Doulgas McGregor's Theory X & Theory Y

Theory X

• dislikes work and attempts to avoid it
  
• has no ambition


• wants no responsibility
  
• would rather follow then lead


• resist change


• is self-centered and does not care about the organization's goals


• assumes people only work for money and security
  

Theory Y

• work can be as natural as play and rest


• people will be self directed to meet their work objectives if they are committed to them


• people will be committed to their objectives if rewards are in place that address higher needs such as self fulfillment


• under these conditions people will seek responsibility


• make work truly enjoyable

Everyone that works in an organization, with a group, or in a team has dealt with people of type of theory x and theory y people. Some people in corporations today just identify them positive or negative people when they are at the work place but it is much more than that. The outlook of society seems to be mostly Theory X people because most people claim that the only reason they work is to make money to support themselves or their family but what about that small percent of people that go to work because they love their jobs and enjoy being there everyday. These are the Theory Y people who are self directed and truly enjoy everyday of work. Although I can not pick out one person in our simulations class that is theory X and theory Y many of the students are theory X because it is a class and it is senior year. Although these are just excuses and everyone has tendencies of both theories. For example as cycle two began it was much more natural and relaxed, most of the students seem self directed because they know their grade depends on it, and make the class enjoyable this is because many of the students felt more comfortable in what they were doing so they adapted more to the theory Y characteristics. As I have gone through the motions of the class I feel as though I have been more of a theory Y person but at times I am very much a theory X person too. For example when I walked into this class I was a theory X person because I do not like change, I did not want to take responsibility because I was unsure of what that entailed, and assumed I just needed this class to graduate. As the semester went on become a theory Y person because I believed that even if I did get fifth place on my presentation I need to find the positive in this class or I was just going to make it miserable for myself. As the second cycle began I decided to take on more responsibility by being on the GCB as well as being self directed to motivate me the the other GCB members. Outside of this class my Dad, Bill Waite, is a good example of an overall Theory Y person. He run his own business, has to deal all of his employees on daily basis and even his customers. He loves his job and it is completely natural to him. He has been working at "Waite's Dry Cleaners" since he was 16 and will most likely continue to do it until he retires. He makes changes and just recently bought out another cleaners to soon make it Waite's Dry Cleaners as well. He also have to motivate his employees with rewards and make them as self directed as he can so he does not have to watch over them everyday to make sure that the clothes are going out of the store the way that he wants them to.

Overall, I feel as though everyone has a little bit of McGregor's Theory X & Theory Y within themselves and it is all about they way that you approach a situation as to what type of characteristics you will hold.

http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/mcgregor/

Cheney, G, Christensen, LT, Zorn, T, & Ganesh, S. (2004). Organizational communication in an age of globalization . Prospect Heights: Waveland Press Inc..

page 45

Challenges to Organizations Identity

There are three different challenges to organization identity(118-122) according to the book. There are many more struggles than just these three but I felt that these three challenges also related to the challenges we went through as organizations/corporations in class.

1. Struggling just to be heard- the quantity of messages around us, corporations struggling to stand out and be heard. I relate this struggle to the trade fair and how there were so many different corporations and products that each corporation was trying to be heard by all of the students. Also at the trade fair each corporation was trying to fight to talk to all of the student that walked. There was a big amount of student in attendance at the trade fair but every corporation was still trying to go out of their way to talk to each and every person because the more student they talked to the more potential buyers they had. It was also hard to be heard because the corporations have to convince the buyers and if they are not convinced by their product they will just move on to the next corporation.
   
2. Blurred Boundaries- merges make the name of the company have blurred boundaries, partnerships, alliances, and even creating closer relationships with stakeholders. Although we did not have blurred boundaries between the corporations there was definitely blurred boundaries within the corporations and between what each persons duties were. For example our corporation's Public Relationship Officer did not cover all of her duties. I, the sales manager had to do the advertisement for the newspaper and the brochure which was not part of my duties. The boundaries were blurred between individuals during the first cycle especially because we were unsure of exactly what we were doing and we were overwhelmed by all of the information that each position was supposed to be presenting on and accomplishing.



3. Growing Stakeholder Scrutiny- interest groups, growing media attention to scandals and hypocrisy, and new demands for so called "political consumers" challenge identity of organizations. I relate the scrutiny of the stakeholders to the scrutiny each corporation has on each other. Although their thoughts may not be vocalized outside of their corporation each corporation has opinions of each other. I also relate scrutiny to the rankings because scrutiny is a type of judging and so is ranking. No one wants to be judged,scrutinized, or ranked but that is part of this class and the competitiveness of it. As the GCB I am one of the people doing the rankings or the scrutinizing this cycle and although some people may not agree with their ranking it is not their actually grade so I believe that is why there is not so much drama with it.

