Theory X Versus Theory Y

Introduction

                                               

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s that have been used in human resource management, organizational behavior, organizational communication and organizational development. They describe two contrasting models of workforce motivation.

Theory X and Theory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is attitude not attributes.

So, it basically deals with the mind-set of different kinds of managers with regard to their employees and does not state anything about the actual behavior of the employees themselves.

                                             

Theory X 

This theory can at best be termed  as a pessimistic outlook of the managers towards their employees and makes an assumption that it is a basic nature of the workers/employees to avoid work whenever given a chance to do so. It assumes that employees are inherently lazy and dislike work and complete their work only out of compulsion or threat. According to this theory, employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can. Employees think of only themselves and just come to the workplace to pass their time and get the salary at the end of the day/month. They don't have set goals for themselves aligned in terms of the betterment of the organisation on the whole. Usually these managers feel the sole purpose of the employee's interest in the job is money. They will blame the person first in most situations, without questioning whether it may be the system, policy, or lack of training that deserves the blame. This kind of management practice may work in the small businesses but when it comes to the case of large organisations this kind of management style is rather unlikely to produce satisfactory results. The reason being that when we are dealing with large businesses then the only way the business would succeed would be through aligning the goals of the employees with the organisation's goals. The employees need to be self motivated.

Theory Y

Theory Y says that the managers are optimistic of their employees and think that they are self-motivated and have their personal goals aligned with the organisation's goals. In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self motivated and exercise self control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. Theory Y managers repose faith in their employees and believe that if given proper chance they can excel and can achieve terrific results. The employees don't need monetary motivation to complete their task. This theory would include managers communicating openly with subordinates, minimizing the difference between superior-subordinate relationships, creating a comfortable environment in which subordinates can develop and use their abilities. Employees have equal say in the process and proper feedback process is followed in order to achieve the results.

The two theories can be explained with the help of the following diagram which is very self-explanatory :

                                                 

Now there can be two situations which can happen in a workplace and the likely consequences are as follows :

1) Employee is Lazy : 

In this case the theory X manager is likely to work better than the theory Y manager because he would be able to interpret the employee in a better way and may be able to motivate his employee through compulsion or through incentives whereas the theory Y manager might fail to get the work done by the employee.

2) Employee is self motivated : 

In this case theory Y manager would be able to best utilize the productivity of the employee and may be able to set goals which are commensurate with the ability of the employee and even stretch a bit. 

Where as the theory X manager might temper the morale of the employee and lead to dis satisfactions all around.

As can be inferred that we should try to bring theory Y in our workplaces as it works under most circumstances.

Theory X managers can cause long term harm to the company culture and in turn can be a road-block to the success of the company.

Ankit Tyagi

IM-19

Section A

My Experiences with TCS

My first stint with TCS

I still remember the day when I was in the fourth year of my engineering and the companies had just started to come to the campus for recruitment. TCS was the first one to visit our campus. TCS, as it is one of the TATA group's most successful companies, was one of the most sought after in the campus. TCS evoked a sense of trustworthiness, excellence and  respect in our minds. As expected, almost the entire batch went to the selection procedure and got selected. I remember how joyful I was after getting an offer letter from the TCS on the first day of the campus placements itself.
TATA Consultancy Services Ltd. is the company which gave me the first, much needed opportunity to work with them and progress in my career.
I had been with TCS for five long years and these five years had been a roller-coaster ride for me. And trust me the ride had mostly been an upward ride.

Those were the TCS days

I can vouch for and as every TCS-er can, who joined as a fresher,  the best part and the most joyfulness time with TCS was the one when we were send to undergo an initial training program of 2 months. Those were the days when we lived our lives to the fullest. We were made to do innumerable tasks, innumerable lectures(very interactive), so-many case studies, group tasks, plays etc. We were made to do outbound training which facilitated knowing each member of the batch. We did Japanese language course, most of which was done through video and group practices. And the ultimate joy of getting our first salary, was indeed amazing. Fresh out of college, we got a stint of corporate life in those two months.
After the training program, each one of us was allocated a base location and a project to work on. We were not expected to just go and complete the tasks at the beginning itself but were given enough time to settle down and get proper guidance and knowledge transfers from the senior members of the project. Entire learning process was facilitated by the team leads through proper knowledge transfers and internal grooming.
We could see many kinds of people there in our work place - from those who used to work for hours and were really dedicated in their work to those who took life a bit easy and just used to complete their tasks and chill around the rest of the time. Some days, we would really stretch and on others just enjoyed our free time.
There are times when you are made to sit on bench(idle time when you are not allocated to any project) and the times when you are made to work like machines. I must say both these times had their own piece of fun.
The best part of being in TCS is the opportunity to work on the client location i.e. Onsite. You get tremendous amount of exposure and get to work closely with the client. You get to learn in and out of the project. You get to meet big people of your project. You get to earn huge amount of money as compared to what you get when you are offshore. You get to see places which probably you might not have been to before. In short, you get the life time experience which you cherish for your entire life and most importantly write it proudly on your CV.
I had been in TCS for 5 long years. I worked on three big projects. I saw myself changing roles from a team member to project leader to business analyst. Some times I even tasted the joy of being idle and having nothing to do and still having salary being credited to my account(on Bench days). I have seen myself grown from a systems engineer to senior business analyst.
I must say that those 5 years were the most gratifying and fulfilling in terms of my personal and professional growth.

TCS in the Market

TCS has been consistently growing through the years and is able to sustain itself even in the recession period. Since beginning, it has maintained its hegemony in IT industry and still continues to do so.
According to Reuters,

TCS Q1 profit up 38 pct, beats f'casts. 

According to Hindustan times, TCS surges ahead of Infosys, thanks to new markets.

The key lies in constantly looking to expand in new markets and innovate and move ahead with times. TCS places very high value on its employees and treats them very well. In turn, employees get motivated and give their best in whatever they do.

This growth is also aided by the weakening Rupee in comparison to Dollar as most of the business comes from the US and European clients. In a way, it can cause damage in the coming time if the majority of business comes from western countries as they are themselves grappling with tough times.

Some Suggestions

Now, time for some critical analysis and thus some suggestions as an ex-employee which I am sure many TCS-res would relate to. I am sure they would want the TCS management to work upon these issues.

I must say that due to the size of the the company and employee count, there are times when some employees have to sit idle due to non availability of right projects for him according to his skills. At such times, there is just nothing to do and you cant do anything till the time resource management group get the project matching your skill-sets. In such case, if  proper training programs are conducted to improve the skill sets of the employee according to the availability of the project and location, then I am sure the employee would be able to better utilize his/her time. Although, I am sure TCS has provisions for this but still these things are not strictly adhered to.

Secondly, I feel there is a need to modify the Appraisal process which happens every half yearly. The reason being that in evaluating an employee, sometimes, in addition to the performance of the employee there are other factors involved too. An employee doing great job, working hard may get lesser appraisal band than the one who is not working as hard but playing smart and has good terms with supervisor. I have seen some such instances. 

I feel that instead of just down stream appraisal (supervisor doing for employee), there must be some percentage of upstream  appraisal  as well (some percentage of appraisal points for supervisor done by his subordinates) or may be feedback from employees.

I would conclude by saying a few words I feel for my first company...........

I strongly feel that TCS would continue to shine through the years and surge ahead inspite of hardships on the way.

All the best Mr.  N Chandrasekaran !