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The purpose of this paper is to critique Douglas McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise, including other expert perspectives and its relevance in today’s organizations. Douglas McGregor’s opening statement in The Human Side of Enterprise, implies that industry in the 1950’s has been able to successfully utilize physical science and technology for the benefit of mankind, but has yet to incorporate the social sciences to positively affect the human organizations (Natemeyer & McMahon, 2001). In 1957, McGregor suggested that the social sciences may possibly be as cutting edge to human organizations as atomic energy was to the physical sciences (Natemeyer & McMahon, 2001). Based on his academic background in psychology, coupled with his profession experiences in multiple facets of industry, McGregor was in a position to propose a ground breaking concept of management in the workplace. According to a book review by Eileen Kelly (2000), McGregor left an indelible impression of the American business landscape and on management thought with his Theory X and Theory Y. Interestingly enough, the aforementioned book review was done on a book called Douglas McGregor, Revisited: Managing the Human Side of the Enterprise that was published in 2000, which highlights the fact that McGregor’s work is still relevant and worth revisiting and reviewing over forty years after it was published.
In order to understand McGregor’s proposed theory to management that incorporates the social sciences, called Theory Y, it is imperative to understand what he refers to as the conventional view, or “Theory X”. McGregor explained that Theory X’s conventional managerial assumptions are that employees are lazy, incapable of self-direction and autonomous wo...
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Jones, G. (2008, Jan. 1). Biography of Douglas McGregor. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2011, from managers-net.com: http://www.managers-net.com/Biography/mcgregor.html
Kelly, E. P. (2000). Douglas McGregor, revisited: Managing the human side of the enterprise. Academy of Management Executive,14(3), 143-145. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
Kopelman, R. E., Prottas, D. J., & Davis, A. L. (2008). Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Y: Toward a construct-valid measure. Journal of Managerial Issues, XX(2), 255-271. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
Natemeyer, W.E., & McMahon, J. T. (2001). Classics of organizational behavior (3rd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press Inc..
Schrage, M. (2000). The things about management that will never change. Across the Board, 37(7), 67-69. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
Also Qantas was running with an autocratic leadership style meaning autocratic managers like to make all the important decisions and closely supervise and control workers. Managers do not trust workers and simply give orders (one-way communication) that they expect to be obeyed. This approach derives from the views of Taylor as to how to motivate workers and relates to McGregor’s theory X view of workers. This approach has limitations but it can be effective in certain situations.
Aamodt, M.G. (2010). Industrial / Organizational Psychology: An Applied Approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Brockner, J., & J, F. F. (2006). Commentary on "Radical HRM innovation and competitive advantage: the Moneyball story": why organizational scientists care about Moneyball.. Human Resource Management, 45(1), 127-131.
“Management is a process of planning, organisation, command, coordination, and control” (Morgan 2006, p.18). Rational organisation design is a bureaucratic method of management which emphasizes efficiency to achieve the end goal and the management of multiple companies have taken upon this system. Figures such as Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford have both shown and laid a path way for Rational Organisation which has become known as Taylorism and Fordism. The design has received criticism and both Taylor and Ford have been portrayed as villains with Taylor being called “enemy of the working man” (Morgan 2006, p.23) as the system dehumanised workers by taking all of the thought and skill from them and giving it to the managers this is because the tasks given were simple and repetitive. As staff needed little training they became an easily replaceable asset and thus more machine than human.
In the article entitled “The Human Side of Enterprise” by Douglas Murray McGregor , McGregor stated that industry has fundamental know how to utilize physical and technology science. The conventional view of management consisted of three propositions which are called Theory X (Shafritz & Hyde,2012).
Wren. (2005). The History of Management Thought (5th ed.). Danvers, MA: Wiley & Sons. (Original work published 1976)
Since the end of the 19th century, when factory manufacturing became widespread and the size of organisations increased, people have been looking for ways to motivate employees and improve productivity. A need for management ideas arise which lead to classical contributors such as Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol generating management theories such as Taylor’ Scientific Management and Fayol’s Administrative Management. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the Hawthorne studies were conducted where Elton Mayo was the predominate figure and contributed to the Behavioural viewpoint. This brought about a Human Relations Movement which included Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y approach. Similarities and differences can be found between the theories due to the relevant time period they were implemented, the motives or goal of the theory and how they view organisations. However the use of contingency theory can help negate the dissimilarities which occur as it allows the relevant elements from each theory to be applied to specific situations.
Holloman, C. (1974), “What McGregor Really Said”, Business Horizons, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 17 Issue 6, p. 87 – 92. Karlöf, B. & Lövingsson, H. (2005), The A to Z of Management Concepts and Models, Thorogood, London. Kermally, S. (2005), Gurus in People Management, Thorogood, Sydney.
Through the symbolic interaction theory, one can argue that the reason the Middle
Conte, J., Landy, F. (2010). Work in the 21 Century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (3rd ed). USA: Wiley and Blackwell Publishings
In the 1960’s, Douglas McGregor devised Theory X and Theory Y claiming that in Theory X, people are mostly lazy, dislike work and avoid accountability while Theory Y proclaims that humans are creative individuals that seek responsibility and are be self-directed (Hill, 174-175). Alexander Hill offers a different approach and suggests the theory of Covenantal Management defined by dignity, reciprocity, servant leadership and gift recognition. Through this kind of theory, work is a shared mission between employee and employer in a community in which individuals proudly commit themselves to being on the same team (Hill 179-185). It is this kind of attitude that creates business
Hawthorne Studies have been subjected to many criticisms. Yet, the evolvement of many of the management theories today would not have come about without the experiments done by Elton Mayo. This essay will cover the various aspects of management that has been refined through the findings of the tests conducted and how improvements were made to aid in the development of organisational behaviour. It will also discuss the various studies and will show how these theories implement Hawthorne studies as the foundation and the basis of the human relations movement. It will also investigate the criticisms that arise within it.
Levy, Paul E. Industrial Organizational Psychology. New York: Worth, 2013. Print. The. Laird, Dugan, Sharon S. Naquin, and Elwood F. Holton.
Classical management theories which are based on the contributions made by scholars like Henri Fayol, Fredrick Taylor and Max Weber, are often viewed as highly structured, hierarchical, emphasis on strict division of labour and centralisation of power (Miller, 2012),. Although these theories have taken inspiration from post industrial revolution, and were mostly prevalent in the early twentieth century, we can still see trace...
This paper, will discuss scholarly views on the nature and types of theory; compare and contrast some views of what constitutes a theory, differentiate theory from related concepts, such as hypothesis, paradigm, model, and concept. The paper also, will review scholarly literature on the relationship between theory and research and the ways research (quantitative and qualitative) can contribute to theory. Moreover, the paper will discuss various ways research can contribute to theory; and try to explain how the theory adds or may add to our understanding of management field. Finally, this paper will discuss and analyze literatures on two areas of controversy or unanswered questions related to the theory.