Why Do Cultures Fail

We have looked at what builds a safety culture, but you also need to understand how it will fail. In many cases, a culture fails based on the management style. Every management rules with a different style. 

Douglas McGregor, who specialized in human behavior in organizations, is famous for his formulation of Theory X (authoritarian management) versus Theory Y (participative management [2]). 

Part of Theory X validates itself, but only because we have mistaken effects for causes. McGregor continues  

McGregor s Theory Y management approach was designed to tap employees potential (participation). This was based on his observations of the way management thinking had moved a considerable way from the traditional hard approach and the soft reaction that followed the Depression years [2]. McGregor developed six basic assumptions for Theory Y  

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