In today’s digital world, employment has become much easier to find. Gone are the days of buying newspapers, looking over countless job ads, mailing in resumes, and waiting days for a response. Anyone can access employment sites such as monster.com, indeed.com, or snagajob.com and find their dream job. The specificity of job search engines have made it easy to find a particular job in a particular field, click the submit resume button to apply for it, and move on. Tens or even hundreds of jobs can be applied for in no time at all. All of this makes it very easy for a disgruntled employee to easily obtain employment elsewhere. Companies must work much harder to attract and retain competent employees.
Once hired, in order to retain competent employees, management can use many tools. One of the tools at their disposal is Expectancy Theory, first suggested by Yale University Professor Victor H. Vroom. As explained by Brian Redmond and Shaun Miller (2013), the theory suggests that an individual's perceived view of an outcome will determine the level of motivation. Some employees are motivated by money, while others prefer recognition for a job well done, a corner office, or the parking space closest to the building. Each person is different. Therefore, no one size fits all solution will work.
There are three key components to Expectancy Theory, expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. Expectancy can be described as the belief a person has that the more effort they put into a task, the more favorable the outcome will be. For instance, if a carpenter makes sure all the angles in the addition he is building are 90 degree angles, the addition will be perfectly square; thereby making it easier for the sheetrock to be hung, new hardwood to ...
... middle of paper ...
... numbers also reinforces management’s position that the bonus is based on production numbers and nothing else. The expectancy concept of Expectancy Theory is demonstrated by the higher effort employees put into achieving production numbers. The concept is also reinforced by the training program. Employees who are properly trained have the tools to perform their job in a more confident manner. By utilizing the three concepts of Expectancy Theory, management has created a positive and profitable working environment for everyone involved.
References
Expectancy Theory. (2013, September 21). In PSYCH 484: Work Attitudes and Job Motivation. Retrieved January 2, 2014 from https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/PSYCH484/4.+Expectancy+Theory
The plan paid out bonuses regularly along with paying a percentage of the labor savings each month. Which motivated all of the employees to increase their morale and increase their productivity. However, the only misleading part about the Scanlon plan was that the employees began to believe that the bonus was part of their regular paycheck, instead of relating the bonus with their own improved efforts they put into the company. Therefore, expectancy theory has been a dominant model in explaining how people make decisions regarding effort expenditure at a workplace; the conventional approach while applying the theory involved in multiplying the outcomes such as pay raise or promotion by expectancy of an outcome that will occur if a person works hard. (Biberman, G., Baril, G. L., & Kopelman, R. E., 1986, p.2). Furthermore, the results in the expectancy theory would be obtained by a motivational force score that would possibly predict work effort and job performance across the employees. So, it is ideal that the employees would respond in a positive manner to the following three essentials for them to employ extra effort and performance on a specific job. The three essentials are the following: expectancy, instrumentality and valence are linked to motivation. If an employee feels valued and rewarded for the efforts they’ve
expectancy effect. Journal of personality and social psychology. (Vol. 13(4), pp. 306-316). Ontario: US: American Psychological Association.
In this case of Abigail Reesor vs. Stonecrest Manufacturing Ltd., Stonecrest is a company with a very high turnover rate and is incapable of appropriately motivating their employees. Abigail's motivation to work was destroyed throughout her one year she worked at Stonecrest. In the beginning before starting her job Abigail's motivation can be related to Expectancy Theory, she believed that if she worked hard enough that she would receive her desired outcome. In this case she took the job hoping that her hard work will ensure that she will get compensated equally and this also relates to instrumentality as she believed her performance will lead to the outcome of making more money. This was the first incident that affected her motivation to work,
Expectancy Theory suggests that human actions are guided by the expected results of those actions (Expectancy Theory). It proposes that humans act in a certain way only if they believe that that the action is going to result in a certain desired outcome. Therefore, this theory acknowledges that humans exercise choice on their actions. This choice is exercised in three different ways, which are classified as expectancy, Instrumentality, and valence (Expectancy Theory). Expectancy refers to the knowledge and belief that one can effectively do a particular action; instrumentality refers to the belief that one will be rewarded upon effectively executing a particular action, and valence refers to the level of value a person places on the rewards being offered after properly executing a particular action (Expectancy
When compared, both theories achievement – power- affiliation theory and expectancy theory resemble each other. Both theories can be utilized as strategies for gaining employee buy-in for the upcoming change. Achievement-power-affiliation theory, persons have a specific goal in mind to work towards, and takes responsibility for their own actions. I feel this theory will be effective in promoting employee acceptance of the upcoming changes due to the fact that some employees like to stand out from others in departments, and others may be motivated to stand out with new changes. Expectancy Theory persons, also have goals in mind, but their way to achieve their goals are that is based on past experiences and self confidence. I also feel the expectancy theory will be effective in promoting employee acceptance of the upcoming changes because most employees will know in advance that they will be rewarded by pay increase, advancements in the departments. Expectancy Theory people are committed, and motivated so because organizations rely heavily on employees to produce quality of goods and services produced in organizations.
