ABSTRACT
Douglas McGregor's theories, as discussed in his The Human Side of Enterprise, were speedily introduced into companies because they promised growth and increased efficiency. Managers generally accepted McGregor's proposal that applying Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs to the workplace would both improve employee collaboration and communication, and motivate workers to grow and learn. McGregor was not quite as successful within the scholarly community following the psychologist Geert Hofstede's criticism that the success of Theory X or Theory Y depends on cultural context. Scholars further explored the ways in which the implementation of Theories X and Y affect how organizations adapt and learn. Learning organizations are based on the idea that there is no best way to manage; instead, the best managers are able to adapt to new situations and to account for changing market environments. In generally, scholars have shifted their attention away from classifying management styles as X or Y, and from promoting humanistic values within organizations.
