Saturday, April 12, 2008

Are We Really Practicing McGregor's Y Theory In Manging Human Capital In Today's Business.


Yesterday’s posting has created a big problem for me one of my friend called me up in the night and said why I have written HR Dept as safety valve of the Corporate Pressure Cooker, which is not true according to him.
He is working as a DGM, HR in a MNC in B’lore, India.
Later I made a deep analysis and found that McGregor’s Y Theory is being preached and talked about, but not being actually put into practice may be due to market conditions, hyper competitions, low margins, global oversupplies, technological changes, market capitalization and numerous other external factors including firm’s survival.
From the very moment trainees/executive/managers are recruited or even existing managers are given higher targets to achieve, which I said Pressure to Perform, tension seems to build up and they start doubting about their own capability of delivering the goods.
For new recruits proper induction training and high-end counseling are required and for existing managers sufficient inputs and a proper roadmap should be provided.
To make the executives/managers productive, at every stages of corporate life McGregor's Y theory is a better solution and big dividend giver.
In the case of the new recruits the gestation period shortens down if the Line Manager and the HR Departments work at tandem and practice McGregor's Y theory.

Proper grooming requires time, training and confidence building measures, mutual trustworthiness, transparency, then only the latent potentials will come out from the executives /managers.
It is all about giving carrots in the different stages bypassing the McGregor's X Theory.
If the managements give the carrots in the initial stages they get back in return basket of carrots as dividends in years to come. In Theory Y the gradient of productivity may be low but steady where as the in Theory X the gradient of productivity may be steep but have sudden breakdowns (attrition rate become high) and very often it happens.

McGregor's Human Side to Human Capital of an enterprise is more relevant in today’s business world also. If properly McGregor's Y Theory can be practiced with high degree of maturity and sensibility, Executives/Managers will eagerly come forward to take the Pressure to Perform.
So let’s practice McGregor's Y theory for great results and dividends from Human Capital.
With warm Regards,

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