2023年经济学人 关于激励员工的两种理论

（单词翻译）

Business

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

Theories X and Y

X理论和Y理论

A simple but profound way to think about management and motivation.

一种简单但深刻的思考管理和激励的方式。

Here are some handy rules of thumb.

以下是一些好用的经验法则。

Anyone who calls themselves a thought leader is to be avoided.

避免和任何自称为思想领袖的人打交道。

A man who does not wear socks cannot be trusted.

不穿袜子的人是不可信的。

And a company that holds an employee-appreciation day does not appreciate its employees.

举办员工感谢日的公司并不真的感谢员工的付出。

It is not just that the message sent by acknowledging staff for one out of 260-odd working days is a bit of a giveaway (there isn’t a love-your-spouse day or a national don’t-be-a-total-bastard week for the same reason).

这不仅仅是因为，在260多天的工作日中，只有一天向员工表示感谢，这暴露了公司的真实态度(同理，也从来没有“爱你老公/老婆”的节日或“做人不要太混蛋”的全国假日周)。

It is also that the ideas are usually so tragically¹ unappreciative.

而且也是因为，表示感谢的创意通常都可悲地毫无感谢之意。

You have worked hard all year so you get a slice of cold pizza or a rock stamped with the words “You rock”?

你一整年都勤恳工作，最后就得到了一片冷披萨，或者一块印有“你超赞”字样的石头？

This approach reveals more about the beliefs of the relevant bosses than it does anything about what actually motivates people at work (the subject of this week’s penultimate episode of Boss Class, our management podcast).

这种感谢方法更多地显示了老板的观念，而不是真地激励了员工(后者是本刊的管理学播客《老板课堂》在本周倒数第二集的主题)。

In a book published in 1960, called “The Human Side of Enterprise”, Douglas McGregor, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, divided managers’ assumptions about workers into two categories.

在1960年出版的《企业的人性面》一书中，麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院的教授道格拉斯·麦格雷戈将经理对员工的假设分为两类。

He called them theory X and theory Y.

他称其为X理论和Y理论。

McGregor, who died in 1964, was a product of his time.

麦格雷戈（于1964年逝世）是他所处时代的产物。

The vignettes in the book feature men with names like Tom and Harry².

书中小故事的主人公都叫汤姆、哈里这样的名字。

But his ideas remain useful.

但他的思考在如今仍然有用。

Theory X managers believe that people have a natural aversion to work; their job is to try and get the slackers to put in some effort.

相信X理论的管理者认为，人们天生厌恶工作，他们的职责就是让那些摸鱼的人努力工作。

That requires the exercise of authority and control.

这需要行使权力、进行控制。

It relies heavily on the idea of giving and withholding³ rewards to motivate people.

主要依靠给予和扣留奖励来激励人们。

Perks⁴ and pizza fit into this picture but pay is critical to theory X; work is the price to be paid for wages.

发放津贴和比萨饼的做法符合这种理论，但工资对X理论来说也至关重要，工作就是为了得到工资而付出的代价。

Theory Y, the one McGregor himself subscribed⁵ to, is based on a much more optimistic view of humans.

Y理论（麦格雷戈本人赞同的理论）基于对人类更为乐观的看法。

It assumes that people want to work hard and that managers do not need to be directive if employees are committed to the goals of the company.

这一理论假设员工想要努力工作，如果员工对公司的目标有信念，那么经理就不需要进行指挥。

It holds that pay can be demoralising if it is too low or unfair, but that once people earn enough to take care of their basic needs, other sources of motivation matter more.

而且工资太低或不公平可能会让人士气低落，但只要人们挣的钱足够满足基本需求，那么其他激励来源就变得更重要了。

In this, McGregor was a follower⁶ of Abraham Maslow, a psychologist whose hierarchy⁷ of needs moves from having enough to eat and feeling safe up to higher-order concepts like belonging, self-esteem and purpose.

在这一点上，麦格雷戈是亚伯拉罕·马斯洛的追随者，马斯洛是一位心理学家，他的需求层次理论从吃得饱和有安全感上升到更高层次的概念，如归属感、自尊和意义。

Theory X is not dead.

X理论没有灭亡。

It lives on in low-wage industries where workers must follow rules to the letter and in high-wage ones where pay motivates people long after they can feed themselves.

它存在于低薪行业，工人必须严格遵守规则，也存在于高薪行业，人们在不愁吃后依然一直受到工资的激励。

It surfaces in the fears of managers that working from home is a golden excuse for people to do nothing.

当经理们担心居家办公是人们不做事的黄金借口时，X理论就出现了。

It shows up in the behaviour of employees who phone in and bosses who bully⁸ and berate⁹.

当员工给工作单位打电话汇报工作，当老板进行职场霸凌、痛斥员工的时候，X理论也会出现。

Nevertheless, theory Y is in the ascendant.

尽管如此，Y理论方兴未艾。

You cannot move for research showing that if people think what they do matters, they work harder.

有研究表明，如果人们认为他们所做的事情很重要，那么他们就会更加努力地工作，对于这种研究你可能不为所动。

A meta-analysis of such research, conducted by Cassondra Batz-Barbarich of Lake Forest College and Louis Tay of Purdue University, found that doing meaningful work is strongly correlated with levels of employee engagement, job satisfaction and commitment.

森林湖学院的卡松德拉·巴茨-巴巴里赫和普渡大学的路易斯·泰对这类研究进行了元分析，结果发现，做有意义的工作与员工的参与度、工作满意度和敬业度密切相关。

Trust is increasingly seen as an important ingredient of successful firms; a recent report by the Institute for Corporate¹⁰ Productivity found that high-performing organisations were more likely to be marked by high levels of trust.

信任越来越被视为公司取得成功的一个重要因素，企业生产力研究所最近的一份报告发现，表现良好的组织更有可能具有高信任水平的特点。

Firms of all kinds are asking themselves Y.

各式各样的公司都在扪心自问“为什么”的问题。（双关，Y既指Y理论，也谐音why。）

Companies in prosaic¹¹ industries are trying to concoct¹² purpose statements that give people a reason to come into work that goes beyond paying the rent.

普通行业的公司正编造关于意义的声明，让人们有除了赚钱付房租以外的上班理由。

The appeal of autonomy and responsibility permeates¹³ the management philosophy not just of creative firms like Netflix but also of lean manufacturers that encourage employees to solve problems on their own initiative.

培养自主性和责任感的吸引力不仅渗透到网飞这样的创意公司的管理哲学中，也渗透到鼓励员工主动解决问题的结构精干的制造业公司的管理哲学中。

Some retailers¹⁴ have raised wages in the theory Y belief that reducing workers’ financial insecurity will improve employee retention¹⁵ and organisational performance.

一些零售商已经提高了工资，他们相信根据Y理论，减少员工的财务不安全感将提高员工的留任率和组织的整体绩效。

McGregor himself wrote that the purpose of his book was not to get people to choose sides but to get managers to make their assumptions explicit¹⁶.

麦格雷戈本人写道，他写这本书的目的不是让人们选择立场，而是让经理们明确表达自己的假设。

On this score he is less successful.

在这一点上，他没有取得太大成功。

It is still possible to run financially viable¹⁷ firms in accordance with theory X.

用X理论也有可能经营一家财务上没问题的公司。

It is impossible to admit it.

但要承认这一点是不可能的。