Douglas McGregor
Douglas Murray McGregor (September 6, 1906 – October 1, 1964) was an American management professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and president of Antioch College from 1948 to 1954.[1] He also taught at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. His 1960 book The Human Side of Enterprise had a profound influence on education practices.
McGregor was a student of Abraham Maslow. He has contributed much to the development of the management and motivational theory, and is best known for his Theory X and Theory Y as presented in his book 'The Human Side of Enterprise' (1960), which proposed that manager's individual assumptions about human nature and behavior determined how individual manages their employees.[2]
Early life and education
McGregor was born in Detroit, Michigan on September 6, 1906, to Murray James and Jessie Adelia McGregor. When he was young he volunteered in homeless shelters, played piano, and sang.[3] When McGregor was in high school, he worked for his family business, the McGregor Institute.[4] The McGregor Institute, first known as the Mission for Homeless Men, served the Detroit homeless population with spiritual and career services.[5] McGregor's uncle, his father Murray's brother, is Detroit philanthropist Tracy W. McGregor.[5]
He earned a
Career
After teaching at Harvard University and then MIT, where he was one of the first professors in the Sloan School of Management, he served as president of Antioch College Ohio, now known as Antioch University Midwest, from 1948 to 1954. In 1954, McGregor returned to teaching at MIT, where he taught until his death in 1964.[6]
He later served as a member of the Antioch College Ohio Board of Trustees.[7]
The Human Side of Enterprise
In the book The Human Side of Enterprise, McGregor identified an approach of creating an environment within which employees are motivated via authoritative direction and control or integration and self-control, which he called
The Human Side of Enterprise was voted the fourth most influential management book of the 20th century in a poll of the Fellows of the Academy of Management.[14]
Research interests
McGregor's research focused on managerial leadership[4] and the ways in which employees are affected by the management styles of their superiors. His 1960 book The Human Side of Enterprise focused on theory X and theory Y approaches to leadership. His 1967 book The Professional Manager[15] built upon the ideas presented in his first book, along with providing behavioral, social, and psychological aspects implications of the previous ideas.
Personal life
He got married at age 19.[16] McGregor was very close to Abraham Maslow. In class, he had a very relaxed teaching style which led his students to enjoy his classes. He would often put his feet up on the desk and lecture at the same time.[17] In 1964, McGregor died at the age of 58 in Massachusetts.[18]
Legacy
Since the mid-1950s, Procter & Gamble used Theory X and Theory Y to set up plants in Augusta, Georgia, even hiring McGregor to help.[19] Warren Bennis, leadership expert, researcher, author, and educator, said of McGregor, "Just as every economist, knowingly or not, pays his dues to Keynes, we are all, one way or another, disciples of McGregor."[20]
In 1964, the School of Adult and Experiential Learning at Antioch College was renamed the "McGregor School" in his honor. It was later renamed "Antioch University McGregor" and then "Antioch University Midwest."[21] The Douglas McGregor Memorial Award was founded in 1966 in McGregor's honor to recognize a leading paper published in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.[22]
See also
Notes and references
- ^ "Presidents of Antioch". Antioch University. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ISBN 978-967-349-233-6
- ^ Wren, Daniel (1998). Management Innovators: The People and Ideas That Have Shaped Modern Business. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b c "Douglas M. McGregor". MIT Institute for Work & Employment Research (MIT IWER) at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
- ^ a b Andy Sowards. "Our Founders". McGregor Fund. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
- ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
- ^ "Douglas McGregor". Antioch University. Archived from the original on 23 October 2007.
- ^ "The MIT 150: 150 Ideas, Inventions, and Innovators that Helped Shape Our World". The Boston Globe. 15 May 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ISSN 0025-1747.
- JSTOR 40604607.
- ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
- ISBN 978-0-07-094191-5.
- ISBN 978-0-582-10376-4.
- doi:10.1016/S0090-2616(01)00022-5. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
- OCLC 228954.
- ^ "Biography of Douglas McGregor".
- ^ "Douglas McGregor". The Economist.
- ^ "Douglas M. McGregor".
- S2CID 199274511.
- ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
- ^ "Antioch University McGregor Now Antioch University Midwest". Antioch New England. 2010-08-03. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
- ^ "The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science:The McGregor Award Best Papers: The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science". SAGE Journals. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
External links
- Douglas McGregor - Theory X and Theory Y (in English)
- Douglas McGregor - Comparison of Theory X versus Theory Y (in English)
- Douglas McGregor - Theory X and Theory Y inc. diagrams (in English)