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The purpose of this paper is to critique Douglas McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise, including other expert perspectives and its relevance in today’s organizations. Douglas McGregor’s opening statement in The Human Side of Enterprise, implies that industry in the 1950’s has been able to successfully utilize physical science and technology for the benefit of mankind, but has yet to incorporate the social sciences to positively affect the human organizations (Natemeyer & McMahon, 2001). In 1957, McGregor suggested that the social sciences may possibly be as cutting edge to human organizations as atomic energy was to the physical sciences (Natemeyer & McMahon, 2001). Based on his academic background in psychology, coupled with his profession experiences in multiple facets of industry, McGregor was in a position to propose a ground breaking concept of management in the workplace. According to a book review by Eileen Kelly (2000), McGregor left an indelible impression of the American business landscape and on management thought with his Theory X and Theory Y. Interestingly enough, the aforementioned book review was done on a book called Douglas McGregor, Revisited: Managing the Human Side of the Enterprise that was published in 2000, which highlights the fact that McGregor’s work is still relevant and worth revisiting and reviewing over forty years after it was published.
In order to understand McGregor’s proposed theory to management that incorporates the social sciences, called Theory Y, it is imperative to understand what he refers to as the conventional view, or “Theory X”. McGregor explained that Theory X’s conventional managerial assumptions are that employees are lazy, incapable of self-direction and autonomous wo...
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Jones, G. (2008, Jan. 1). Biography of Douglas McGregor. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2011, from managers-net.com: http://www.managers-net.com/Biography/mcgregor.html
Kelly, E. P. (2000). Douglas McGregor, revisited: Managing the human side of the enterprise. Academy of Management Executive,14(3), 143-145. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
Kopelman, R. E., Prottas, D. J., & Davis, A. L. (2008). Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Y: Toward a construct-valid measure. Journal of Managerial Issues, XX(2), 255-271. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
Natemeyer, W.E., & McMahon, J. T. (2001). Classics of organizational behavior (3rd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press Inc..
Schrage, M. (2000). The things about management that will never change. Across the Board, 37(7), 67-69. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com
Also Qantas was running with an autocratic leadership style meaning autocratic managers like to make all the important decisions and closely supervise and control workers. Managers do not trust workers and simply give orders (one-way communication) that they expect to be obeyed. This approach derives from the views of Taylor as to how to motivate workers and relates to McGregor’s theory X view of workers. This approach has limitations but it can be effective in certain situations.
Aamodt, M.G. (2010). Industrial / Organizational Psychology: An Applied Approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Brockner, J., & J, F. F. (2006). Commentary on "Radical HRM innovation and competitive advantage: the Moneyball story": why organizational scientists care about Moneyball.. Human Resource Management, 45(1), 127-131.
Even though their co-incidence on this point is not explicit but one can infer an implicit similar pattern in their theories
In today’s advanced technological workplace, companies are looking into several new management styles and concepts. Among them is a theory called sociotechnical systems (STS). This is a theory that has been around for about 50 years and is still being attempted for use today. Many managers along with one member of the STS founding team, Fred Emery, argue that STS is obsolete; other managers have implemented STS with great success. With this new style of management practice, several changes will have to take place. These changes along with several examples of both positive and negative effects will be examined throughout this essay.
Holloman, C. (1974), “What McGregor Really Said”, Business Horizons, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 17 Issue 6, p. 87 – 92. Karlöf, B. & Lövingsson, H. (2005), The A to Z of Management Concepts and Models, Thorogood, London. Kermally, S. (2005), Gurus in People Management, Thorogood, Sydney.
Through the symbolic interaction theory, one can argue that the reason the Middle
Wren. (2005). The History of Management Thought (5th ed.). Danvers, MA: Wiley & Sons. (Original work published 1976)
In the 1960’s, Douglas McGregor devised Theory X and Theory Y claiming that in Theory X, people are mostly lazy, dislike work and avoid accountability while Theory Y proclaims that humans are creative individuals that seek responsibility and are be self-directed (Hill, 174-175). Alexander Hill offers a different approach and suggests the theory of Covenantal Management defined by dignity, reciprocity, servant leadership and gift recognition. Through this kind of theory, work is a shared mission between employee and employer in a community in which individuals proudly commit themselves to being on the same team (Hill 179-185). It is this kind of attitude that creates business
Conte, J., Landy, F. (2010). Work in the 21 Century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (3rd ed). USA: Wiley and Blackwell Publishings
Levy, Paul E. Industrial Organizational Psychology. New York: Worth, 2013. Print. The. Laird, Dugan, Sharon S. Naquin, and Elwood F. Holton.
“Management is a process of planning, organisation, command, coordination, and control” (Morgan 2006, p.18). Rational organisation design is a bureaucratic method of management which emphasizes efficiency to achieve the end goal and the management of multiple companies have taken upon this system. Figures such as Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford have both shown and laid a path way for Rational Organisation which has become known as Taylorism and Fordism. The design has received criticism and both Taylor and Ford have been portrayed as villains with Taylor being called “enemy of the working man” (Morgan 2006, p.23) as the system dehumanised workers by taking all of the thought and skill from them and giving it to the managers this is because the tasks given were simple and repetitive. As staff needed little training they became an easily replaceable asset and thus more machine than human.
Hawthorne Studies have been subjected to many criticisms. Yet, the evolvement of many of the management theories today would not have come about without the experiments done by Elton Mayo. This essay will cover the various aspects of management that has been refined through the findings of the tests conducted and how improvements were made to aid in the development of organisational behaviour. It will also discuss the various studies and will show how these theories implement Hawthorne studies as the foundation and the basis of the human relations movement. It will also investigate the criticisms that arise within it.
This paper, will discuss scholarly views on the nature and types of theory; compare and contrast some views of what constitutes a theory, differentiate theory from related concepts, such as hypothesis, paradigm, model, and concept. The paper also, will review scholarly literature on the relationship between theory and research and the ways research (quantitative and qualitative) can contribute to theory. Moreover, the paper will discuss various ways research can contribute to theory; and try to explain how the theory adds or may add to our understanding of management field. Finally, this paper will discuss and analyze literatures on two areas of controversy or unanswered questions related to the theory.
Classical management theories which are based on the contributions made by scholars like Henri Fayol, Fredrick Taylor and Max Weber, are often viewed as highly structured, hierarchical, emphasis on strict division of labour and centralisation of power (Miller, 2012),. Although these theories have taken inspiration from post industrial revolution, and were mostly prevalent in the early twentieth century, we can still see trace...