McGregor (1966) developed a continuum of leadership orientations from Theory X
- which describes ‘traditional’ leaders who believe individuals are self-serving,
rather than organisation-serving, and therefore require inducements to perform to
achieve organisational goals - to Theory Y, where leaders instead believe that by
facilitating an organisational environment in which individuals can realise their
own self-actualising and self-motivational natures they can contribute successfully
to the success of their organisation.
Humanisation and motivation in a hospitality context
McGregor’s X/Y Theory raises an important issue for this research, specifically
that catering service workers are likely to exhibit a range of work-orientations.
Indeed, many catering service employees may be significantly lacking in
organisational-orientation; as Stamper and Van Dyne describe:
...a study of hospitality executives conducted by Enz (2001) indicated
that the number-one problem in this [the hospitality] industry is the
care and motivation of human capital. ...service-sector jobs are often
lowpay, high-stress vocations - two factors that typically work against
the quality of employee performance. In addition, the service industry
employs a large number of nontraditional employees, such as part-
time and temporary workers, who may not have strong organizational
loyalty or dedication to work, since such employees often tend to view
their jobs as short-term commitments.
(Stamper and Van Dyne 2003: 33)Bennis (1961: 26-27) described this issue in a more general context, pointing out
the “...uneasy balance between individual and organizational needs” and
highlighting the mismatch between individuals’ aspirations and the goals of
‘supra-individual entities’. As a caveat, however, while Bennis’s sentiments are
certainly germane, they are based neither on empirical research nor research in
workplaces: Bennis’s footnotes (op. cit.: 150), however, indicate that he was
extrapolating from “...earlier writings [which] deal with the relationship of man to
the state, the church, and the nation, [while] our present-day concern appears to
be mainly with man and the organization”.
So, the issue of employees’ work-orientations appears in the leadership literature
with McGregor’s X/Y Theory and is related to the hospitality context by the work