Laura Knecht

Managment

Abraham Maslow

The book discusses Abraham Maslow's theory briefly, but it caught my

attention. Abraham Maslow was a practicing psychologist in the early to mid

1900s. Maslow's parents punished their children hard to ensure academic

success, which led Maslow a very lonely boy who found refuge in books.

Just for the sake of his parents, he studied Law at The City College of

New York. Shortly transfering to Cornell after three semesters, and then back

to CCNY. Against his parents best efforts, he married his first cousin, had two

daughters, and moved to Wisconsin. That is where his journey with

psychology began.

Upon moving to Wisconson, Maslow attended The University of

Wisconson, where he worked with Harry Harlow, famous for his experiments

with baby rhesus monkeys and attatchment behavior. By 1934, Maslow had

is BA, MA, and his PhD all in Psychology.

Eventually, Maslow began to work with a man named Douglas

McGregor, who had experience as a manager and a consultant. With the help

of Maslow, McGregor formulated Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X is the following: The average human being prefers to be

directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and

wants security above all. Because of the human charachteristic of dislike for

work, most people in this theory must be coerced, controlled, directed, or

threatened with punishment to get them to put forth effort toward the

achievement of organizational objectives. So, in all, people who fall under

Theory X are lazy.

However Theory Y is the opposite. And it's traits are as follows: Under

the conditions of modern industrial life, people who fall under Theory Y have

potential but their potential is only partially utilized. They learn under proper

conditions, not only to accept, but to seek responsibility. To them, the

thought of physical and mental effort is as natural as play or rest. External

threat of punishment is not needed to bring about effort in these people.

These people will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of the

objectives to which he or she has commited. The people who fall under

Theory Y are Manager and leadership material.

Eventhough it was McGregor who formulated these theories, he

wouldn't have been able to successfully achieve his goal without the help of

Maslow. Because of these theories, it is much easier to classify Managers

from the average worker.