Cheney, G, Christensen, LT, Zorn, T, & Ganesh, S. (2004). Organizational communication in an age of globalization . Prospect Heights: Waveland Press Inc.

Functional Theory

The functional theory assumes that all task groups face similar task and relational obstacles to effective decision making and that certain functions, or vital activities, are necessary to overcome these obstacles(Cheney,Christensen, Zorn, and Ganesh, 57). The functional theory explains how all groups have to go through some of the same functions. There can be problems in a group or there can be obstacles. Communication is vital for this reason so that the group as a whole can overcome the obstacles and fix the problems. Communication can have inhibiting or facilitating influence on effective group decision making either by exacerbating problems or overcoming obstacles(57).

• Assessing the problem: groups must explore thoroughly the situation they face. During the first cycle we all had to learn how to assess the information we were receiving through the handbook. We had to assess how we were going to all pass the test as a class together. We have previously taken it three times.


• Specifying goals: groups should considered a range of alternative ways to solve the problem. Our teacher got in front of the class and asked us all after the third test we failed what we were going to do to solve the problem? We all starred at her blankly not being able to think of what we could do as a class. Our goal was to pass the test as a class on the same test and to work as a team to get the goal accomplished.
  
• Identifying possible solutions: groups should consider a range of alternative way to solve the problem. As we sat in the classroom completely confused as to what she wanted us to come up with. We decided that we all need to study together so that we could learn something from each other. So we set up times the evening before class and the morning before class for people to meet and study together. Or the alternative could be that we all just continue on with what we are doing.


• Evaluating the positive and negative features of the alternative: groups should consider the pros and cons, the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives under consideration. When evaluating the positive and negatives of the alternative we all decided that the most negative thing we could do would be to stick with what we were doing and not accomplish our goal. The positive of meeting before class is that studying together could help us hear other answers or parts of the workbook that we did not study before. The negative of our a solution we came up with is that maybe someone could not meet at either of those times.

If I had to come up with another aspect to the function theory I would add putting the final solution into action. The reason I say this is because if you think of all of these great ideas to accomplish you goal and never put them into action you may never actually meet you goal. For example to get the whole class to pass the test at the same time on the fourth test we assessed the problem, figured out our goal, identified solutions, evaluated the positive and negatives and then our teacher asked us to put it into action. We were all then again very confused because we were going to put it into action when we meet the evening or before class but she meant before then. So finally Sarah Freund stepped up and went to the front of the class and sent out an email through WebCt. This was the action that our teacher was talking about because with any goal you have in life you have to make some type of action to accomplish it.

Cheney, G, Christensen, LT, Zorn, T, & Ganesh, S. (2004). Organizational communication in an age of globalization . Prospect Heights: Waveland Press Inc..

Why is Simulations the Capstone Class....

One of my other teachers asked why I liked this class as our capstone of the major. It took me a few minutes to think of an answer. This is our capstone class because it allows us to act out what we have learned in 2650 and 3650. I had no idea why we had to learn all of the theories and different people in these classes and yes some of them I have forgotten. I received an A in CMN 2650 with Professor Mills and a B in CMN3650 with Dr. Rod. Neither one of these classes were classes that stood out to me in my communications major like my interviewing class or my persuasion class. As I sat in both 2650 and 3650 I felt as though these were the type of classes where I would learn all of this information and forget it right after the semester was over. One of those classes that I would look back on and wish I did not have to take because it was a waste of my money.

From this class I have learned that even though I do not remember everything from 2650 and 3650 they were not a waste of money or my time. That have made me into the type of speaker and soon to be businesses person I am going to be. These two classes have also set us up to know how to survive in the Simulations Process. This is our capstone class because it allows us to expressed what we have learned in all of our other classes. We have to show that we know how to work together no as a group but as a team, that we can be competitive and want to do well so we can succeed as a team. We also have to show that we know how to speak and present as a communication major. Another important part of this class is to show that we can be creative for example you have to be creative as a group to think of the type of product or service you are going to sell. Selling is also vital to this class because if you do not know how to sell your corporation will no succeed at the trade fair. All of these aspects that are important to the class are important to the job world. For example you have to know how to work as a team, be competitive, and creative to impress employers.

Without this class in our major we would leave Eastern's campus without a way to showcase our talents as communication majors.

