Y Theory Within Y Theory

As I was thinking about what to write about for this week, it dawned on me: This Communication Leadership and Conflict Management Project was a form of X Theory.

The amount of freedom we were given is crucial for being a form of theory Y.

• We were given the choice to pick what format we want to do the project in.
• We have the choice to choose whatever theory or strategy of our liking.
• We were given a flexible and doable weekly schedule to finish each post.
• We got to choose worked with or if we wanted to work alone.

I’ve enjoyed this project because it’s given me that ability to be creative, unlike many other projects that I’ve done in other courses over the years. Having to be responsible for remembering and doing a post each week would fall under the Y Theory. And having the ability to choose formats, topics, and all around blog design has allowed me to exercise self-direction. It’s an encouraging feeling that someone has high standards of me, and believes that I have the tools to decide and form something worth looking at, even if it’s just working on a blog over the span of a month.

It’s disappointing to when people think you’re unmotivated and lazy and unable to think for yourself. I like when it’s assumed that I enjoy working, because I really do. Some people just need to be given a chance, creative freedom, and a reasonable schedule to get quality work done. And this project has allowed that.

X & Y & Education

Week Five

Though we study the X & Y Theory so it may be applied management, it can also great for our learning environments.

Some professors don’t realize the importance of the biases that their students bring to on the first day of class. They snag these expectations from other students who had previously taken the class can effect their motivation and eventual success in the course they’re in (Markwell 323). Whether students have good or bad thoughts about a teacher can be greatly be based on their X or Y teaching style. These two quotes and lists of descriptions are each an example of what an X and a Y teacher would view their students as:

X Based Teachers:

“Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.”—John Maynard Keynes

·      Students have low desire to learn new things.

·      The teacher must control all situations to prevent cheating.

·      Students want to be directed and not have responsibilities.

·      The teacher has to be the source of information.

·      “Many students are not capable of learning the necessary material and can be expect to earn a low grade" (Markwell 324).

Y Based Teachers:

“Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them.”—John Ruskin

·      “Learning is as natural to students as play or rest.”

·      Students aren’t really lazy; and threats towards grades aren’t necessary.

·      Students have motivation to achieve own goals.

·      “Students will naturally accept responsibility for learning.”

·      They are naturally creative and will apply it to their work.

·      “The intellectual potential of most students are being only partially utilized in the classroom" (Markwell 324).

Most teachers aren’t strictly x or Y; there are always ones in the grey area. Also, many students will and have the ability to succeed no matter who the teacher is. But there is still a large amount of students that will be affected by the way their professor sets up the class and their style of teaching (Markwell 324). I don’t believe teachers should be soft and allow their students to take advantage of them, but with personal experience the classes with non-flexible teachers were my poorest and most miserable classes to slug through. I, and I’m sure many other of my peers, enjoy it much more when my teacher gives me the chance to be more responsible for my education and learning outcome. Not just given a massive amount of information to absorb, but to actually get the chance to have personal learning experience and grow, but still have the skeleton of a schedule and given deadlines.

Work Cited:
Markwell, John. "The Human Side of Science Education." BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION 32.5 (2004): 323-25. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

Which Do You Favor?

Week Five

I talked last week about how I believe I’m very much a Y Theory person, which most people are; but it wasn’t until I came across this quiz that I realized I might be a little more X Theory than I realized.

This would make sense, though. Because most texts specifically focus how the two theories are different, it’s easy for us to forget that the X and Y theory aren’t actually this black and white. We have the ability to apply or mix and match the two theories, because both ultimately have some good qualities that could be of great use.

My quiz results ended up being moderately Y, so there were some areas where I didn’t fully agree with Y and areas where X seemed to be the better choice. Here are my following results:

Y Theory:

I ended up being moderately Y theory. Most of my answers were 3s and 4s, and I only fully agreed with Y three times out of ten. While taking the quiz, I kept disagreeing with many X theory questions, but had to take into account that not every person works the same. For example, the first question ask "Most people will try to do as little work as possible. " I don't find this completely true at all. I personally like to go the extra yard with most everything I'm working on, but I'm not everyone. So I can't completely disagree, because some people may only care enough about a certain task, so they'll do as little as possible.

X Theory:

I didn't strongly agree once during the quiz, but did have one simple agree.  That was on question six, "Most employees would prefer increased job security to increased responsibility." With our currently economy, I find this question pretty true. We would much prefer to keep a solid job without the worry of losing it, than have the chance to move up and take a risk. That's it, most people are afraid of taking risks. Even I am. 

Modern Times

Week Three

This past week in my English class over Modernism, we watched the Charlie Chaplin film “Modern Times.” If interested, you can find the full movie here and the synopsis here. Bellow is the clip I’ll be reflecting on today. 

The clip you just watched is a perfect example of the X Theory, because Charlie's character was being treated like a robot that isn't capable of an original thought. They were making him work on a strict schedule because they assume he and his employees can only preform well and fast under these kinds of circumstances. Today I really just wanted to journal about why the Y Theory would personally fit me best.

I could never happily have a career in a job that supports the X Theory management. I like to think of myself as a creative person and would love to further pursue my love for photography and possibly land a job in another part of the creative industry, like advertising and so on… So the very thought of having all of my work planned out for me and on a very harsh and specific time schedule terrifies me. As a college student, I’m not going to be picky about my jobs just yet. Money is money; but having worked in the food industry, I already somewhat know how it feels to work under X Theory management. It’s just not for me.

I do need some kind of deadline and pressure for other people to really get my creative juices flowing, but if the stress is too much to handle, I just fall apart. It’s not a pretty site.

What always makes me most curious though, is does the Y Theory only apply to more creative thinkers? I found an example last week of how Ford’s employees thrived under the Y Theory even though it was an assembly line job. So maybe Chaplin’s character would’ve help a job better with some Y management in his life.