Douglas Mcgregor Essay

Charles M. Carson, (2005),"A historical view of Douglas McGregor's Theory Y", Management Decision, Vol. 43 Iss 3 pp. 450 - 460

This theory can be used within the Brookdale centre as understanding individual needs of staff members can be used to help motivate them so they can reach the top of the hierarchy of having a self-worth and feeling accomplished with what they have achieved within their job.

Herzberg’s two factor theory of motivation at the workplace shows the difference between two factors of motivation. The two factors being satisfiers, which are the main causes for job satisfaction (motivation), from hygiene factors which are the main causes for job dissatisfaction (demotivation to stay in the job). Examples of motivating factors are achievement, recognition, responsibility and the work itself. Hygiene factors include: working conditions, salary, relationship with colleagues, supervision, etc. An organisation needs to influence satisfiers through performance management using range of tools such as: job descriptions, supervision, performance appraisals, continuous development/training, rewards and career development.

Theory X & Y was officially expounded (and named) by Douglas McGregor, a social psychologist at MIT in the 1960s. His idea was that there are two fundamentally different styles of management. Theory X is an authoritarian concept where one assumes that individuals work reluctantly, without motivation. On the other hand, Theory Y is a libertarian concept where one assumes that people will perform beyond their duties if they are motivated and are dedicated to the overall goals set forth for them.

When managing people, McGregor’s model, indicated below, shows to styles of management. Theory X is directive, whereas Theory Y is enabling, and looks at employee engagement/ teamwork in order to achieve the

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.

Motivation is the force that makes us do things, whether accomplishing personal goals or completing tasks at work. Most people are motivated as a result of their individual needs being satisfied, which gives them the inspiration to perform specific behaviors for which they receive rewards (Kinicki & Williams, 2011). These needs vary from person to person, as everybody has specific needs to be satisfied. When we consider factors that determine the motivation of employees, many of us think of a high salary. This answer is correct for the reason that some employees will be motivated by money, but mostly wrong for the reason that it does not satisfy other needs to a lasting degree (Bizhelp24, 2010). This supports the idea that human

This leadership style bases itself on McGregor’s Theory X, that regards team members to be careless and disliking work, assumes they attempt to avoid work as much as possible, and are in need of guidance from their leader.

According to Kreitner and Kinicki (2013) McGregor contrasted two views on human nature by insisting that Theory Y assumes that people are more positive at work, and believed managers could accomplish more by viewing employees as such (p.9). The other outdated theory, is Theory X, which is a more negative and pessimistic assumption about workers.

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.

2007). Kermally (2005, p.36) explain that McGregor believed ‘how managers manage people in practice depends on what assumptions they make about workers’. It means that which kind of leadership managers choose, according to how managers perceive workers’ attitudes toward their job. Managers believe their workers related to Theory X and Y normally use strict supervision approaches to reduce workers’ control on their job, in contrary, managers allow workers to be innovative and willing to authorise more responsibility to Theory Y workers (Waddell et al. 2007).

Firstly, the issue of Self-organising via self-selection; At Valve, employees are allowed to pick how to utilise their time and talent. Each employee can pick which projects to work on. As an outcome, self-selected groups of people suddenly emerge around subjects of interest. There is no manager or authority to supervise or control these decisions. Furthermore, the official Valve handbook is subtitled: "A fearless adventure in knowing what to do when no one’s there telling you what to” (Valve Handbook, First Edition 2012.) One can argue that this is the point of McGregor’s Theory Y. However, after a new employee reads this handbook they will then think that it’s ok to work on whatever project they want to work on, to join whichever group they want to join. It has the potential to switch management theories. For example, from theory y, to theory x; since Valve workers are compensated for their commitments; there is an incentive to be a part of successful projects.

Self- actualization needs are highest level need of an employee. “These involve realizing a workers full potential for development on an individual level and continued personal growth.”

It is difficult to satisfy individual demands because everyone would move to the next more advanced platform of the hierarchical pyramid that Maslow created frequently once the prior need is met, especially in modern society. Meanwhile, when setting Maslow’s model into the business to understand the motivation behind employees’ behaviours, it is not amazing to find that there are also have similar five levels of needs which including wages, safety, social belongingness, self-esteem and finally self-actualization. Maslow and Stephens (2000) have posited out that individuals will not spend an inordinate amount of time to think about their salaries if they are fairly paid. After being paid adequate salary, employee seeks safety physically and mentally on the jobs. And then the stage of needs moves to the third level subsequently-seeking social

(Robbin S., Timothy J, 2011 p.65) ”employee with high level of job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do.” Those people accept challenges they learn new things, these things could be helpful for their future as well, after three month he feel that he is working same every day, customers are asking the same question so he decided to talk to Billy about some change. (Robbin S., Timothy J, 2011) According to Hierarchy of needs theory, when once step of the hierarchy is satisfied substantially the next one becomes dominant so in order to motivate someone one need to understand what level of the hierarchy that person is currently on focusing on that one must satisfy the needs at or above that level.