Conquer the BCSP Challenge 2025 – Elevate Your Safety Skills!

In Douglas McGregor's Theory X, the main source of employee motivation identified is money. This theory posits a somewhat pessimistic view of employees, suggesting that they inherently dislike work and need to be closely supervised and controlled. According to this perspective, employees are primarily motivated by financial compensation as a means to assure their performance.

This approach assumes that, since workers are not intrinsically motivated, external rewards like salary and bonuses become the main incentive to encourage desired behavior and productivity within the workplace. In Theory X, only through the promise of financial gain or the fear of financial loss can managers effectively drive employee performance.

The other options, such as recognition, work-life balance, and career advancement, while important in other motivational theories and for higher-level engagement, are not emphasized in Theory X, which maintains a focus on more basic, extrinsic motivations rather than intrinsic or developmental factors.