Motivation, McGregor, and Management

When I'm asked about the topic of employee motivation, I describe the nature of work and human nature and share my belief that people don't come to work so that they can fail. While this may seem odd, I have worked with managers and leaders who don't fully believe this statement. Applying Douglas McGregor's theory of motivation, these folks belong to the Theory X camp which asserts that the average worker dislikes work and will avoid it at any price. Theory X managers aren't positive thinkers. Based on my life experiences, I have reason to believe in Theory Y and my perspective is that that no one wakes up saying, "Gosh, I hope to fail miserably today," or "Let's hope I perform with overwhelming mediocrity." Everyone wants happiness, success and meaning in their lives.

"If we lived in a perfect world, there would not be a need for managers."
- Bryce's Law

"Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere."
- Ronald Reagan (1986)

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion about Theories X, Y, and Z in management; whereas "Theory X" is autocratic, "Theory Y" is more of a "carrot and stick" mentality and "Theory Z" promotes individual participation. Remarkably, despite the many years of promoting the rights of the worker, today we primarily live in a Theory X world. Employees are told what to do and when to do it, without any interest in their input. Today, this is commonly referred to as "micromanagement." With this approach, even though the work will get done eventually, there is no company loyalty from the worker, mistakes are made and quality suffers, and productivity slides since there is no personal sense of pride by the employee. In other words, the company works, but certainly not like a well-oiled machine.

The people that run many non-profit groups have the best intentions, but they seldom know how to actually manage. Sadly, some people get involved with such organizations to satisfy a petty power trip they are on. Consequently, they have little regard for organization and adherence to existing policies and rules. Instead, they try to micromanage everything. People, particularly volunteers, have a natural aversion to micromanagement and quickly lose interest in their work.

Some of the most productive organizations are those where management succeeded in aligning the individual workers with the running of the company. While management is still in control, they have stimulated employee interests by encouraging their participation and feedback.

Even in this model, management still has some top-down responsibilities, including:

1. Delegate - prioritize and assign tasks to qualified employees.
2. Control work environment - minimize staff interferences and provide a suitable workplace to operate with the proper tools to perform the work.
3. Review progress - study employee reports and take corrective action where necessary.

Determining the current situation of the organization, the current status of the employees, and the organizational cultures are just a few additional responsibilities of a leader. Changes in cultural and organizational structures have caused every organization to change their management styles every now and then. Some prefer to use the authoritarian style which focuses on the concept of teamwork and empowerment of employees and there are some who uses the managerial style which focuses on technical aspects of the leader who controls all the activities within the organization.