Getting Middle Age People to the Trade Fair

Cycle 1 corporations markets to college students. This was an easier demographic to get at the trade fair because they just went and talked to classes to have hem come. Not only did they do a good job of getting college students at the trade fair but they got a whole lecture class full of students much more than we expected.

This cycle the corporations are marketing to middle age people from the ages of 35-55 or round about. So we as the GCB have to get middle age people to the trade fair on a Tuesday morning from 9:30 to 10:45. The GCB decided we would let the class choose who they want to market their product to because they are the ones that are going to have to see it. Their choices were the Elderly,Athletes, High School Students, and Middle Age People. They chose middle age people this is the one group that we as the GBC would not have picked but they did so we had to find the people to come. It would have been much easier to go to a nursing home or go to a high school but that was not our decision.

We decided our best bet to get middle age people to the trade fair was to especially hit up the communications department because they will understand what we are doing in the class and will come if they do not have class at that time. We also decided to walk around to many other departments such as the business department, health services, financial aid office, the union, family and consumer science, and many many more. Many of the professors we talked to were very receptive and said they would come. So we are hoping to have a good number of people come because I as well as the rest of the GCB feel as though our grade from the class is dependent on how many people we get to come to the trade fair. We also made tickets to pass out the morning of the trade fair to get people to come to the trade fair the day of. Also I think the location of being on the third floor of the union might hinder getting people to the trade fair but we are going to try our best because that is all we can do.

Drama Drama Drama

Dictionary.com defines Drama as, "any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting, or striking interest or results."

When I think of Drama in a class it think of it being about two people who know each other or a group of people who do not like the other group of people. Instead with Simulations the competitive nature of the class can bring about drama between different groups or corporations. Cycle 1 contained no drama at all as we were all trying to figure out what was going on and were not so worried about all of the little details. As cycle 2 began so did the drama. The GCB was sitting in the lounge area just discussing what was going to be happening with the trade fair and the order of the CM speeches when A.J. ,our professor, walked in and said "did you hear about the drama yet?" My first thought was ohh nooo I really wanted this whole semester to go without any drama just as last cycle did but we obviously could not get that lucky. There was one corporation who felt as though another corporation was trying to listen in on their ideas. They asked to go first when presenting so we as the GCB allowed them to do that but also told the corporation that was worried that whoever has the better presentation and show a better understand of what they are going to sell will receive their first choice. This drama then faded out because they got their first choice and the corporation that was apparently listening in received their second choice.

Other drama that is going on right now is the dress code policy. We started off with the rules of no old navy gross flip flops, no shorts, no Capris. As many of the community members began to come to class in shorts and capris we decided we were going to be more lenient. So we, the GCB, announced to the class that they were allowed to wear shorts and capri as long as they looked nice and did not look like they just rolled out of bed. We never dressed the gross flip flops that some people wore because it was not a reoccurring trend. As the GCB we are supposed to be an example to all of the other corporations and community member as to the dress code policy. This is where a problem came in Sarah who is on the GCB did not follow any of the dress code rules one day to class and explained herself as I stay over at someones house so I did not have my own clothes. This is not acceptable because no one else is allowed to just wear their pajamas no matter where they sleep. It was embarrassing to have her show up to class like that and I hope it reflects in her grade and not our over all group.

As the cycle isn't over yet I am sure there will be much more drama to come.

Ranking Corporation Speakers

I knew that being part of the GCB meant that I was going to have to rank each speaker but from the beginning I knew it was going to be something I dreaded. I hate judging people on speeches because I may feel as though they did worse than what they thought they did and I do not want to ruin someones day or make them feel defeated like I did when I received last place on my speech. As the first speakers from the corporations, the Corporate Managers, began to speak I had no idea how I was going to rank them. As I ranked them I wanted to ask Sarah and Caitlin the other GCB members what they were going to rank them but I decided it wasn't fair to do that. I had to follow my own instincts as to who I thought should be ranked first and who should be lost. I also learned that I can't always worry about upsetting people this is a class and it is my job to rank the speakers in the corporations. They may not always agree with the decisions I make but I have to stick to them. I never thought I would learn this much about myself from just ranking speeches in a class. I have always had a hard time following my own instincts and worrying too much about hurting other peoples feelings. It is also hard ranking people in the class because I have so many friends and people in the class I know in the class. I don't want my friends to be mad at me outside of class because I ranked them lower than they thought they deserved. There has not been nearly as much drama with the ranking process and my friends as I thought there would be. We are all around 22 years old and realize that what happens in class should not be taken outside of class. Overall, I have realized that I enjoy ranking the speakers because it challenges me to decide who deserves first and who deserves last.