Expectancy Theory of Motivation Free Essays

The expectancy theory of motivation, which was first produced by Victor Vroom, has become a generally accepted theory for explaining how individuals make decisions concerning different behavioural alternatives. According to Vroom to motivate someone mere offer a person something to satisfy his important needs will not be adequate. In order for the person to be motivated, he must also be convincingly sure that he has the ability to obtain the reward. We will write a custom essay sample on Expectancy Theory of Motivation or any similar topic only for you Order Now An employee’s motivation increases when he values a particular outcome greatly and when he feels a reasonably good chance of achieving the desired goal. This definition states that: Any individual acts in a way to reach a maximal effect with a minimal effort. The first major expectancy theory was put forward by Victor Harold Vroom. The expectancy theory works on the basis that to achieve high motivation, hard productive work must gain a valued goal or reward for example in a workplace if you want more money, and more money will come if you work hard then we can predict that you will work hard. IF you still want more money, and all you think working hard will get you is smiles from the boss, an predict that you will chose not to work hard, unless you put a high value on smiles from the boss’(D. Buchanan A.Huczynski., 2004). Victor Harold Vroom formed the expectancy theory using three concepts: Expectancy, Instrumentality and valence. The equation that he made is: F (force motivation) =Ã ¥(V (Valence) x I (instrumentality) x E (expectancy)) The expectancy is the belief that one’s effort (E) will result in attainment of the desired performance goals. This belief, or perception, is generally based on an individual’s past experience, self confidence and the perceived difficulty of the performance standard or goal. Studies has suggested that the expectancy theory must be extended in order to consider the effects of the time between when the individual intended to act and when the actual behaviour took place; the connotation of previous behaviour on subsequent behaviour; and the sequence of behaviour(Saltzer, 1981). Hirokawa and Scheerhorn (1986) developed a model of group decision-making that supports general expectancy theory concepts. This model shows how groups come to decisions, which factors outcome in decisions, and how individual group members affect quality of the decisions. Also, studies shows that treating people as a group may have many benefits, but it also has many objectionable consequences (Hansen 1997). One of the major consequences is that individuals are proven to show less effort when performing collectively than when performing individually. Â  In ASKExpert case, Liz is an experienced system analyst and frequently absent from project meetings, by using Expectancy theory that supports decision-making in groups, it would help Liz to be more comfortable in project meetings. She can gather information from other employees’ of the company in addition to her own knowledge. The Expectancy Theory is a predictor of work motivation, effort expenditure and Job Performance. In the case of ASKExpert, a experienced program tester made a sudden resignation, leaving the company to seek another employee who doesn’t know the company procedures, therefore leaving the company in vulnerable position. Based on expectancy models of employee motivation found in the human resources management literature, it emphasizes the importance of providing employees with an understanding of what is expected of them if they are to contribute to service production and delivery, the capacity to meet those expectations and an incentive to do so. Expectancy theory can be used in this case to motivate employees who lack motivation due to whatever the reason, therefore leading to decreasing number of un-satisfied employees who looking for resignation. High motivation therefore results from high levels of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. If any one factor is low, motivation will be low. Managers should strive to ensure that employees’ expectancy are high so that they will be highly motivated. How to cite Expectancy Theory of Motivation, Essay examples Expectancy Theory of Motivation Free Essays Running head: EXPECTANCY THEORY OF MOTIVATION Expectancy Theory of Motivation Expectancy Theory of Motivation Companies need to understand the practice of motivation for them to achieve full output from its employees which will lead to full output from the company. The expectancy theory of motivation proposed by Victor Vroom will help companies to understand how to achieve this motivation level. The theory of motivation states that employee’s motivation is the outcome of how much of individual wants a reward. We will write a custom essay sample on Expectancy Theory of Motivation or any similar topic only for you Order Now The theory revolves around three distinct perceptions. The first component of the theory is the Effort-performance relationship. The provability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance (Robbins Judge, 2007, p. 208). The second component of this theory is Performance-reward relationship. The degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desire outcome (Robbins Judge, 2007, p. 208). The third component of this theory is Rewards-personal goals relationship. The degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual (Robbins Judge, 2007, p. 208). The Expectancy Theory of Motivation had to very important beliefs that help complete the above model. The first belief is that Effort-to-performance expectancy is the individual’s awareness that effort will lead to above performance. The person will determine if the performance expected of them can be reached by an amount of effort within their ability. If this person feels they can’t achieve this performance level within their abilities then the outcome to meet the goals will be low. This will cause the person motivation effort to be low. If the person feels that the performance level that is required of them is in reach of their abilities then they are likely put the extra effort in and be motivated. The second belief links performance to outcome through instrumentality. This is where a person is motivated when that person feels the performance is explicit and equal instrument to fulfill their personal outcome. Therefore a erson will be motivated if the person believes that meeting the performance of organization will bring their desired outcome. The other problem arises if the person does not feel their desired outcome will not be achieved then they may not put in any or very little effort to meet the performance of the organization and will they will not be motivated in the first place. The company management must set goa ls that can be attainable for the person to be motivated and succeed and benefit the person outcome. This can be achieved through a promotion, bonuses, and praise. The company from the given scenario has set the goal to produce goods of extra quality and the company is expecting employees’ level to be very high. Few of the employees have been able to handle these new processes. Then we have learned that the expectancy relationship has been fulfilled and is working. The problem with the given scenario must line somewhere within the instrumentality relationship. The given scenario shows there is no salary difference between the workers who are good performers and the workers who are the bad performers. One other point is that the bad performers bring penalties in their salary. The level of bonus that is offered for meeting the goal of the company is not high enough with the required effort according to the employees. Last thing about the scenario the amount of pay given for overtime is higher than the bonus given for performance and still overtime is created by because of the slow performance. The employees understand it is better to work slow and see better instrumentality then through fast work. Looking at the given scenario there has to be some items have to be addressed. One item that needs to be addressed is the slow work with some of the employees must have strict salary penalties. The next item to be addressed is that with better performance the bonus levels need to be compensated higher. This will make the employees that are capable running processes put in place by the company put in more effort to reach the performance desired as they will desire the new bonus. The employees that are not capable will put more of an effort and be motivated to reach the same desired higher bonus and not see a penalty in salary. The last item to be addressed is management should reorganize the operations so that the bonus pay is higher than the overtime work performed this way employees will not see the benefit of working the overtime as the performance bonus will be more desirable. We have shown the key features of the expectancy theory that was proposed by Victor Vroom which illustrated a scenario which we implemented corrective intervention to boost the efforts of employees. Reference Robbins, S. P. , ; Judge, T. A. (2007). Motivation Concepts. In (Ed. ), Organizational Behavior (pp. 208-214). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 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