The X and Y of Management

"Nothing is black or white, they are just different shades of grey"

Being naïve can be a virtue of merits. We start learning from A, B, C but we start actualising from X & Y.

Practising McGregor’s stipulations of X and Y was everybody around me, may be myself as well.

Theory of ‘The Theory’:

The beauty of the theory is that it doesn't preach. It lets you choose your own right and wrong. The feature to customize the theory as per your assumptions, makes it all the more appealing. The virtue of seeing the shades of grey is invaluable to a manager.

Theory X

Theory X assumes that employees are naturally unmotivated and dislike working, and this encourages an authoritarian style of management. According to this view, management must actively intervene to get things done.

Theory Y

Theory Y expounds a participative style of management that is decentralized. It assumes that employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility.

Similarly the workers can be clubbed into the two categories of lazy and non lazy workers. Hence the combinations so obtained are:

1) X manager lazy worker.

2) Y manager lazy worker.

3) X manager non lazy worker.

4) Y manager non lazy worker.

The best combination from the above mentioned is clearly the one where manager is motivating(Y) and the workers are non lazy. It's a recipe for innovation and excellence.

But what if the workers are lazy? Would you prefer being a manager who is an authoritarian and keeps the variables that might lead to discrepancy in check or would you prefer a more liberal environment for work? The choice is yours to make.

Parents and teachers have set examples of balancing between the two shades in order to get the maximum out of their children. Human behavior is full of complexities and hence the subjective nature of the matter requires improvisation.

Generally larger organisations with huge labor force prefer X style of management. It's easier to set process and make the masses follow it. The probability of error is reduced but so is the opportunity for innovation. On the other side of spectrum the new start-up and small scale companies prefer to follow Y style of management to promote innovation and individuality. The decentralization of management in such cases have produced great results.

Hence in my opinion, the theory requires a deeper understanding and further improvisation by managers in order to customize their approach for specific cases in order to extract the best from their employees.