McGregor’s Theory X / Y in the context of Recruitment

As per McGregor’s theorizing, there are two diametrically different types of people at work which he recognized as Theory X and Theory Y (Lawter et al, 2015).

The Theory X discusses that the people are often averse to working and are lacking ambition and responsibility towards their job roles, thereby requiring close supervision and rigid controls to prevent the passiveness of employees (Gannon and Boguszak, 2013).

This incapacity of employees would lead the management to provide detailed instructions and to reduce the scope of work assigned to each employee to match their limited capabilities. As such, McGregor (1957) identified the aforesaid as the most pessimistic view of human nature which needs continuous supervision to get a job done.

In contradiction to the Theory X, McGregor proposed an alternative approach which is identified as Theory Y, where it assumes that people are not passive and in fact the organizational objectives can be achieved in a more fruitful manner with the right direction and provision of opportunities by the management (Gannon and Boguszak, 2013). 

Theory Y assumes that a) people can find work enjoyable provided, the work environment and conditions are suitable, b) people are capable of self- direction and self-control and c) people possess the ability of intellectual contribution towards their job roles (McGregor 1960).

DeCamp (1992) emphasizes that the causes for high employee turnover ratio in most of the organizations are mainly due to the failures in their recruitment processes as they are keen on verifying the compatibility of the candidate only with the interviewer and not with the actual people they get to work with. Further, DeCamp (1992) discusses that the interviewers should select Y type employees for managerial positions to ensure that the lower level staff are motivated and always achieve the set targets.

In this connection, I observe that the company I work for, always give preference for applicants who have the qualities of theory Y for all managerial positions. This is due to the increased level of responsibility, encouragement, successful delegation of authority which would be observed from their staff.  However, for certain job roles such as call centre executives, front line officers and back office functions, company would even consider candidates who possess characteristics similar to Theory X, considering the limitation of job profiles and costs.

References

DeCamp and Donald, D (1992).  "Are you hiring the right people?" Management Review, vol. 81, no. 5

Gannon, D and Boguszak, A, (2013). Douglas McGregor’s Theory X And Theory Y, CRIS Bulletin 2013/02.

Lawter, L., Kopelman, R. and Prottas, D., (2015). McGregor's theory X/Y and job performance: A multilevel, multi-source analysis. Journal of Managerial Issues

McGregor, D. M (1957). “Human Side of Enterprise.” Management Review 46: 622-628

McGregor, D. M (1960). The Human Side of Enterprise. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Employee Job Satisfaction

Employee job satisfaction is widely discussed at the present day world due to the fact that organizational workforce should be kept constantly engaged and motivated to achieve the desired goals of the entity (Singh and Jain, 2013). Locke (1976) defines job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. In simple terms, job satisfaction can be identified as a measure of contentedness with the tasks assigned to the employee.

Employees who have higher job satisfaction are treated as high performers with less absenteeism, highly productive and committed to organizational goals and moreover satisfied with their own lives (Lease, 1998). According to Singh and Jain, (2013) there can be numerous factors which can influence a person’s level of job satisfaction which include the level of pay and benefits, quality of the working environment and conditions, existing promotion strategies, leadership and the job related challenges, the variety of tasks involved.

However, Armstrong (2007) argues that it cannot be always concluded that there is a strong and positive relationship between job satisfaction and performance. Armstrong further emphasizes that a satisfied employee will not necessarily be a high performer and a high performer will not necessarily be a satisfied employee.

Job satisfaction is traditionally measured using either questionnaire or interviews out of which questionnaire is the most popular due to the ease in standardizing and quantifying the responses (Azri, 2011). However, with the advancement of technology, several alternative scales have come into play to measure the job satisfaction such as Job Descriptive Index, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Job Diagnostic Survey which are identified as facets measures of job satisfaction (Buchanan and Bryman, 2009).

The organization I am presently employed at, always makes sure that the adequate working conditions are provided at all times along with the payment of competitive salary packages and other benefits such as medical facilities. Further employees are always motivated to enhance their skills by conducting various training programmes which improves the job knowledge and thereby providing opportunities to achieve and develop their personalities. Further, company ensures that they obtain feedback from staff on a quarterly basis and also on the recent organizational or structural changes so that the staff members would feel valued.

References,

• Armstrong, M. (2007). A handbook of employee reward management and practice. London: Kogan Page.
• Aziri, B. (2011) Job Satisfaction: A Literature Review. Faculty of Business and Economics, South East European University, Ilindenska 1200, Tetovo, Makedonia.
• Buchanan, D. and Bryman, A., (2009). The Sage Handbook of Organizational Research Methods.
• Lease, S. H. (1998). Annual review, 1993–1997: Work attitudes and outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol. 53
• Locke, E. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction. In M. D. Dunnette (Ed.). Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology.
• Singh, J. K and Jain, M., (2013). A Study of Employees’ Job Satisfaction And Its Impact On Their Performance. Journal of Indian Research, [online] 1(4). Available at: <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/af3e/ d1e708ce148ebab2b05669cdcb91002a40a8.pdf> [Accessed 29 June 2020].