Zach Olivera
Bus 107
Comstock
Human Relations Final
Theory X/Y
I have worked with theory X, and theory Y managers. When I was working at
Baskin Robbins, I came into contact with a Theory X manager. I have had experiences
with all sorts of managers, and I have begun to understand how to deal with these
different minded managers.
While I was working at a diner in California, I had a lot of experiences with a lot of
different managers. Due to an injury to one of the managers, we ended up having five
different managers during my tenure there. Getting use to the different styles of the
managers was challenging for me at first, but I learned to understand how each
manager wanted me to perform, and I understood which managers used which styles to
try to motivate employees. The manager that had gotten injured, Mark, used an
authoritative style to try to control how the workers performed in the work environment.
After Mark had gotten injured, a new manager, a female stepped in to take his place.
Because she was unable to work all of the same days that Mark previously did, we had
to hire another female manager, from a different restaurant, so the two of them could
take Mark’s place in his injury. My interactions with the new managers were usually
fairly short, as I did not like being around them. Both of the new managers were very
short on words, and whenever they did say something, they were criticizing your work.
Judy, the female manager that I mainly worked with, was an especially authoritative
manager. She thought that she had to intimidate her employees in order to motivate
them, but what she did not account for was her effect on the workplace environment.
Because of her presence, every employee was less motivated, and I did not nearly have
the same satisfaction of working, as I previously did with Mark. I know her way of
managing did not work for me, and few of the employees respected her. She did not
follow her own rules, and many of the other employees viewed her as a hypocrite. It
was very hard for others to work with her, and most of the employees would talk poorly
about her. Personally, I would be the most motivated through empowerment.
When a company really cares about its lowest employees, and gives them
authority to be able to perform a certain task, it gives that employee a sense of
accomplishment. In the book, it talked about a company giving employees the right to
set their own schedules, as long as the work gets done. I think this is a really good idea
because it gives the employees a sense of responsibility, and they are held
accountable. They are allowed to come in whenever they want, they are just required to
complete whatever material is assigned that day. Empowering employees is a great way
to motivate that employee to work that much harder for the company.
Different management approaches can work for different employees, and
