Theory Y and How it fits with Modern Theories of Empowerment and Employee Involvement.

By Reason Chivaka, MBA, BSc, BA(Hons), CMgr, MCMI, ACIPD Organisations have been battling with employee motivations for a long time. Various theories have been developed with the objective of trying to understand what drives employee motivation. One of the motivational theorist, McGregor introduced the notion of theory X and theory Y. His argument was that, it is the belief that managers hold that classifies employees into either theory X or Y. According to McGregor management policies and practices are based on one of these assumptions and as a result employees respond in accordance with the reality that is created for them. Theory Y stipulates that, by nature, employees are not passive or neither do they resist organisational goals but their behaviour is a result of what they have experienced in organisations. According to theory Y, employees have the capacity to take on responsibilities and work hard to achieve organisational goals. However, it is the onus of management to organise employees, development them and organise all the elements of production. The belief is that, if all this is properly done then employees can achieve the desired organisational goals as they will direct their efforts towards achievement of organisational objectives and goals.

Theory Y supports modern theories of empowerment and employee involvement. Martin,(2001) said that, employee empowerment is concerned with involving employees is decisions relating to the direction of the organisation and all the operational issues. Employee empowerment is one of the greatest underlying factors which determines the success or failure of any organization. The way employees in an organisation focus their energy towards the achievement of the organisational objectives is determined by the level of empowerment. Organizations that empowers their employees are able to tap and utilise their strengths thereby increasing their level of competitiveness. On the contrary those organisations that view their employees as machines that can be easily replaced will never realize their full potential and the result is that in the long run, such organisation will find it difficult to survive.

McGregors Theory Y introduced the notion of a participative management style. The idea of employee involvement which is a process for empowering employees to participate in managerial decision-making and improvement activities is based on theory Y. Theory Y states that it is the onus of management to create an environment that enables employees to work towards the achievement of organisational goals. Employees who are empowered feel personally responsible for their performance. For example engineering companies should involve their employees in the projects from the very beginning, that is from planning, designing and implementation of the project. Unless employees are empowered organisation will not realise their full potential, performance and productivity will suffer and the going concern of the organisation will be under serious threat.