A Brief Introduction to Theory X and Y

A Brief Introduction to Theory X and Y McGregor related employee motivation to the style of management. He categorized employee behavior into two types - Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X employees are categorized as lazy and unmotivated and only worked when forced to and never worked hard. By contrast Theory Y employees seemed to like work, were eager to please and worked hard on their own initiative. McGregor suggested that employee behavior was …

…its human resources, and accepts the knowledge given by social science researchers and displayed in Theory Y assumptions, then it can invest time, money and effort in developing improved applications of the theory. McGregor realizes that some of the theories he has put forward are unrealizable in practice, but wants managers to put into operation the basic assumption that: staff will contribute more to the organization if they are treated as responsible and valued employees.