Organizational Behavior Analysis

Congratulations on coming to the end of the course. I wanted to make sure you all were familiar with McGregor and others that have written about negative leaders. Along with Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor also realized the need for humanistic leadership. He argued that management style is imperative to the success of every organization. He formulated the Theory X and Theory Y Management Theory. He determined that there are two different types of leaders. The Theory X leader assumes that subordinates are lazy and disloyal. The Theory Y leader thinks people want to be productive and enjoy their work (McGregor, 1960). The Theory X leader is authoritarian. He or she believes effective leadership includes control over the employees. The leader assumes that unless the supervisors watch and carefully monitor employees, productivity will suffer. The Theory X leader does not listen to input from his or her subordinates and does not have the desire to allow for participation in the leadership process (McGregor, 1960). This type of leader is concerned with tasks. The mission of this leader is task accomplishment, without regard to the needs of the workers. The Theory X leader is not concerned with the personal opinions or attitudes of those who report to him. His assumptions are harmful and detrimental to the relationship he has with the subordinates.

The result of the Theory X leader’s assumption is the behavior he exhibits towards the subordinates. His attitude would be that of distrust and control. He would assume the employees are incapable of production, so he would closely supervise all aspects of the job. He would be unable to delegate or seek information from the followers. The impact of the Theory X leader is negative for the follower. Employees would know that their boss did not trust them. The relationship between the leader and followers would be poor, resulting in poor morale for the organization. The ultimate result would be low retention due to employees seeking an organization with a more humanistic and positive approach. The Theory Y leader is the opposite of the Theory X leader (McGregor, 1960). This leader assumes that his subordinates are creative, motivated, and loyal workers. He allows for their participation in leadership decisions and welcomes their opinions. He is not an authoritarian, but rather a facilitator to assist in production (McGregor, 1960). A description of the working environment with a Theory Y leader is democratic and participatory.

The Theory Y leader would behave very differently from the Theory X leader. Theory Y leaders would exhibit trust and faith in the followers. He or she would allow employees to work under less scrutiny and with more freedom. The Theory Y leader delegates authority, and allows for the personal growth of subordinates. The result of Theory Y leadership is positive. Theory Y leaders encourage the individual growth of the employee and allow the followers to develop themselves. The employees can enjoy personal security and their self-image will increase through the successes they create within the organization. Retention rates also remain high, because the employees feel valued by their leader. Theory Y leaders are not weak or lacking power (McGregor, 1960). Theory Y leaders retain the power to make decisions and delegate their authority but allow opinions to be expressed by subordinates during the process. Theory Y leaders assume the best of their employees, therefore allowing everyone to benefit from a trusting and mutually beneficial relationship.

Maslow wrote extensively about McGregor’s theories, describing the Theory X leader as assuming employees only work because they have to, or an external need forces them to work. The Theory Y leader assumes that subordinates work out of the desire to be productive and successful members of society (Maslow, 1998). McGregor’s categories were not intended as leadership styles. His theories described leader/subordinate interactions based on the assumptions of the leader about the subordinate. His categories describe assumptions made by the leaders of individual employees and the group as a whole. These assumptions dictate how that leader chooses to lead. The assumptions are at the center of the leader’s attitude and describe the outlook the leader has on the employees’ ability to produce. McGregor argued that the success of every organization is dependent upon the ability to develop their human capital. The foundation of his ideas and theory was that employees constitute the strategic advantage of the organization (McGregor, 1960). Maslow, McGregor, and Mayo, along with other theorists, concluded that leaders must realize the worker is a human being. This Modernism Model of Management combined the human factor of the leaders and the subordinates with the ideas of efficiency so strongly advocated by Fayol and Taylor. The result is that many organizations realize today that human capital is a vital aspect of the value of the company. This behavior school of thought realized that people perform the work of an organization (Wren, 2005).

Maslow, A. (Kaplan, K. (Ed.)) (1998). Maslow on Management. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

McGregor, D. (1960 and 2005). The Human Side of Enterprise (Annotated Edition). New York: John Wiley and Sons.

McGraw Hill. Wren, D. (2005). The Evolution of Management Thought. New York: John Wiley and Sons