The
XY theory of management was put forward in 1960 in a book entitled “The Human
Side of Enterprise” by an American social psychologist named Douglas McGregor.
Although more recent studies of management may show that this theory is a
little inflexible it is still referred to regularly in the field of management.
Basically
McGregor believed that there are 2 fundamental approaches to managing people
i.e. X and Y. Many managers tend towards X and achieve poor results whereas
those who use theory Y allow people to grow and develop; thus, achieving better
performance. The two styles are also known as: the authoritarian style (X) and
the participant style (Y) and they may be described as follows:
Theory X (The Authoritarian
manager)
- This
manager views employees from the standpoint that they dislike work and
will avoid it if they can.
- Following
on from the above reasoning the manager believes that people must be
coerced to work towards company goals under the threat of punishment.
- They
believe that the average person wishes to avoid responsibility and prefers
to be directed and that they are unambitious and see their main priority
to be security.
Example- A
Punch in Machine or the time clock in an organization. You have to punch in/out
partly because the management thinks you'll arrive late and leave early if you
don't.
Theory Y. The Participant Style
manager.
- This
manager believes that effort in work is as natural as work and play.
- They
believe that it is unnecessary to apply external control or punishments to
force people to work and that they will exercise self-control and
self-direction towards company goals.
- The
employee will work towards objectives in order to receive the reward and satisfaction
of achieving that objective.
This manager feels that employees usually accept and will indeed seek responsibility. - They
take the viewpoint that most of the population and not just a ‘chosen’ few
have the abilities needed to solve organisational problems i.e.
imagination, creativity, ingenuity etc.
- Their
thought is that generally, in industry, the intellectual potential of the
average person is only partially used.
Example
- An example is an artist on contract to produce art. You tell
the artist what you want done but you leave it to him/her when and how to do it
as long as they produce what you want within your timeline.
Workers
Like the managers, the workers in the organization can be
classified as “Lazy” and “Not Lazy”.
So the combinations of managers and workers stated above give rise
to a 2X2 matrix and the different situations are explained below.
With a Manager in Y category a lazy
worker can be motivated and with due course of time improve his efficiency ;
whereas with a X category manager, a “Not Lazy” worker will get demotivated and
the organization may find it hard to retain him
Leader Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
Sahin proposed the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory.
What LMX theory basically points out against McGregor theory is that “leaders
develop unique relationships with different subordinates and that the quality
of these relationships is a determinant of how each subordinate will be
treated”. Hence a manager can belong to both X and Y Category depending upon
the relationship he shares with his subordinate.
Theory Z
Theory Z is often referred
to as the 'Japanese' management style, proposed by William Ouchi. Theory Z
essentially advocates a combination of all that's best about theory Y and
modern Japanese management, which places a large amount of freedom and trust
with workers, and assumes that workers have a strong loyalty and interest in
team-working and the organisation.
Theory Z also places more
reliance on the attitude and responsibilities of the workers, whereas
Mcgregor's XY theory is mainly focused on management and motivation from the
manager's and organisation's perspective.
Personal
Experience
I got the opportunity to
work with a manager who belonged to the Y Category. He gave me ample freedom to
execute my ideas, yet was supportive and helped me whenever I was stuck in my
assignments. . He
himself was dedicated towards his work without any supervision and his style of
managing all activities inspired me a lot.
