Douglas McGregor

The Human Side of Enterprise.

© 1966 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From Leadership and Motivation, Essays of Douglas McGregor, edited by W. G. Bennis and E. H. Schein (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1966): 3–20. Reprinted with permission. I t has become trite to say that the most significant developments of the next quarter century will take place not in the physical but in the social sciences, that industry—the economic organ of society—has the fundamental know-how to utilize physical science and technology for the material benefit of mankind, and that we must now learn how to utilize the social sciences to make our human organizations truly effective. Many people agree in principle with such statements; but so far they represent a pious hope—and little else. Consider with me, if you will, something of what may be involved when we attempt to transform the hope into reality.