Theory Y The statements on the previous page can be separated into two groups reflecting two very different ways in which employers can treat their employees. Douglas McGregor, an American expert on the psychology of work, summarized these two approaches and named them Theory X and Theory Y. Read the text below and classify the statements according to which theory they support. Theory Y In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor outlined two opposing theories of work and motivation. What he calls Theory X is the rather pessimistic approach to workers and working which assumes that people are lazy and will avoid work and responsibility they can Consequently, workers have to be closely supervised and controlled, and told what to do. They have to be both threatened, for example with losing their job, and rewarded with incentives, probably monetary ones such as a pay rise or bonuses. Theory X assumes that most people are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and have to be looked after. It has traditionally been applied, for example, by managers of factory workers in large-scale manufacturing Theory Y. on the contrary, assumes that most people have a psychological need to work, and given the right conditions - job security. financial rewards - they will be creative, ambitious and self-motivated by the satisfaction of doing a good job. Theory Y is probably more applicable to skilled professionals and what Peter Drucker called knowledge workers't managers, specialists, programmers, scientists, Theory Y McGregor's two theories are based on Abraham Maslow's famous Thierarchy of needs'. Theory X relates to the basie, "lower order needs at the bottom of the hierarchy, such as financial security, while Theory Y relates to "higher order needs such as esteem (achievement, status and responsibility) and self-actualization (personal growth and fulfilment) that can be pursued if basic needs are satisfied McGregor is widely considered to have laid the foundations for the modem people-centred view of management. However, Maslow spent a year studying a Californian company that used Theory Y. and concluded that there are many people who are not looking for responsibility and achievement at work. There will always be people with little self-discipline, who need security and certainty and protection against the burden of responsibility, so it is impossible to simply replace the authoritarian' Theory X with the 'progressive Theory Y Comprehension Are these sentences true or false? 1) Herzberg argued that 'hygiene factors' motivate workers. 2) Challenging jobs and responsibility are hygiene factors. 3) Some unskilled jobs will always be boring and repetitive. 4) Workers might be motivated by having responsibilities as part of a team. 5) Job rotation can make a day's work more interesting. 6) You can always motivate workers by telling them that they work for the best company in the field. Vocabulary Vocabulary Find the words in the text that mean the following. 1) interactions between employers and employees, or managers and workers 2) knowing that there is little risk of losing one's employment 3) money paid (per hour or day or week) to manual workers 4) advantages that come with a job, apart from pay 5) things that encourage people to do something 6) to be raised to a higher rank or better job 7) without any particular abilities acquired by training 8) regularly switching between different tasks 9) a company's shared attitudes, beliefs, practices and work relationships