First, the theory of human nature hypothesis
The concept of human nature of managers actually refers to their views and opinions on why people should work and how to motivate and manage people. Managers' view of human nature is an important part of their world outlook.
(A) the "economic man" hypothesis
"Rational-economic man" is also called utilitarian or "mercenary man". The hypothesis of economic man originated from Adam Smith's hedonism and was formed under the influence of rationalism in19th century. This assumption holds that all human actions are to satisfy their own interests to the maximum extent, and the work motivation is to obtain economic rewards. D. M. McGregor, an American management scientist, put forward two opposing management theories in his book "The Face of the Enterprise", among which Theory X is a generalization of the hypothesis of "economic man". Its basic views are as follows:
(1) Most people are lazy. They always try their best to avoid work.
(2) Most people have no ambition and are unwilling to take any responsibility, but they are willing to be guided by others.
(3) Most people's personal goals and organizational goals are contradictory, and they must be forced to work by means of coercion and punishment to achieve organizational goals.
(4) Most people work to meet their basic needs, and only money and status can make them work.
(5) People can be roughly divided into two categories, most of which are people who meet the above assumptions; The other is people who can encourage themselves and restrain their emotional impulses. These people should bear the responsibility of management.
Based on this assumption, the management mode is that the organization should make people obey and make achievements with economic rewards; The power and control system should be used to protect the organization itself and guide employees, and its management focus is to improve efficiency and complete tasks. Its management features are the establishment of various strict work norms and the strengthening of various laws and regulations. In order to improve morale, we should use money to stimulate and severely punish lazy people, that is, we should adopt the policy of "carrots and sticks". The famous Taylor system is the concrete embodiment of the hypothesis of "economic man"-X theory. Taylor takes "time-action" analysis as the starting point, only considers improving labor productivity, ignores workers' emotions, advocates strict separation between managers and production workers, and opposes workers' participation in management. Today, many enterprises in China are still using this backward management method, especially foreign-funded enterprises mainly engaged in processing trade.
(B) the "social person" hypothesis
"Social man" is also translated as "social man". This theory was put forward by Elton Mayo, a management scientist, in the book "Human Problems of Industrial Civilization" published in 1933, and has been continuously improved since then. Mayo 1927- 1932 conducted the famous Hawthorne experiment in the western electric appliance company outside Chicago, USA, including the lighting experiment, the welfare experiment and the welfare experiment. Hawthorne's experiment negates the traditional management on a series of important issues, thus negating the hypothesis of "economic man", and the hypothesis of "social man" holds that man is a social man and his social needs are the most important. Interpersonal relationship, staff morale and group psychology have an important influence on enthusiasm. Therefore, it is necessary to implement "participatory management" in management, pay attention to meeting the social needs of employees, care for employees, coordinate interpersonal relationships, and implement a collective reward system.
"automatic man" hypothesis
The hypothesis of "self-fulfilling man" is the hypothesis of "self-fulfilling man", which was first put forward by Maslow, a humanistic psychologist. Later, McGonagall put forward a management theory based on the hypothesis of "automatic man" humanity, and gave the opposite of "X theory" a "Y theory", which he explicitly denied and affirmed. The hypothesis of "automatic man" holds that man is independent and diligent, and the need for self-realization is the highest level of human needs. As long as this demand can be met, individual enthusiasm will be fully mobilized. The so-called self-realization refers to the full play of human potential; Only when people's potential can be expressed and developed can people have the greatest satisfaction. Therefore, management should create a good environment and working conditions to promote employees' self-realization, that is, to give full play to their potential, and emphasize the use of internal incentive mechanism to mobilize employees' enthusiasm through the factors of work itself.
"Complex people" hypothesis
The theory of "complex man" came into being in 1960s and 1970s. Its representative figures are Shane, Morse (J·J·Morse) and Losch (J·W· Losch). According to this theory, no matter "broker", "social person" or "automatic person", although each has its own rationality, it is not suitable for everyone. Because, a realistic person's psychology and behavior are very complicated, and people have individual differences. People not only have different needs and potentials, as far as individuals are concerned, their needs and potentials also change with the growth of age, the improvement of knowledge and ability, and the changes of roles and interpersonal relationships. People can't be regarded as a simple person. In fact, there is a specific "complex person". According to this theory, the "super-Y theory" in management science is put forward, that is, contingency theory. It believes that there is no fixed and universally applicable management model, and corresponding management measures should be taken according to the actual situation of the organization.
