Quotes from Douglas McGregor

Most teams aren't teams at all but merely collections of individual relationships with the boss. Each individual vying with the others for power, prestige and position.

Relationships is a growing part of life; not life growing apart.

Above all, it is necessary to recognize that knowledge cannot be pumped into human beings the way grease is forced into a machine. The individual may learn; he is not taught.

It is probable that one day we shall begin to draw organization charts as a series of linked groups rather than as a hierarchical structure of individual "reporting" relationships. These

Delegation means that he will concern himself with the results of their activities and not with the details of their day-to-day performance. This requires a degree of confidence in them which enables him to accept certain risks. Unless he takes these risks there will be no delegation.

In an organization where promotion is the sole measure of success, most people are oriented to the job to which they hope to move next. Naturally, they want to be promoted in order to prove their value, so their performance on the present job is geared exclusively to those things which will get them out of it! This,

The requirement that authority must equal responsibility is not only impossible to fulfill; it is logically unnecessary except within a system which makes authority the exclusive means of influence. The

Perhaps the most critical point—and the one hardest to keep clearly in mind—is that help is always defined by the recipient. Taking an action with respect to someone because "it is best for him," or because "it is for the good of the organization," may be influencing him, but it is not providing help unless he so perceives it. Headquarters

There is disagreement. The group is comfortable with this and shows no signs of having to avoid conflict or to keep everything on a plane of sweetness and light. Disagreements are not suppressed or overridden by premature group action. The reasons are carefully examined, and the group seeks to resolve them rather than to dominate the dissenter.

It may be argued that intellectual achievement, as measured by consistently high grades in all subjects, is evidence of motivation and willingness to work. Perhaps it is—in the academic setting—but it is also evidence of willingness to conform to the quite arbitrary demands of the educational system. There

the group does not accept a simple majority as a proper basis for action.

Then it becomes necessary to get the field organisation to accept the help provided. This is normally the role of the Change Manager; to implement the change that no-one asked for or wants.

Man is a wanting animal - as soon as one of his needs is satisfied, another appears in its place. This process is unending. It continues from birth to death.

Man lives by bread alone, when there is no bread.

Our goal should be minimum standardization of human behavior.