Douglas McGregor's Theory X & Theory Y of Human Motivation

Douglas McGregor, one of the forefathers of management theory and one of the top business thinkers of all time had a profound influence on the management field, largely due to his Theory X and Theory Y of Human Motivation.

McGregor developed a philosophical view of humankind with this theory X & Y in 1960. Essentially these are two opposing perceptions that theorized how people view human behavior at work and organizational life.

Theory X Assumptions:
Managers falling under Theory X believe that:

• People have an inherent dislike for work and will try to avoid work whenever possible.
• People must be coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment etc. for getting the work done.
• People prefer to be directed, don't like responsibility and have little or no initiative.
• People seek security above everything else.

Theory Y Assumptions:
Managers falling under Theory Y believe that:

• Work comes naturally to the employees.
• People will exercise self-direction in order to achieve organizational objectives.
• People accept and, more importantly, seek responsibility.
• Creativity, Innovation, imagination are encouraged.
• People are capable of using their abilities to solve the organizational problems. 

Now, where would you work more effectively ? With Theory X or Theory Y manager ?
 A consensual answer to this would be with Theory Y managers. However, there are certain fields like large scale production operation and unskilled production line work where the work is more or less monotonous. Theory Y is more suited to knowledge work and professional services.

Moving ahead, because of these 2 types of management and, needless to say, two types of workers (Good & Bad), there are 4 cases as depicted in the image below:

 Let me analyze these 4 cases in the order of their merit as per my experience:

1. Hopeful Managers, Good Workers: An ideal environment to flourish as an organization I believe. The management's perception turns out to be correct and hence the workers would enjoy more while delivering their work.
2. Hopeful Managers Bad Workers: Ideally, not a good environment to be working in, but since the management belongs to the category of Theory Y, there will be motivation enough for the workers to work well. It could possibly lead to the change in the mindset of the workers and hence moving to case 1, i.e. Hopeful Managers and Good Workers :)
3. Hopeless Managers, Good Workers: In this case, even if the workers are willing to do well for the organization, their perception in the minds of the higher management is not good. So, there will not be proper direction in the entire work process which could eventually lead the environment to move to case 4, i.e. Hopeless Managers, Bad Workers.
4. Hopeless Managers, Bad Workers: The organization does not seem to pursue a pleasant future if the work environment is such in an organization.

So, be it as the management or as the work force, eventually it is for us to decide in which quadrant we want our organization to be ?