Douglas McGregor (1906-1964) was an industrial management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960's. He was also at one time, the president of Antioch College in Ohio. McGregor believed that the management thinking concepts that were being used at the time were put into place long ago to meet the needs of a more feudal society. In his time, Douglas McGregor felt that the world was changing, and that it was time for new thinking. His ideas about managerial behavior had a great effect on management thinking and practice.

Some of McGregors ideas were strongly influenced in part by Abraham Maslow's need satisfaction model of motivation. His hierarchy of needs is based on the idea that motivation comes from need. "Needs provide the driving force motivating behavior and general orientation. Maslow's ideas suggested that worker disaffection with work was due-not to something intrinsic to workers, but due to poor job design, managerial behavior and too few opportunities for job satisfaction." (www.newgrange). Maslow's hierarchy of needs showed the basic needs to be; physiological needs (basic survival needs including food, water, and shelter), and t

Theory Y is based on more humanistic values. It offers the following assumptions. The average person enjoys work. Work (the expenditure of physical and mental effort) is as natural as play or rest. It also assumes, the average person naturally works toward goals in which he or she has committed themselves to. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only ways to bring about effort towards organizational goals. The depth of a workers commitment to goals depends on the perceived rewards for achieving them. The most important rewards are those of self-respect and personal improvement. It assumes that under certain conditions, the average human being not only accepts responsibility, but seeks it as well. Workers are imaginative, creative, intellectual, and clever. "Rather than emphasize authority, direction, and close supervision, Theory Y emphasizes a relatively free managerial atmosphere in which workers are free to set objectives, be creative, be flexible, and go beyond the goals set by management. A key technique in meeting these objectives is empowerment. Empowerment gives employees both the right to make decisions and the tools to implement those decisions." ( Nickels,315).

Theory X and Theory Y - Traditional management styles were based on one of two major assumptions: 1. Workers are basically lazy and must be directed, threatened and negatively motivated (Theory X) or 2. Workers are basically goal oriented and self-motivated. It is right to offer them incentives and freedom (Theory Y). Both state that managers are responsible for organizing the elements of the production process, getting workers to cooperate with eachother and stay focused on that organizations particular goals. The trouble is that no organization that we know of is really strictly one or the other. It's mostly the individual leaders who work on behalf of the organization that will practice either X or Y management. And even still to break it down further, we need to look at the individuals that the managers are managing. What works best for one worker in a group may not work at all for another. And, what motivates one of your employees may be totally different than what motivates the others. There are even managers out there who do not want the responsibility of making crucial decisions and would prefer to be told what to do. All of these assorted types of people can be working under the same roof.

Theory Y (also sometimes referred to as "participative") is certainly the more popular view of the relationship in the workplace between managers and workers. The trend in the United States business world is more toward this theory than to X. It works because it allows for a more comfortable work environment where people are not afraid to express themselves and their ideas to authority figures. Theory Y is so applicable today because it secures genuine commitment & efficiency. Theory Y is far more in tune with today's workers and today's work environment than Theory X . "In McGregors mind, the ability to help employees to discover goals consistent with those of the organization is the essence of leadership. When a genuine commitment to these objectives is secured, said McGregor, "supervision c

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