Douglas McGregor
Douglas Murray McGregor was an influential American psychologist and management theorist, born on September 16, 1906, in Detroit, Michigan. He is best known for developing the Theory X and Theory Y frameworks, which propose contrasting approaches to employee motivation and management. Theory X posits that workers inherently dislike work and require strict supervision, while Theory Y suggests that employees are self-motivated and thrive under supportive conditions that align their work with personal goals. McGregor's theories emerged from his experiences in industrial relations consulting and were popularized in his 1960 book, "The Human Side of Enterprise." His insights significantly impacted management practices, leading to more humane and effective workplace environments.
McGregor served as president of Antioch College before returning to MIT's Sloan School of Management, where he continued to refine his theories. His work paved the way for modern management strategies and remains relevant today, with his concepts still being taught in business schools. Despite his untimely death from a heart attack in 1964, McGregor's legacy endures, with his ideas recognized as foundational in the field of management theory. He is remembered not only for his academic contributions but also for his commitment to improving workplace dynamics and organizational culture.
Douglas McGregor
Social psychologist, management expert
- Born: September 16, 1906
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- Died: October 1, 1964
- Place of death: Massachusetts
Also known as: Douglas Murray McGregor
Education: College of the City of Detroit, Harvard University
Significance: Raised in a family with a strong mission to assist transient workers and the homeless, Douglas McGregor became a pioneer in developing theories about what motivates people and how to manage them. At a time when it was thought people required close supervision by management to produce, he published an alternate theory that held people could be motivated by mutually held goals.
Background
Douglas Murray McGregor was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 16, 1906. He was the son of Murray James, a biblical scholar, and Jessie Adelia McGregor. His father and uncle, Tracy McGregor, ran the McGregor Institute, a mission to help transient workers that their father began before his death. McGregor often worked at the institute's shelter. He and his mother played the piano and sang for the religious services held there.
These experiences led McGregor to consider a career in ministry when he was about seventeen. He entered Oberlin College to study theology but subsequently dropped out, although the reason why was uncertain. McGregor married at the age of nineteen and worked as a gas station attendant. He worked his way up and became a regional manager by the time he was twenty-four. However, at this time, the Great Depression was causing serious hardship for many people in Detroit. His family's institute received public funding to expand its efforts to help the homeless, and McGregor returned to work there. He organized soup kitchens that fed as many as five thousand people at a time and helped with administrative work managing the institute. He also resumed his college studies.
McGregor completed his undergraduate work at the College of the City of Detroit (later renamed Wayne State University) in 1932 and then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend Harvard University. There he earned master's and doctorate degrees in psychology. Following the completion of his doctorate, he worked for two years as a psychology instructor at Harvard. He then received a job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1937.
While he was teaching at MIT, McGregor also worked with many companies as an industrial relations consultant. Many people were working in companies and factories instead of at family enterprises, such as farms, and employers sought McGregor's assistance with issues related to wages, training, contract negotiations, and grievances because of these new employment situations.
When McGregor became the president of Antioch College in Ohio in 1948, he had his first experiences with the conflicts involved in being in a leadership position. After six years at Antioch, McGregor returned to MIT to work at the Sloan School of Management. He remained at MIT for the rest of his life.
Life's Work
At Sloan, McGregor developed his Theory X and Theory Y of management. The two were based on his work experiences, including his time working as a consultant with Procter & Gamble in the 1950s. An executive at the company wanted a less authoritarian way of managing a new detergent factory in Georgia. McGregor worked with the company to create a new form of management that relied on alternate ways to motivate the employees to perform.
The resulting theories, first made public in a speech at the Sloan School of Management in 1957 and later published in McGregor's The Human Side of Enterprise in 1960, proposed two ways management could motivate employees. Theory X was the one most commonly used at the time. It held that people do not want to work and need to be closely supervised, forced, coerced, and micromanaged to be productive. McGregor proposed an alternate theory, Theory Y, which held that workers can and will willingly work hard if they are working toward a goal that they can support. Under this theory, people wanted to work and had no issues with working long and hard when their work was fulfilling and the result was in line with their own goals and principles.
The book was a success, and McGregor quickly became well known worldwide. He encountered some issues with those who oversimplified his two theories and judged Theory X as negative and Theory Y as preferable. A few years after publishing his theories, McGregor was working on a variation of Theory Y that he called Theory Z, in which he sought to correct the perception that Theory Y was positive. However, he died of a heart attack on October 1, 1964, before he completed his work on the theory.
Impact
Although McGregor's career and work were cut short by his death, his work had a significant impact on business management that continues into the twenty-first century. The Procter & Gamble model plant that he helped to start functioned at 30 percent greater efficiency than other plants, leading it to be a model for the company's other plants. The company saw this as a competitive advantage and kept it secret until it was revealed in Nicholas Brealey's 1994 book, Frontiers of Excellence. In addition, experts saw McGregor's theories as the groundwork of the management theories used into the twenty-first century. McGregor's work was considered so influential that more than fifty years after his death, his 1960 book remained on Time's list of the 25 most influential business management books.
Personal
McGregor married Caroline Ferris in New York in 1928. They had two children, Patricia Jane Colvard and Peter Murray.
Bibliography
"Biography of Douglas McGregor." Managers.net, www.managers-net.com/Biography/mcgregor.html. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017.
Dininni, Jeanne. "Management Theory of Douglas McGregor." Business.com, 22 Feb. 2017, www.business.com/articles/management-theory-of-douglas-mcgregor. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017.
"Douglas McGregor." Economist, 3 Oct. 2008, www.economist.com/node/12366698. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017.
"The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books." Time, content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2086680,00.html. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017.
Witzel, Morgan, editor. Encyclopedia of American Management. Bloomsbury, 2005, pp 359–361.
Wren, Daniel A., and Ronald G. Greenwood. Management Innovators: The People and Ideas that Have Shaped Modern Business. Oxford UP, 1998.