NY Times, Why we need healthcare reform, op.ed. President Obama, Response ap

President's op-ed piece in the today's New York Times reflects a previously stated position on revamping the healthcare program by relying on government. The President reminds the nation that "What we haven't heard are the voices of the millions upon millions of Americans who quietly struggle every day with a system that often works better for the health insurance companies than it does for them." This statement can be helpful if its focus is on a Theory "Y" concept of the population. Theory "Y" assumes several things, including the fact that expertise, ideas, and innovative concepts, are widely distributed among the public, not just at the top.

The late Douglas McGregor, wrote a classic management text entitled, The Human Side of Enterprise (1960,New York, Hill Book, Inc), which placed great emphasis on the contributions that can be made by the public toward setting goals. He recognized the inadequacy of management techniques which rely heavily upon authority and control as the sole, or even primary, method of accomplishing organizational objectives through people. He felt that "The philosophy of management by direction and control--regardless of whether it is hard or soft--is inadequate to motivate because the human needs on which this approach relies are relatively unimportant motivators of behavior in our society today. Direction and control are of limited value in motivating people whose important needs are social and egoistic (14, p. 49)"

When one blends McGregor's book with B.F. Skinner's work on reinforcement theory, even a President will soon discover that, people are inclined to support those goals and objectives they have had a part in formulating. Goals result from a cooperative effort, their formulation occurs not just from top down decree but from bottom up feedback as well. If the President's desire to hear from those millions of millions who struggle each day, with a system that's not working for healthcare, he will also hear from the same group about, unemployment increasing, rising prices, inability to buy school supplies, pay bills, crime, foreclosures, taxes, homeland security, national defense, rich getting richer, while the poor get poorer, in short, all current issues.

Americans are beginning to provide their inputs and will continue to speak out, and it will be most refreshing at the end of the day to learn that the White House, Congress, and those in leadership are listening and acting on citizen input. We will discover in the future if our leaders are "Theory Y," let's hope they are!