There’s this theory by Douglas McGregor on the the fundamental approaches to management:
- Theory X
- The average person dislikes work and will avoid it he/she can.
- Therefore most people must be forced with the threat of punishment to work towards organizational objectives.
- The average person prefers to be directed; to avoid responsibility; is relatively unambitious, and wants security above all else.
- Theory Y
- Effort in work is as natural as work and play.
- People will apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of organizational objectives, without external control or the threat of punishment.
- Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement.
- People usually accept and often seek responsibility.
- The capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.
- In industry the intellectual potential of the average person is only partly utilized.
The theory X would require an authoritarian management style. While theory Y would probably require no management at all! However, I think the reality is somewhere in between. People actually want to work for reasons of their own. But not everyone are as mature or capable as theory Y would posit them to be. It thus boils down to the congruence of people’s and the organization’s objectives as well as a level of management intervention appropriate to the maturity and capability of the individuals in the organization. That is the value of the XY Theory (and most other management theories for that matter), it articulates bounds to approaches to management.