Management’s ideas about motivating employees have changed a bit since scientific management[link] first considered how to make them more efficient. Today, most managers would at least pay lip service to the idea that workers are humans, with human needs and aspirations, and that you need to recognise that if you want the best from them. That may seem obvious enough, but as a management precept it owes much to Douglas McGregor (1906-1964) and his Theory X and Theory Y.
Theory X and Theory Y are a double act, a Mr Nasty and Mr Nice of human resource management that leave you in no doubt as to which McGregor prefers, even though he insists that the optimal management style should draw from both.
