Theory Y By Douglas Mcgregor: Theory X And Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y by Douglas McGregor, summarizes a difference between management styles in that Theory X is an authoritarian style which assumes employees are naturally unmotivated, and Theory Y is a participative style and assumes that employees are self-motivated and enjoy working with greater responsibility (Mindtools, n.d.). In my workplace, I am more partial to Theory Y. I think that unless personally observed, managers should not just assume that otherwise mature, responsible adults trying to make a living, are more inclined to avoid work and must be directed in all activities. Even if people are just there to make a living and don’t really care about what they are doing, I would imagine that they’d still want to put forth effort to make sure that the work is done right. If for nothing else, at least to avoid exposing …show more content…
I like the idea of cultivating balance in human psychology and not just focusing on fixing broken people. We are all chasing happiness by wanting things outside of ourselves. Once we get the thing that we think will make us happy the cycle just repeats and we want something else, so we’re unhappy again. Opposites dominate our existence; therefore, if we pursue happiness we are bound to encounter sadness. It all boils down to balance; not concerning ourselves with too much of one or the other while still recognizing that one cannot exist without the other. As with anything in life, what you focus on the most just becomes bigger, therefore, if we are always putting our attention on the problems, we end up always trying to fix things that are broken instead of recognizing and investing in building the good things in