Jim Whitt, Contributing Editor

Y – X = Why

I believe Dilbert is not so much a comic strip, but more a serial documentary about organizational cultures in desperate need of a radical new approach to leadership and motivation. Dilbert creator Scott Adams simply exaggerates (ever so slightly) real-life workplace experiences, which make you laugh and nearly cry at the same time because they’re too true. I validate my assertion by offering results from a recent Gallup survey that reveals only about one-third of employees are actively “engaged.” They are passionate about their jobs and feel “connected” to their company. More than half of employees today are “not engaged” and ­are “sleepwalking through their workday, putting in time — but not energy or passion — into their work.” About 17 percent are “actively disengaged” and are so unhappy at work they deliberately undermine their engaged co-workers. Misery loves company.

I’ve followed these Gallup surveys ever since they started tracking employee engagement in 2000 and find it interesting that the numbers haven’t changed much for the better. So, what does that tell us? Organizations haven’t changed their approach to human motivation – even though disengaged employees cost the national economy about $370 billion a year! Shouldn’t corporate stockholders be staging a revolution? In any other me asure of managing corporate assets this would be considered disastrous and heads would roll. So why doesn’t management do something different? Because they don’t get it. Oh, they say all the right things and throw billions of dollars at the problem, but they genuinely don’t understand what motivates human beings. Gallup’s survey results prove it.

“The philosophy of management by direction and control — regardless of whether it is hard or soft — is inadequate to motivate because the human needs on which this approach relies are today unimportant motivators of behavior.” This assessment of workplace motivation was published in 1957 in an article entitled The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor (he later wrote a book by the same title). Raymond Miles, professor of Business Administration at the University of California, Berkley, writes that McGregor “would be troubled that we have made so little progress in improving the world of work” in the half century since he wrote this article. Why have we made so little progress? The answer is found in McGregor’s statement — management has been targeting human needs, which are unimportant motivators of behavior for the last 50 years. If they are unimportant, they don’t serve to motivate.

McGregor developed two organizational development models known as Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X asserts that people inherently dislike work and responsibility and seek security above all else. They are self-centered, resistant to change and indifferent to the needs of the organization. Therefore employees must be directed by “tough” management with tight controls and “soft” management supposedly to make them feel good. Based on this theory, the only way to motivate employees is by using reward and punishment. Whether the approach is “hard” or “soft” people must be managed or manipulated using the carrot and the stick. Manipulation is extrinsic stimulation — pushing people’s buttons (reward and punishment). Any animal can be trained to perform using reward and punishment, and humans inherently hate manipulation because it reduces them to little more than animals. Unfortunately, manipulation is what passes for motivation in today’s workplace. Are you starting to see why Gallup finds so few employees with passion and energy for their work?

In The Human Side of Enterprise, McGregor makes this observation, “Management often asks, ‘Why aren’t people more productive? We pay good wages, provide good working conditions, have excellent fringe benefits and steady employment. Yet people do not seem to put forth more than minimum effort.’” The answer is that people want more from their work than paychecks, pensions and perks. Once their lower-level needs are met (food, shelter, security) they strive for psychological fulfillment (social and esteem needs). Ultimately they want to fulfill their own unique potential, or self-actualize as Abraham Maslow put it. But, as McGregor points out, if they do not have the opportunity to do this, “people will make insistent demands for more money.” Money becomes the drug that eases the pain of being unfulfilled on the job, but its effect is only temporary. There’s not enough money in the world to compensate for the absence of meaning in our work.

The flipside of McGregor’s Theory X is Theory Y, which holds that the intellectual capacities of people are only partially utilized in the modern workplace. They not only will accept, but will seek responsibility and they will be self-directed if they are committed to the organization. They will be committed if they find fulfillment in their work. Then the expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is just as natural as in play or rest. In other words, work becomes a matter of wanting to instead of having to. So what does it take to achieve that? Not the carrot or the stick.

Here’s where I’m going to take the baton from McGregor and run with it. The reason the majority of today’s workforce is unmotivated is because management and employees have been conditioned to respond to reward and punishment just like animals. Therefore, they see the only options for increased motivation as more carrot and/or more stick. There will never be enough carrots or sticks to satisfy the innate human hunger to fulfill our own unique potential. What’s missing in corporate culture — and the rest of society for that matter — is a lack of purpose. That leads me to the most powerful principle of human behavior I’ve ever discovered: without a purpose, our only motivation is reward and punishment. I wrote Riding for the Brand: The Power of Purposeful Leadership to provide leaders with a blueprint to create purpose-driven cultures where people will be intrinsically motivated. The only way we can be intrinsically motivated is to engage (remember the Gallup survey) the human spirit. While our animal bodies may respond to the carrot and the stick, the human spirit only responds to the call of purpose.

McGregor’s Theory “Y” is dependent on the word “why.” We are the only animals that have been endowed with the power of choice. While all other animals are just trying to eat and keep from being eaten, we are the only animals that seek meaning for our existence. We ask, “Why?” Why should I work for this organization? That can only be answered if the organization has a purpose that appeals to the human spirit and not just our animal natures. Now, let’s really make it personal. Why am I here on planet earth? That leads to the “what” question. What’s my purpose in life? W hat do I have to offer an organization or society in general? Until organizations help people find the answers to these questions, the results from Gallup’s survey will continue to reveal that “management” just doesn’t get it. They’ll continue to suffer from Purpose Deficit Disorder. And 50 years from now, McGregor would still be troubled that we’ve made so little progress in the world of work.

Please e-mail comments to Jim Whitt at jim@whittenterprises.com.

Cargill Animal Nutrition is proud to sponsor the “Whitt and Wisdom” column which offers business management and leadership advice from management consultant Jim Whitt. Cargill is an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services.