurture the employees’ loyalty to company’s goals, encourage motivation, and cherish new ideas directing them to the benefit of organizations. McGregor describes this theory in the following basic concepts: costs of physical and intellectual efforts are not less natural than rest and leisure time. Control “from above” and threat of a punishment are not sole means of efforts’ reward to the interests of the organization. Loyalty to the organizational goals is connected with the recompense for efforts. Moral satisfaction can become a straightforward result of the undertaken efforts, directed on solution of organizational tasks. In these circumstances, an average individual gladly accepts the responsibility and tries to earn extra rewards. Employees have a peculiar level of imagination, creative activity and wit to perform the company’s tasks.
The theories of X and Y are not simplified schemes because McGregor was a realist. He wrote that it is impossible for the time being to create an organization, which could fully embody those theories because one would have to overcome tremendous difficulties. The most distributed objections against the X and Y theories is that they are mutually exclusive, representing the opposite sides of the scale. According to McGregor (1960) preconditions of the Y theory lead to different consequences for management compared to X theory. For instance, the Y theory principles are dynamic, their practical application makes a possible growth and development of an individual within an organization more effective while the labor force becomes a valuable resource. From this perspective, the Y theory can be represented as a more productive theoretical point, which can fully be complemented by further scientific research of Z theory, elaborated by McGregor in 1963. The new Z theory, synthesized organizational and personal imperatives. The Z theory dealt with issues of lifetime employment contract, social benefits for employees and an effective information distribution via middle chain managers improving quality and significance of the employee-organizational behavior.
Works Cited
McGregor, G. The Human Side of Enterprise Douglas McGregor. Volume 2, N. 1, Reflections. 1960. Retrieved from http://www.kean.edu/~lelovitz/docs/EDD6005/humansideofenterprise.pdf
McGregor , G. From Leadership and Motivation, Essays. Edited by W. G. Bennis and E. H. Schein by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 3–20. 1966. Print.
