In the 1960s, Douglas McGregor, one of the key thinkers in the art of management, developed the mow famous Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X is the idea that people instinctively1 work and will do anything to avoid it. Theory Y is the view that everyone has the potential to find satisfaction in work.
In any case, despite so much evidence to the2, many managers still agree to Theory X. They believe,3 , that their employees need constant supervision if they are to work effectively, or that decisions must be imposed from4 without consultation. This, of course, makes for authoritarian (专制的) managers.
Different cultures have different ways of 5people. Unlike authoritarian management, some cultures, particularly in Asia, are well known for the consultative nature of decision-making—all members of the department or work group are asked to6 to this process. This is management by the collective opinion. Many western companies have tried to imitate such Asian ways of doing things, which are based on general7. Some experts say that women will become more effective managers than men because they have the power to reach common goals in a way that traditional8 managers cannot.
A recent trend has been to encourage employees to use their own initiative, to make decisions on their own without9 managers first. This empowerment (授权) has been part of the trend towards downsizing:10the number of management layers in companies. After de-layering in this way, a company may be11 with just a top level of senior managers, front-line managers and employees with direct contact with the public. Empowerment takes the idea of delegation (委托) much further than has12 been the case. Empowerment and delegation mean new forms of management control to13 that the overall business plan is being followed, and that operations become more profitable under the new organization, rather than less.
Another trend is off-site or14 management, where teams of people linked by e-mail and the Internet work on projects from their own houses. Project managers evaluate the15of the team members in terms of what they produce for projects, rather than the amount of time they spend on them.
