Leaders adopt different styles or approaches in order to achieve organisational goals. Some leaders are autocratic, preferring to tell others what to do. Others favour a participative style, so involve their teams in decision making. These two extremes represent the ideas in Douglas McGregor’s theory X and theory Y model (1960).
Theory X managers have a negative perception of their workers, believing that they are lazy, demotivated and work only for money. Thus, theory X managers adopt an autocratic approach. By contrast, theory Y managers trust their highly skilled and self-driven staff, so adopt a far more democratic or even laissezfaire approach.
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