theory x and theory y In the human side of enterprise, Douglas McGregor outlined two opposing thories of work and motivation. What he calls Theory X is the traditional approach to workers and working which assumes that people are lazy and dislike work, and that they have to be both threatened (for example,with losing their job) and rewared. It assumes that most people are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and have to be looked after.Theory Y, on the contrary, assumes that people have a psychological need to work and want achievement and responsibility.
Many people assume that Thory Y is more'progressive' and an advance on Theory X, but later theorists argued that it makes much greater demands on both workers and managers than McGregor realized. Abraham Maslow, for example, spent a year studying a Californaia company that used Theory Y, and conclued that its demands for responsibility and achievement are excessive for many people. He pointed out that there are always weak and vulnerable people, with little self-discipline, who need protection against the burden of responsibility.Even strong and healthy people need the security of ordwe and direction. Managers cannot simply substitute Theory Y for Theory X. They have to replace the security provided by Theory X with a different structure of security and certainty