Biography

McGregor was born in Detroit, Michigan, and began his academic career in earnest in 1931, graduating the following year with a BA from the City College of Detroit. In 1932 he transferred to Harvard to read Psychology, and obtained an MA in 1933, followed by a PhD. in 1935.  

He remained at Harvard as an instructor in Social Psychology before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1937, where he became Professor of Psychology. From 1948 until 1954 he was the President of Antioch College in Ohio, and he returned to MIT as Professor of Industrial Management.

He evolved the alternative attitudes toward the worker of "Theory X" and "Theory Y".  X was based on the assumption that people did not want responsibility and worked as "a means to an end". This was his "throwaway" theory.  

He actually believed in "Theory Y", which assumed people wanted to work but required the information to take responsibility. McGregor published just one book, The Human Side of Enterprise (1960).

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