Whether to Axe(X) or Y??

Hello everyone, so how are you feeling after the last session? I hope the E’s didn’t trouble you much. Well I am back to load your brain a little more. We will learn about one more basic thing of organization ‘maalik aur gulam ka’ relation…..joking not exactly that but yes, we will learn about one of the most important relation Boss and the subordinate. This is the microfiber common to any organization irrespective of its size.

Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management proposed Theory X and Theory Y in the 1960s that have been used in human resource management, organizational behavior, organizational communication and organizational development. Wait; don’t be scared we will understand this theory in a very lucid manner thanks to Prof. Mandi’s method of teaching.

Broadly workers can be classified as:

· Good Workers (GW): Who take initiatives to complete the job and who are genuinely interested in working for company.

·   Bad Workers (BW): Who have to force to complete jobs, they have no interest whatsoever in the work.

Similarly, managers can be classified as:

· Manager X / Hopeless Managers: These managers in general have a perception that employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. In short, these managers have an attitude that every worker is a Bad Worker and should be dealt with close supervision and comprehensive systems of controls developed.

·  Manager Y / Hopeful Manager: These managers have a perception that employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their work duties. They possess the ability for creative problem solving, but their talents are underused in most organizations. Given the proper conditions, theory Y managers believe that employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility and to exercise self-control and self-direction in accomplishing objectives to which they are committed. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation.

Every organization has a mix of both types of managers as well as workers. Let’s see what happens when they interact. We will take all the possible cases.

Quadrant I: In this scenario, the manager gives the required amount of freedom to the workers. The workers enjoy the job as well as the freedoms and opportunities provided to them. The productivity and motivation level of workers remain high. In short the atmosphere in the office remains conducive for working.

Quadrant II: This is a situation where opposite poles are pushed together, which results in an unstable combination. Here the worker is keen to showcase his abilities by working hard. But the manager thinks that the worker has some selfish interests and is just portraying to be interested. The manager perceives that in order to get the maximum output of employees, they should be dealt with force and austerity. This disheartens the workers and infuriates them making them resentful. Soon the productivity decreases.

Quadrant III: This is as abysmal as it sounds, the manager who is skeptical about the interests of all workers and behaves like a task manager. Workers on the other hand are least bothered about the job, organization. They have their own set of reasons as to why they linger in the organization. In this situation, both try to pull the things in their own style of operation leading to drastic reduction in productivity and tensions across the organization. This is the worst kind of situation for any organization.

Quadrant IV: Here the worker is not interested in the jobs or organization. The manager however is interested in the productivity of the organization. If the manager handles the situation tactfully the productivity generally doesn’t get hampered much.

On a personal note, I have experienced situations wherein I have worked for managers who were like angels. These managers know how to get the best of every employee and generally their teams fare nicely in terms of productivity. Also, not to mention the happiness one gets in the office working.

I have worked for managers who used to behave like a tyrant. They would listen to everything with a salt of suspicion and would leave no stone unturned to make the working hours in office a hell. In such situations the morale of the whole team soon plummets. The team may fare well in terms of productivity, but soon the side effects would show up. This situation results in attrition. As has been said by Mr. Azim Premji as well “People leave managers, not companies”, for people managers matter more than company.

Also, in real world situations the condition is always a mix of more than one type. The workers generally have some proportion of good and bad among them. Managers also have shades of both personalities. It is how they act in general and how they behave with the workers defines the outcome. This also decides the attrition for a company.

I know this one had too much of theory. Well I promise the next would be fun to learn.