Why the COVID-Crisis will cause a roll-back to Theory X
The start of the 21st Century was a fertile ground for Theory Y to most likely win the game over Theory X. Then came Covid.
According to McGregor, who developed both theories at MIT in the 50s and 60s, self-actualization was the highest level of reward for employees. He called this Theory Y management. In contrast to a Theory X style, based much more on command and control.
Evidence shows that many companies started to adopt a Y management style motivating employees based on their drive for individual self-fulfillment.
Of course there is now either or. Great Management and leadership is about combining what works in specific contexts for certain employees depending on their staff´s level of competence and the task at hand. It might help to imagine Theory X and Y as a DNA double helix. Managers need to know when to adopt which kind of behavior.
Now what does the historical seizure of the Covid-Crisis imply for management paradigms? Let´s take a look into the golden 20s, Post-Covid and imagine how management will adapt within companies.
With the Covid-Crisis we are experiencing the failure of a command and control system pretending to be able to plan for the unforeseeable. Complexity Theory has taught us that the only way to deal with uncertainty and innovate without plunging into chaos is probing and analyzing. Fail fast and succeed sooner. This would include to admit that we are not knowing the answers and willing to make mistakes to learn. Call it evolution.
Making mistakes when people´s lives are at stake is of course not an option that you would be communicating. And yet, this exactly what is happening right now. Just have a look on how governments are muddling through the crisis. And guess who is performing better? Authoritarian white alpha (male) command and control style? Or a combination of unmistakable decision making and implementation based on a thorough analysis of agile experiments to gain valuable data?
Theory X is the preferred style in any situation that requires us to take control such as a crisis. It lowers the room for maneuver for individuals and therefore gives the people in power more options to experiment without anybody doubting their authority. This way of ruling is contested by a force of qualified collaborators wanting to be working even more remotely and decentralized after 2020.
Digital transformation is supporting Theory Y with its assumption that employees work happily on their own initiative, self-motivated to complete their tasks, enjoy taking ownership of their work, seek responsibility and need little direction, want to be more involved in decision making, solve problems creatively and imaginatively and ultimately view work as fulfilling and challenging.
Honestly this is just too good to be true. Living up to the Y takes far more courage than there is at sight in times of constant emergency. So as crisis is the hour of executive power and Theory X style is very comfortable for leaders, the X is likely to stay for longer than we thought.
Hence before we will be enjoying more Theory Y management or even U style of leadership in organizations, the golden twenties are very likely to imply a roll-back to the times where managers tended to take a pessimistic view of their people. Assuming that they are naturally unmotivated and dislike work, needing to be prompted, rewarded or punished constantly to make sure that they complete their tasks.
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Sources to this article:
On Theory X and X
* Douglas McGregor: The human side of enterprise. Updated version 2006
*https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_74.htm#:~:text=Theory%20X%20and%20Theory%20Y%20were%20first%20explained%20by%20McGregor,and%20participative%20(Theory%20Y).&text=Managers%20who%20use%20this%20approach,do%20it%20effectively%20by%20themselves.
On Theory U
Otto Scharmer: Leading from the Future as it emerges. 2nd edition 2016
On Complexity
Dave Snowden: Cynefin — Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World. 2020
