Douglas McGregor created the labels Theory X and Theory Y to capture two views of human motivation. The Theory X view assumes that employees must be monitored and controlled. The Theory Y view assumes that employees work hard to accomplish important social and personal needs. McGregor argued that the assumptions managers make about motivation can become self-fulfilling.
In a 1957 article and 1960 book entitled The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas M. McGregor described a basic tension in how managers and business scholars view the motivation of employees: Are they lazy, driven by money, needing to be tightly controlled and monitored? Or are they engaged, committed and interested in fulfilling themselves through work by contributing to their firm and society?
McGregor argued that a good deal of managerial practice was based on the former view, which he labeled as ‘Theory X’. The assumptions of Theory X were that management is responsible for organizing and...
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Larrick, R.P., Feiler, D.C. (2016). Theory X and Theory Y: HR Strategy. In: Augier, M., Teece, D. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_450-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_450-1
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