Expectancy- Employees have different levels of expectations and levels of confidence about what they are capable of doing.
There are multiple examples of expectancy theory. But, I will only talk about vroom’s theory as an example. Vroom's expectancy theory “assumes that behavior results from conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain” (If.eng.cam.ac.uk). Vroom shows that he understands that a representative's execution depends on individual components, for example, identity, attitudes, information, experience, and capacities. He expresses that although the employees may have a different set of goals, they can be motivated if they believe that:
Latham G.P and Pinder C.C. (2005). Work Motivation Theory and Research at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century. Annual Review of Psychology 56.
Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) as one of the influential motivation theories has a long history in Education and Psychology. This theory claims that “individuals’ performance on different activities will be influenced by what an individual expects and how much the individual values the things that are expected” (Wigfield et al., 2011, p.10). This means that expectancies and values are supposed to be
Yet, despite the criticism, Herzberg’s theory still holds merit in many managerial situations. Experts have built their theories on the foundations of the motivator-hygiene theory to better explain worker motivation. Among the most prominent is the expectancy theory or Victor
Research has shown that motivation in an employee is an important factor which determines his performance. Motivation is the “driving force within individuals” (Mullins, 2007, p. 285). It is the concerned with finding out the reasons which shape and direct the behaviour of the individuals. The people act to achieve something so that they can satisfy some needs (Gitman and Daniel, 2008). It is important for the manager to understand this motivation of individual employees in order to inspire them and devise an appropriate set of incentives and rewards which would satisfy the needs that they have individually (Kerr, 2003). Once these needs are expected to be met in return for some specific behaviour or action, they would work more diligently to have that behaviour in them and to achieve that objective (Meyer and Hersovitch, 2001). Since it would lead to early and fuller achievement of the company objectives as the individual would work more diligently, it would lead to better organizational performance (Wiley, 1997).
Motivation play an important role in today’s work environment as motivated employees are more productive employees. However, the ways how we motivate the employees have to be improved from time to time as employees are being more demanding and that they are more concern about their needs than before. Motivational strategies have probably affected the most by employee concerns and values (Greiner 1986, p. 82). ‘A motivational strategy is any effort to induce employees to initiate and sustain activities that can directly or indirectly improve service productivity’ (Greiner 1986, p. 82). Motivation can have an effect on the output of your business and concerns both quantity and quality. For example, if you are in a manufacturing company, your business actually relies heavily on your production staff to make sure that quality product are being produce and being delivered to your client at the right time. However, if your production employees are lack of motivation they will be not motivated to produce the amount of product demanded, thus will be very costly. In the essay below, we will be discussing on the strength and weaknesses of McClelland’s acquired needs theory and the expectancy theory.
In this article, Alan Wigfield talks about the expectancy-value model that was developed by Eccles et.al. The main idea behind the expectancy-value model is it shows that children’s achievements are based on two things expectancy and value. According to Eccles et.al. value has four major components the importance of doing the task (attainment value), the enjoyment one gains when doing the task (intrinsic value), how can the task fit into future plans (utility value), and finally what one has to give up or the amount of effort need to put in in order to reach your achievement (Cost).
In daily life, we need motivation to improve our performance in our job or in studies. Motivation is an internal force, dependent on the needs that drive a person to achieve. In the other words, motivation is a consequence of expectations of the future while satisfaction is a consequence of past events (Carr, 2005). We need to give reward to our self when we did correctly or we has achieve our target. Reward is something that we are given because we have behaved well, worked hard, or provided a service to the community. Theories of motivation can be used to explain the behavior and attitude of employees (Rowley, 1996; Weaver, 1998). The theories include content theories, based on assumptions that people have individual needs, which motivate their action. Meanwhile according to Robbins (2001), motivation is a needs-satisfying process, which means that when a person's needs are satisfied by certain factors, the person will exert superior effort toward attaining organizational goals. Schulze and Steyn (2003) affirmed that in order to understand people’s behavior at work, managers or supervisors must be aware of the concept of needs or motives which will help “move” their employees to act.Theories such as Maslow (1954), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) and Alderfer (1969) are renowned for their works in this field. The intrinsic reward or also be known as motivators factors is the part of Herzberg motivation theory. Motivators are involve factors built into the job or the studies itself such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job such as interpersonal relationship, salary, supervision and company policy (Herzberg, 1966. There have two factors that are called hygiene fac...
The next theory is expectancy theory of motivation: expectancy theory of motivation suggest that we think about our future. We create different expectations about what is going to happen next, and we always want a positive outcome. We believe that we have the ability to get the best. This motivate us to work hard in order to achieve the goal towards we work. This theory of motivation is the best tool for students because if we hope then only we can work. If we use expectancy theory to motivate our students then we can aspect that each student have their own goal and positive expectation to achieve good