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The relationship of managers' Theory X and Theory Y assumptions to managerial participative behavior, employee commitment, and employee absenteeism
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to implicate managerial assumptions in employee commitment and performance. Twenty-eight first-line managers in a large insurance company was administered the Managerial Philosophies Scale to determine each manager's affinity for Theory X and Theory Y. Two-hundred-nineteen insurance claim processors who were subordinates of the managers were administered a scale of participative decision making which measured each subordinate's perception of his/her manager's participative behavior. Subordinates were also administered a scale of organizational commitment which measured commitment to the employing company. An absenteeism measure was obtained for each subordinate through the use of personnel records. In accordance with management theory posited by Douglas McGregor, it was expected that managers' subscription to Theory X assumptions would be associated with a tendency to seldom allow subordinates to participate in decision making; subordinates so treated were expected to exhibit low organizational commitment and high absenteeism. Conversely, it was expected that managers' subscription to Theory Y assumptions would be associated with a tendency to frequently allow subordinates to participate in decision making; subordinates would respond with high organizational commitment and low absenteeism. Results compatible with expectations were: Managers' use of participative decision making was positively related to subordinates' organizational commitment; and, there was marginal support for a positive relationship between managers' subscription to Theory Y and subordinates' organizational commitment. A result which was opposite from expectation was that managers' participative behavior and subordinates' absenteeism were positively rather than negatively related. Though there was a trend for managerial assumptions to be related to the subordinate attitude of organizational commitment, the study was unable to directly relate managerial assumptions to the subordinate performance measure of absenteeism.
Subject Area
Management
Recommended Citation
Logozzo, Richard Noel, "The relationship of managers' Theory X and Theory Y assumptions to managerial participative behavior, employee commitment, and employee absenteeism" (1989). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8917373.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8917373