Expectancy Theory
It was put forth by Vroom (1964). It can be described as follows: “Whenever an individual chooses between alternatives which involve uncertain outcomes, it seems clear that his behaviour is affected not only by his preferences among the outcomes but also by the degree to which he believes these outcomes to be possible. An expectancy is defined as a momentary belief concerning the likelihood that a particular act will be followed by a particular outcome. The strength of expectations may be traced on past experiences.
Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory is one such most widely accepted theory of motivation currently in use. This has the strength of a tendency to act in a certain manner, which depends upon the strength of an attractiveness of that outcome to the individual. In other words, theory says that, an employee will be motivated to exert high level of effort when he believes that efforts will lead to a good performance appraisal. And this will lead to organizational rewards in many ways, which in turn will satisfy the personal goals of the employees. The employee’s expectation is in the form of promotion, an increment in salary or a certificate or incentive. etc. The theory, therefore, concentrates on three types of relationships.
- Efforts performance relationship: The individual preside the probability that exerting a particular amount of efforts leads to performance.
- Performance reward relationship: The individual’s degree of belief that performing at a particular level will lead to reaching a desired outcome.
- Rewards personal goals relationship : This is the degree to which the organizational rewards satisfy an individual goals or need and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individuals
Expectancy theory explains or rather helps to explain why some workers are not motivated on their jobs and restrict them to minimum and necessary work. To summaries, the key to expectancy theory understands of the individual goals as well as the linkage between his efforts and performance and the performance and rewards and lastly between the rewards and individual goals satisfaction.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This theory is one of the most famous hypothesizing that within every human being there exists 5 needs in a hierarchical structure. These needs are:
- Physiological: This includes hunger, sex, shelter, thrust and a few bodily needs.
- Safety : This includes protection from physical and emotional harm as well as security
- Social: This includes acceptance, belongings, affection as well as friendship.
- Esteem: This includes the internal esteem factors such as autonomy, achievement and self-respect. Similarly the external esteem factors include status, recognition and attention to physiological need.
- Self-actualization: This means drive to become what one is capable of becoming. This, therefore, includes self-fulfillment, growth and achievement of one’s potentiality.
Maslow’s theory separated these 5 needs in two categories, namely lower order needs that are satisfied externally which include physiological and safety needs and the high order needs which are satisfied internally incorporating social, esteem and self-actualization needs. Though Maslow’s theory received reorganization vary widely from, managers, there is a criticism that the organizations did not either follow or support the need structures as proposed by Maslow. Perhaps this might be due to stringent organizational policies in the past or the reorganization by the organizations about the importance of this theory. His theory, based on needs, suggested a need hierarchy that apply to people. He says that an individual’s needs involve physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization.
Herzberg’s Two Factor Model
Herzberg, in 1957, suggested a two-factor model based on the study of accountants and engineers. His observations were as below: Employee’s wants can be divided into two groups. The one group that includes salary, working conditions etc, which, if not satisfied, creates dissatisfaction, though do not lead to explicit motivation. On the other hand, there are factors such as rewards, advancement career progression etc, which give positive satisfaction. His theory has been heavily criticized by many. His model provides an overall picture of the factors that generally satisfy the employee and those which positively motivate the employees.
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
This is also known as motivation-hygiene theory. Herzberg was a psychologist and he believed that, an individual’s relation to work is basic and one’s attitude towards work can determine success or failure. He got the response for his questionnaire answered by several employees. His intention was to identify what the employee’s wants from their job. He also expected from them the situation in which they felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs. This resulted into certain characteristics constantly related to job satisfaction and others to job desertification.
Factors that lead to extreme dissatisfaction, in order of merit in terms of frequency where organizational policies and administration, type of supervision and the relation with supervisor, work environment, salary followed by comparatively low factors like status, personal relationship, etc. Alternatively, the factors relating to high satisfaction included similarly in order of importance achievements, recognition, work involvement, responsibility as well as advancement and growth. 69% of factors contributing to dissatisfaction were hygienic in nature. And 19% hygienic factors contributing to job satisfaction were hygienic in nature; the remaining factors in both the categories were respectively 31% and 81% and were motivator factors.
Attribution Theory
It is concerned with how we explain our performance after we have invested considerable .b 0effort and motivation in a particular task. Four types of explanations may be used to account for either success or failure – ability, effort, task, difficulty or luck. e.g.: if success or failure is explained in terms of efforts, then high motivation may follow. On the other hand, if failure to achieve the level of performance is explained in terms of task difficulty or bad luck, the results may be a loss of motivation. Incorrect attribution may be the result of inadequate feedback, communication, appraisal and guidance. Attribution errors can create many problems in work situation.
The theory suggests that, on observing an individual’s behaviour, we try to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination largely depends upon,
- Consensus
- Consistency
- Distinctiveness
Internally cause behaviours are those that are under the persona control of the individual. Externally caused behaviours are seen as resulting from outside cause. When everyone is faced with a similar situation and responds in the same way, it means the behaviour shows consensus. Consistency of a person lies in the response which is the same way over different times.
The attribution theory incorporated what are known as errors as biases that distort attributions. The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behaviour of others results in causing fundamental attribution errors. Similarly, the tendency for individual to attribute their own success to internal factors while casting the blame for failures on external factors results in self-serving bias. This theory was developed in the developing countries of the West and therefore they may not be perhaps accepted in the other parts of the world due to the traditions with which the people are governed in the remaining atmosphere. This theory can perhaps be connected to perceptions. The factors that influence perceptions are of three categories, namely:
- Factors in the perceiver: These are attitudes, expectations, experience, interest and motives.
- Factors in the target: They are proximity, motion, novelty, similarity, size, etc.
- Factors situationally: Social setting, time and work setting.
All these interlinked have to contribute to the attribution theory positively.
Equity Theory
It is concerned with the perceptions people have about how they are being treated as compared with others. To be dealt with equitably is to be treated fairly in comparison with another group of people or a relevant other person. This theory attempts to say that, people will be better motivated if they are treated equitably and demotivated if they are treated inequitably. There are two forms of equity. Distributive equity is concerned with the fairness with which people will feel they are rewarded in accordance with their contributions and in comparison with others. On the other hand, procedural equity is concerned with the perception employees have about the fairness with which organization procedures in areas such as performance appraisal promotion and discipline are being operated.
In 1990, identified five factors that contributed to perception of procedural fairness were identified. They are:
- Adequate consideration of an employee’s view point
- Suppression of personal bias towards the employee
- Applying criteria consistently across employee.
- Providing early feedback to employees concerning the outcome of decisions.
- Providing employees with an adequate explanation of the decision made.
Requirements for job satisfaction may include high pay, equitable payment system, opportunities for promotion, considerate and participative management, social interaction at work, interesting and varied tasks and a high degree of control over work place and work methods. The degree of satisfaction obtained by individuals however, depends largely on their own needs and expectations and the environment in which they work. No positive strong connection between satisfaction and performance is yet established. A satisfactory worker is not necessarily a high producer and vice versa.
