Human side of organizational behaviour:

Are you 'X'or'Y' type of Manager

Dr. K. Kuhathasan-CEO: Cenlead

In the year 1960, Prof. Douglas Mcgregor, of the School of Industrial Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology presented to the Management world an interesting publication, "The human side of enterprise."

Work is a source of satisfaction. People will exercise self-direction and self-control in their work. Under proper conditions, people will accept responsibility and work for the organization. There is a positive correlationship between the managerial attitude of genuine concern for the welfare of subordinates on the one hand and morale and productivity on the other.

In this publication, he classified Managers into two broad groups 'X' and 'Y' according to their way and style of management. Even in this era of communication revolution, his theory holds good and managers are trying to adopt and apply his 'Y' theory of management. The 'Y' theory of management is considered to be "people - centred Management."

According to his 'X' theory

* Average people have an inherent dislike for work and will avoid work, whenever possible.

* Because of this human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment to get them to put forth an adequate effort towards the achievement of organizational objectives.

On the other hand, the 'Y' type of managers adopt the following different style of management.

* Physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest. The average human being does not inherently dislike work. Work may be a source of satisfaction.

* External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing about effort towards organizational objectives. People will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which they are committed.

* Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement. The most significant of such rewards, the satisfaction of ego and self-actualization needs, can be direct products of effort directed towards organizational objectives.

* The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but to seek responsibility.

* Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.

Managerial climate

Theory 'X' leads naturally to an emphasis on the tactics of control to procedures and techniques for telling people what to do, for determining whether they are doing it, and for administering rewards and punishments. Underlying assumption is that people must be made to do what is necessary for the success of the enterprise. Attention is naturally directed to the techniques of direction and control.

Theory Y, on the other hand, leads to a preoccupation with the nature of positive relationships. Creation of an environment which will encourage commitment to organizational objectives and which will provide opportunities for the maximum exercise of initiative, ingenuity, and self-direction in achieving them.

Research studies of the superior - subordinate relationship have pointed to a number of variables in the behaviour and attitude of the superior which correlate both with high productivity and with the morale of subordinates. Many of these have to do with the subordinate's expectation that he will receive a fair break in attempting to achieve his own goals.

The studies by the staff of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, for example, have stressed "employee - centered supervision." They find a positive correlationship between this managerial attitude of genuine concern for the welfare of subordinates on the one hand and morale and productivity on the other.

Confidence

These characteristics of daily behaviour attitude to which subordinates respond with such sensitivity do not spring from the air. They are manifestations of the superior's conception of the managerial job and his assumptions about human nature.

Consider a manager who holds people in relatively low esteem. He sees himself as a member of a small elite endowed with unusual capacities, and the capacity of other people as rather limited. He believes also that most people are inherently lazy, prefer to be taken care of, desire strong leadership. He sees them as prepared to take advantage of the employment relationship unless they are closely controlled and firmly directed. In short, he holds to Theory X.

Climate of the relationship

Many subtle behavioural manifestations of managerial attitude create, what is often referred to as, the psychological "climate" of the relationship.

Granted that the subordinate's dependence is far less in the employment relationship, it remains true that his ability to achieve his goals is materially affected by the attitudes of his superiors.

He will make constant use of his ability by the attitudes of his superiors. He will make constant use of his ability to perceive the climate of the relationship in forming judgments about the opportunities for achieving his goals.

The climate is more significant than the type of leadership or the personal "style" of the superior. The boss can be autocratic or democratic, warm and outgoing or remote and introverted, easy or tough, but these personal characteristics are of less significance than the deeper attitudes to which his subordinates respond.

Mutual confidence

In his study Douglas Mcgregor concludes that:

* The inadequacy of the conventional principles of unity of command and of equality of authority and responsibility must be recognized. Not only are these principles unrealistic in the modern industrial corporation, they are the source of many of the difficulties we are trying to correct. They are logically necessary within the context of Theory X, but contradictory to Theory Y.

* The primary task of any staff group is that of providing specialized help to all levels of management, not just to the level at which the group reports.

* The proper role of the staff member is that of the professional vis-a-vis his clients. The genuinely competent professional recognizes (a) that help is always defined by the recipient and (b) that he can neither fulfil his responsibilities to the organization nor maintain proper ethical standards of conduct if he is placed in a position which involves conflicting obligations to his managerial "clients."

* The central principle of managerial control is the principle of self-control. This principle severely limits both staff and line use of data and information collected for control purpose as well as the so-called coordinative activities of staff groups. If the principle of self-control is violated, the staff inevitably becomes involved in conflicting obligations, and in addition is required to occupy the incompatible roles of professional helper and policeman.