Bryant Devine
MGMT 500 - Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
Management
November 3, 2013
Dr. Whitney Stevens
Southwestern College Professional Studies
Assumptions:
 Work is inherently distasteful.
 Most people are not ambitious, or have no desire
for responsibility, and want to be directed.
 Most people have no capacity for creativity in
solving organizational problems.
 Motivation happens at security and physiological
level.
 People must be controlled and coerced to complete
organizational goals
Assumptions:
 Work is as natural as play, if conditions are right.
 Self control is crucial in achieving organizational
goals.
 The need for creativity while solving
organizational problems is evenly distributed.
 Motivation happens at the esteem, selfactualization, and social levels. Also motivation
happens at the security and physiological level.
 People are able to be creative and self-directed if
motivation is appropriate.
 Both
are not polar opposites, or at different ends of
the spectrum.
 Are

conducive in analyzing assumptions
creates a bias towards Participative Decision
Making or PDM.
oppressive autocratic
leadership style
 liaise-faire democratic
leadership style
 assumptions are
correlated to the amount
of PDM

four readiness level’s
and four leadership
style’s
 dependent on current
demands, task behavior,
inter team support, or
relationship behavior.
 maturity level is factored
into the variables
 allows leaders to reward
and develop their
followers


Cunningham, R. A. (2011, September/October). DOUGLAS MCGREGOR- A LASTING
IMPRESSION. Retrieved from Ivey Business Journal.

Hersey, P. B. (2013). Management of organizational behavior: Leading human
resources (10th ed.). Prentice Hall.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge (5th ed.). San
Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

Pierce, J. L., & Newstrom, J. W. (2011). Leaders and the Leadership Process (6th ed.).
New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Russ, T. L. (2011). Theory X/Y assumptions as predictors of managers’ propensity for
participative decision making. Management Decision, 49(5), 823-836. Emerald Group
Publishing Limited. Retrieved from Emerald insight.

Smothers, J. (2011, July). Assumption-Based Leadership: A Historical Post-Hoc
Conceptualization of the Assumptions Underlying Leadership Styles. Journal of
Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 16, 44. Retrieved from
https://learn.sckans.edu/courses/1/MGMT500PA2013FALL02PS2/groups/_7762_1//
_501789_1/assumption%20based%20leadership.pdf