Thought of the Day - Theory X Vs Theory Y

In management there are two theories of employee motivation; Theory X posits that employees don't like work, will avoid it where possible and must be driven to it. Theory Y on the other hand is based on the assumption that work can be satisfying and employees will be self-motivated to work. While it initially appears that these theories are all to do with employees internal motivation, it has also been suggested that whether a boss manages to Theory X or Theory Y determines how the employees behave. I tend to subscribe to the latter idea, if you manage your employees as if they will do everything in their power to avoid work that is how they will behave. If on the other hand you manage your employees by giving them responsibility and trusting them that is how they will behave.

It is interesting to see how people behave when managers aren't around, while not being able to control for things like; workload, task allocation and clarity of goals, how employees behave in a management vacuum should indicate whether the culture of a company is Theory X or Y. If the employees have a; "while they cat's away" attitude and avoid work you can safely guess that there is a Theory X culture. If on the other hand the employees treat it as; "business as usual" and work as they would if the manager was there you can assume it is a Theory Y workplace.

This is another reason that i think ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) is the way forward. Under that culture it doesn't matter where the manager (or infact the employee) physically is, there is work to be done and it either gets done or it doesn't. People won't come into the office just to show up, they aren't just there to look busy while the manager is there and slack off when he/she isn't. In ROWE on the other hand there are specific tasks that get done, the manager can monitor them in or out of the office, the employee can complete them in or out of the office.

In the end, i think seeing how employees behave when they aren't around is an interesting insight that most managers are unlikely to see. Unless of course they resort to spying, in which case it would be safe to assume they are Theory X.