Theory X & Y.docx

Theory X assumes that all people are lazy and that they will avoid work and responsibility if they can. Consequently, they will have to be closely supervised, controlled and told what to do. Furthermore, they will have to be both threatened with losing their job and rewarded with monetary incentives such as pay rise or bonuses. Finally, this theory believes that people aren’t capable of taking responsibility for themselves so they have to be looked after, and it is applicable to factory workers in large-scale manufacturing. Theory Y, on the other hand, assumes that people have psychological need for work, and if they are given the right conditions, such as job security and financial rewards, they will be more creative, ambitious and self-motivated just by satisfaction of doing good job. Contrary to Theory X, Theory Y is more applicable to skilled professionals such as scientists, programmers and engineers. To conclude, we can see that these two theories are very different, but they are both based on Maslows’s hierarchy of needs. While Theory X relates to basic needs, such as financial security, Theory Y relates to ‘higher order’ needs (e.g. self esteem).