Douglas McGregor, One of the great leaders in management and human motivational theories, founded a theory of two main models of employees, called these two models “Theory X and Theory Y” [i]; while “Theory X” assumes that employees are lazy by nature and not willing to work unless they have to, “Theory Y” assumes the opposite, that employees are willing to work by nature, they just need guidelines on how to perform their tasks and the required tools.
However, during my work experience with Egyptian managers whether in-boarders or out-boarders of Egypt, I found that most of the Egyptian management style is leaning towards the “Theory X” more than “Theory Y”, assuming in most cases that employees would always try to escape from assigned duties or avoid handling responsibilities, leading to more investment in monitoring systems within the workplace, implementing strict attendance systems; and in extreme cases, using Wi-Fi Smart Cards for tracking employees locations within the organization; but, Is that really going to increase productivity and employee engagement?
The Theory X adopting managers – whether consciously or unconsciously – are avoiding another dimension, which is the effect of the hygiene factors on employee’s job satisfaction (Herzberg’s motivation theory[ii]), hygiene factors are the factors that lead to dissatisfaction about employees’ assigned job; that includes – but is not limited to – 1) Lack of privacy, 2) Lack of credibility, 3) and lack of line manager’s trust. Job dissatisfaction could lead as well to an increased rate of absenteeism[iii], which in turn might lead to a degradation of organizational culture and increase manpower cost significantly[iv].
On the other hand, While using technology could lead to mentioned characteristics of disengagement, it was found as well that technology could be used to attain a better level of engagement; at the end, technology is a tool like any other tool that could be used for good or bad, with the same level of efficiency or inefficiency according to the way it gets utilized. A new trend was found in mostly all HRIS systems these days, which is the integration with social media, whether the solution provided by Oracle, Workday, Microsoft,… etc. we could find that Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are becoming an essential component of any HRIS proposed solution, but, how could that deliver a better employee engagement in workplace?
According to the Facebook latest statistics, the number of Facebook users exceeds 1.45 Billion active users[v], compared to the 6 billion which makes up the world population, which means that nearly 1 out of every 4 persons on earth is connected to Facebook, the ratio could be even higher if ignored we the underage population.
So, the direction was to redirect that wasted energy within the cyber space into the work environment, by creating a parallel space for employees to exhale their ideas and inventions as well as their depression and negative feelings; and in top of all that, to build better work-relationships between employees that could amount into a family-relationship, As advised by Jennifer Lumba [vi], “Getting Personal” was number 1 of her recommendations on using social media to boost employee engagement in workspace.
However, what could be the role of the HR department in this new trend?
Actually, according to the HR neutral role in the relationship between employees and managers, HR is found to be the only party that could manage such tools, to direct discussions and conversations of employees into the right direction, into more engagement of employees, the burden of managing such new trend is huge, and would require new skills-set on HR practitioners, they have to be more open to change themselves, more updated with tools and techniques required to manage such stream, and more equipped.
So, HR practice has to change to adapt; so that they could help organization to change as well.
Finally, as technology could be used to support Theory X adopters and lead to disengagement, it could support as well Theory Y adopters and lead to an increased employees’ engagement; so, let’s be positive as HRians, and use it wisely.
By: Aladdien Mohamed, 30th Sep 2015
Photography: Mahmoud Mansi
EDITOR: Mennatullah Zeineldin
This article is a product of a writing competition organized by Global HR Forum & HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine. Mr. Aladdien Mohamed was honorably one of the shortlisted winners in the HR Writer Competition. Judging Panel: Mahmoud Mansi, Dina Marei, Alia Faramawi, Ahmed Saadalla, Nada Adel Sobhi. General Coordinator: Ms. Nour Elzeny.
[i] (Theory X and Theory Y, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y, , 30th Sep,2015)
[ii] (Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-factor_theory , 30th Sep,2015)
[iii] (A Study of the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction, https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/3429/fulltext.pdf?sequence=1, 30th Sep, 2015)
[iv] (A Study of the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction, https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/3429/fulltext.pdf?sequence=1, 30th Sep, 2015)
[v] (Facebook: number of monthly active users worldwide 2008-2015, http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/, 30th Sep, 2015)
[vi] (Top 10 Tips For Using Social Media to Boost Employee Engagement, http://www.incentivemag.com/Strategy/Ask-the-Experts/Jennifer-Lumba/Top-10-Tips-For-Using-Social-Media-to-Boost-Employee-Engagement/, 30th Sep, 2015)