As we know Douglas believes there are two types of employees and sorts them into either Theory X or Theory Y categories. Theory X of course being the kind of people who dislike work and feel like their managers are out for them, and feel like they are being controlled and do not really enjoy work and put in minimal effort. Whereas Theory Y is for people where work comes as natural as sleep and play and that these people have self direction and can just knuckle down do the job and do it well.

What I don't understand is where is the motivational part of this theory? As oppose to defining people it doesn't really do much to talk about how the employee needs to be motivated to be sorted into Theory Y, where as Maslows pyramid theory for example tells us what is required for motivation.

The reason I speak of this is I am writing an essay on 3 motivational theories and one of them is the X and Y but I just don't see how this theory sets out to motivate people, if anyone could explain this to me I would be thankful.

It's really difficult to read black text on a black background.