Theory X is the term that is used in the context of management and motivation of the employees. According to theory X of management employees have this inherent habit of avoiding the work and will avoid any responsibilities at all cost and hence they need to be supervised strictly by the top management and should be punished if they do not work properly so as to send a strong signal to other co-workers about company’s strict policy with regards to work ethics and attitude of workers towards the company. In order to understand more about this term, one should look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of theory X –
Advantages of Theory X
Simple to Understand
The first and foremost advantage of theory X is that it is very simple to understand because the basic nature of humans is to avoid work and they try to delegate that work to others and hence the vicious circle of passing the work or delegation of work continues resulting in the delay of work which in turn results in the loss to the company and that is where the theory X can be useful because once workers know that their actions are being monitored closely and any laxity with regards to work will results in punishment than this game of passing the work and responsibility ends.
Less Time Wastage
Since theory X is based on the assumption that workers need to be supervised closely the company’s applying this theory will ensure that workers are closely monitored by supervisors which will result in less time wastage by the workers leading to an increase in productivity of the workers. In simple words, just like in the case of students if there is no teacher in the class than one cannot expect them to remain silent and study, in the same way, workers in the absence of strict supervision will not work continuously for long hours leading to the decline in the productivity of the workers.
Fixing Responsibility
Another benefit of this theory is that since this theory advocates the use of punishment as well as rewards for an individual’s actions the company can easily fix the responsibility and give rewards to deserving workers and punish the culprits.
Disadvantages of Theory X
Wrong Assumptions
The biggest disadvantage of theory X is that it is based on many assumptions that are not entirely true and hence some of the assumptions of theory X like workers being not intelligent, them being poor decision-makers, not able to do any work without supervision are absurd as some workers may have this trait but to generalize and apply to every worker is a limitation which makes the applicability of this theory difficult.
Biased
This theory gives too much power to supervisors as they can easily punish workers for any laxity or error and if they are biased then chances are they will give harsh punishment to those workers who they do not like even if their actions do not justify the punishment. In simple words, the company will not benefit from this theory if there is biasness while the application of this theory into the actual working of the company.
Negative Working Environment
The whole idea of punishment and close supervision over workers instill fear and feeling of insecurity in the minds of the workers which is not a good thing as far as the working environment of the company is concerned. In simple words having control measures is good but too much of control where workers feel suffocated is not a good thing and can be counterproductive resulting in negating this whole idea of theory X increasing the productivity of workers.
As one can see from the pros and cons of theory X that this theory cannot be used in all companies or at all levels of management within the company and that is the reason why any company thinking of applying this theory into their company should carefully read above points and then only should take any decision regarding implementation of this theory into the company.