Christian anthropology considers what the Bible and the Church say about humanity. In modern societies, professional work within an organization provides one with the resources necessary to provide for oneself and their family. Because work is a subset of the human experience, it is a valid area of study for the Christian anthropologist. In particular, the Christian must consider their attitudes and leadership styles and corporate attitudes toward the individual worker. These attitudes are key indicators of any particular management theory.
Through scholarship, society's understanding of the Bible has evolved, just as our understanding of management theory has evolved. Like Martin Luther, who re-imagined the relationship between the church and the member, Douglas McGregor, is unmatched in his impact on modern management theory. In his classic text, Douglas McGregor identified two theories of management "Theory X" and "Theory Y." In doing so, he launched what would be called the "human relations movement."
Many scholars consider McGregor's work as meaningful and essential today as it was when it was written 60 years ago. Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld is one such Scholar and what follows is an assessment of Gershenfeld's 2006 work entitled The Human Side of Enterprise, Annotated Edition. In the latest release of McGregor's work, Gershenfeld strives to provide a modern context through a series of insightful annotations. This paper considers his contributions to the original work and reflections on McGregor's theories when viewed through a Christian anthropological lens.
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