Second, the enlightenment of human nature hypothesis theory to today's management work
To sum up, theory X emphasizes norms, supervision in institutions, heavy rewards and heavy penalties in institutions, and centralized control. Y theory emphasizes coordination, attaches importance to education and training, highlights the participation system, and advocates creating opportunities for people. Super y theory advocates the combination of the two, taking contingency, adapting to local conditions and being flexible. These theories of human nature hypothesis provide a good inspiration for today's management work.
(A) managers should establish a correct view of human nature.
Human nature cannot be simply summarized by "economic man", "social man", "automatic man" and "complex man". Managers should rely on people, respect people and inspire people. First of all, managers should rely on people. In all the resources of an enterprise, the most important thing is not raw materials or physical capital, but people. There are many factors that determine the sustainable development of an enterprise, the most important of which is not technology and equipment, but employees who have mastered technology and operating equipment. This is the most precious wealth of an enterprise. This fundamentally depends on the transformation of human economic behavior from agricultural economy and industrial economy to knowledge economy era. At this time, the added value of products with knowledge as the main resource is high, and the possession of resources is not the most important. More importantly, the creative use of knowledge resources, people are the most important carrier of knowledge. Secondly, managers should respect people. The code of conduct of "maintaining continuous respect for everyone" should be the most basic and key criterion in people-oriented management. Because respect is the cornerstone of the value orientation and moral standards in the code of conduct, and it is also the norm to be observed in management. Finally, managers should learn to motivate people. The liberation of productive forces is first and foremost the liberation of human beings. This enterprise is full of vitality. How to stimulate and explore it, so as to maximize the enthusiasm and creativity of employees, release the hidden energy of employees, and let employees devote themselves to achieving the strategic goals of enterprises with great enthusiasm and creativity, is one of the important tasks of managers.
(2) Managers should take targeted management measures.
Managers need to conform to human nature from four aspects: 1, respect human nature to guide; 2. Conduct behavior shaping and manage with habits; 3. Create corporate culture and use culture to regulate behavior; 4. Pay attention to people's creativity and promote development with innovation. In short, it is necessary to fully understand the outstanding aspects of employees and the real psychological needs of employees at all levels according to the actual development of enterprises, which can be described as understanding all the laws related to "people"; After that, the concept of "people-centered" is established, and it can be said that it is the law of utilization to maximize the value of employees and ultimately ensure the value of enterprises by stimulating the enthusiasm and creativity of employees.
(3) Managers should combine adaptation with improvement.
It is necessary to establish a competitive mechanism and implement scientific incentives. By introducing competition, we can realize systematic talent incentive and build an environment for outstanding talents in enterprises to stand out. Talent motivation should be stimulated first, then stimulated, and encourage interaction. "Incentive" is to introduce competition and stimulate motivation, and "incentive" is to affirm and reward employees' ability and contribution. It is necessary to establish a learning incentive mechanism for enterprises through intensive training. Establish a three-dimensional and practical training mechanism combined with enterprise development, improve employees' own quality through training, so as to help employees realize their own value by improving their own quality, thus playing an incentive role. It is necessary to establish communication channels and introduce a smooth communication incentive mechanism to make employees feel recognized and respected and encourage them to work with greater enthusiasm.
(D) management should be "different from person to person" and "timely change".
Enterprises should adopt different management methods according to different development stages of enterprises, which further shows that there is nothing wrong with the so-called hypothesis theory of human nature, such as economic aid, social man, complex man and automatic man, but their applicable conditions are constantly changing. To this end, the application of different management methods can be implemented according to the following contents: First, different management methods are implemented for different types of employees in the enterprise, such as front-line production employees, technical developers and business marketers in the workshop. For front-line production employees, management methods that emphasize the hypothesis of economic man can be adopted. This kind of employees have a higher desire for material things than other employees, mainly because their income is relatively low. However, for technical developers or business people, we can adopt the management method that emphasizes the assumption of social people. Second, different management methods are adopted at different stages of enterprise development. For example, when the enterprise is just developing, it may be because of the low quality of employees, and the enterprise tends to be constrained by the system. With the continuous development of enterprises and the continuous improvement of staff quality, enterprises can gradually move from hard management to "soft management".
In short, enterprise management should be people-oriented, respect people's value, guide people with correct goals, manage people with scientific processes, motivate people with perfect mechanisms, cultivate people with strategic vision, and arm people with excellent culture, and finally establish a self-control, self-development and self-improvement management mechanism to stimulate employees' creativity and enhance the cohesion of enterprises, so as to continuously enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises and finally realize the goal of sustainable development of enterprises.