Supervisor leadership and employee morale in large departments

Theory X and theory Y

According to McGregor (1969), Theory X and Theory Y explain describe the differences in management styles and the behavior of leadership. He assumed that the leaders in organization have diverse views on the skills and motivation of the members of organization.

Theory X

Theory X is a management style which embodies autocratic leadership approach to leadership. The managers who are categorized as a Theory X leaders in general believe that the subordinates fail to live up to the corporate expectations hence assume that subordinates are just influenced with rewards as well as monetary rather than fulfilling the stated corporate objectives. This theory presumes that employees dislike work and they avoid responsibility, but will always seek directions when possible. The theory therefore requires the managers to be coercive and controlling and also to be ready in punishing the unwanted behaviors (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008, pg 240).

Theory Y

Theory Y is a style of leadership which identifies the employee's personal goals while comparing motivation methods between the personal and the corporate objectives such as what can motivate the employees to excel in their personal lives. The Y theory presumes that people like working; hence the employees will most probably practice self-control. The theory also presumes that the employees will get motivated by their responsibility in seeking new challenges along with the goals. In this case, employees are therefore seen to exhibit great work morale so that they can exhibit the behaviors that will never call for a constant supervision from the managers allowing employees to achieve the goals of organization without punishment and control (Media & Grace, 2012).

Pros and cons of management style

Management styles

Pros

Cons

Theory X

Theory X works with facts and self-disciplined at their workplaces, they also deliver commitment as compared to Theory Y employees

The management of theory X can lead to punitive atmosphere that has a strong blame in culture. It also tend to suffer from diseconomies of scale since organization keeps on growing forcing an increase in the number of centralized managers needed to control the employees. Theory X deals only with the facts as well as figures and are unhappy employees

Theory Y

It increases the morale of the employees as well as leads to an increase of productivity because the theory lies mostly on the employees who are self-motivated as it encourages a room for participations for management decisions. There is job enlargement and employees are ever committed in what they do

It is hard to create an environment which is right for all people from a practical sense given that the theory is premised on the assumption that the right environment can be created and people can perform well at job. Employees fail to take responsibility with seriousness