X or Y?
While society has come a long way since the Industrial Revolution in terms of modern appliances, conveniences and technology, the same cannot be said of management styles. Those seem to have stayed relatively unchanged in many industries and fields.
Social psychologist Douglas McGregor identified two management styles which he referred to as Theory X and Theory Y, with Theory X being the most commonly used despite its obvious drawbacks. During his tenure as an American management professor at MIT, McGregor taught young business management undergraduates about the effects of Theory X on motivation and the workplace in general.
What is Theory X and Y?
Douglas McGregor’s dichotomy consisted of two theories, X and Y, where X was the common belief (or misconception) that individuals at their core are unmotivated and will seek any means to get out of working, while Y is the belief that people at their core want to better themselves and seek ways to do so. The beliefs encompassed by Theory X were commonly held by personnel management until McGregor’s work was published on Theory Y. “The gist of the argument is that businesses traditionally felt the need to treat employees with strategies that included coercion or persuasion to generate necessary productivity,” (Markwell, 2004).
Unintended effects of Theory X.
This is damaging to the employer/employee relationship, as it can create a hostile work environment where one or both parties build resentment toward the other as the employer’s belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is because Theory X assumes that the individual has no internal motivation to speak of. “A Theory X teacher will also tend to blame the students, their stupidity, their laziness, and their lack of cooperation. In contrast, a Theory Y teacher will not ascribe blame to the students, but will answer in terms of how the learning environment was unfortunately not effective for all the students or that their preparation from prior courses seemed weak,” (Markwell, 2004).
Theory Y prevails, even unintentially.
However, when Theory Y is applied (albeit subconsciously) in university lecture halls, the results speak for themselves. “Teachers with a Theory Y perspective (students naturally want to learn) provide increased motivation for students and promote more active learning than Theory X-style teachers who do not view students as active learners,” (Markwell, 2004). Theory Y assumes that the individual is internally motivated. Rather than constantly acting in a manner that questions their motivation, Theory Y’s superior approach allows the worker/employee/student to engage in an actively positive relationship with their supervisor from the start on the basis that they should be given the benefit of the doubt that their very employment or engagement speaks for their motivation.
While the example here is in a university setting, McGregor’s dichotomy is applicable to all organizations and industries. Every workplace has Theory X and Theory Y leaders.
Becoming a better manager, supervisor and leader in general requires identifying your own leadership style. You can’t improve if you don’t know what resources are available to you.
Don’t know where to start? Luckily, that’s what we do.
-The Penguins
References
