Motivation theory Essay

These two theories, Theory X and Theory Y were proposed by Douglas McGregor in the 1960’s and are basically these theories are related to motivation and they describe different types of attitudes towards workforce motivation. The creator of this theory believes that every organization adopts one of the two theories. According to Theory X, it is assumed that the employees working in the organization are lazy as they dislike work and so they avoid work and due to this they need close supervision control of their leader and due to this the structure of the hierarchy is narrow. Another important thing about this theory is that employees are less ambitious and so they need various incentives to make them work and they have to be forced to do their work. People need to be directed and controlled as they themselves are not eager to take accountability. Theory X can be used in organizations where employees work in the areas of mass manufacturing or production where the management style used is authoritarian. A mistake of Theory X is that it is likely to cause diseconomies of scale to occur in organizations especially those that are large in size. Theory Y is somewhat opposite to theory X and according to Theory Y, it is believed that the employees are self-motivated and they do not need to be controlled to make them do work as they believe that work is natural and they are against control and punishments to be used to make the people work. However, job satisfaction plays a vital role and ensures commitment of the employees towards the organization and they learn to accept responsibility unlike theory X. The creativity in the employees make them accomplish their goals and solve problems and this theory can be adopted by professionals and the management style used is participative. Work Cited 12Manage. (n. d. ). Theory X Theory Y (McGregor). May 7th, 2009. Retrieved from: