A long time co-worker and friend used to talk about the only thing he remembered from graduate school was the X,Y theory of human management. Theory X -- management believes that employees are lazy, dislike work, and need to be closely watched and controlled. Theory Y -- management trusts and assumes that employees are self-motivated, exercise self-control, and possess the ability for creative problem solving. My friend was very much a proponent of Theory Y and he was also the one (mentioned in an earlier blog) that made managing his division look so easy that others thought that it ran itself.
Douglas McGregor, from the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960's developed these theories of human motivation and they remain (though modified somewhat) the guiding principle of positive approaches to management, organizational development, and to improving organizational culture. McGregor is also the reason that the term "human resources" is used today instead of personnel -- the idea that people were assets was unheard of before him. Theory Z, later developed by William Ouchi, believes that workers can be trusted, so long as management can be trusted to support them and look out for their well being.
It was always my belief that if you hired good, talented people and treated them well, they would perform well for you. If you had employees you needed to watch and control, then you probably hired the wrong people. I still believe that -- I think that rather than being progressive in our management thinking, we have regressed in the past decade-- no one trusts anyone. It is very hard to have healthy workplaces without trust going both ways.
If one researches the best companies, they have strong human resource departments and they also follow some form of Theory Y and Z management practices. They know that in order to attract talented employees with valuable, out of the box thinking, and who produce good work products, they need happy, healthy employees, who feel appreciated and valued. Think Google, SAS and more locally, Nugget Markets.
Perhaps our governmental institutions need to re-evaluate their management beliefs and begin to re-institute management practices that are supportive of a productive, happy, healthy and creative work force. Then workers would not need to be watched and controlled so much (easy stuff), and there would be more time for workers and leaders to spend on problem solving (the hard stuff).
1 comment:
XYZ : Y and Z require that Management embrace these priciples in Mission statement and business plan and that senior and middle managers are accountable for creating and maintaining a work culture that embraces and rewards successful participation.
Where does the pathway start?
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