Free Essay On Expectancy Theory Of Motivation

Victor H. Vroom proposed the interesting Expectancy Theory of Motivation, who is a renowned researcher in the fields of motivation and leadership in organizations. According to this theory, the employees’ perception of the outcome will decide their level of motivation. The decisions taken by employees are aimed at increasing the pleasure and reducing pain. Vroom suggests that the link between work and outcome is not related very simply. Factors like knowledge, skills, attitude, abilities, and personalities can have significance bearing on the performance of employees.
According to Vroom, effort, performance, and outcomes are related by motivation and expectancy. Expectancy is a motive force that inspires workers to put their dedicated efforts. Efforts lead to first level outcome that is called performance. The effort to performance expectancy can be improved by:

Giving confidence to employees that they are competent enough to handle tasks and projects.

Matching of tasks with the skills and knowledge of the employees.
Clarification of tasks and availability of sufficient resources for accomplishing them
Behavioral modeling of employees
The performance to output expectancy is referred to as Instrumentality and it is one of the variables defined by Vroom in his theory. It can be increased by following the following tactics:

Gaining vivid idea about the relationship between performance and outcome

Trusting the management for rewarding the employees
Making the process transparent so that everyone knows who gets which outcome
Valence is another variable introduced by Vroom that signifies the weight or importance given by employees to the expected outcome. For example, bonus for good performance may not increase motivation of some employees. On the other hand, the rest of the employees might work even harder if they are rewarded with bonus. Valence can also be regarded as the catalyst for improving performance.
The crucial element of Vroom’s theory is that it is based on perceptions. .Hence, even if the employer has provided employees with the right kind of motivation to employees, it is not necessary that employees would perceive the conditions in the same way. The employees adopt their behavior based on their perception that certain actions will lead to their desired outcomes. The desire among employees to get rewards from their work is a great motivation for applying their full effort.
Consider a very simple application of Vroom’s theory of expectancy. An employee wants to get promoted based on his efficiency in work. The urge to raise his scale of employment is a motivation in this case. The first level outcome is that he will improve his performance and will give more output. The second level outcome will be dependent on his employer. The employer will promote the dedicated employee if organization’s criteria are met. Expectancy is involved between effort and first level outcome and the end result. Hence, employees choose from a set of behaviors to achieve a particular outcome, as inspired by their motivational forces.