Expectancy Theory of Motivation
Summary
TLDRThis lesson explores the expectancy theory of motivation, which explains why individuals behave in certain ways at work. Developed by Victor Vroom in 1964, the theory states that behavior is driven by the expected outcome. The key components—expectancy, instrumentality, and valence—determine motivation. The lesson emphasizes how managers can use this theory to motivate employees by linking rewards to performance, ensuring transparency, and tailoring rewards to individual needs. While effective, the model has limitations, such as oversimplification and ignoring external factors that affect performance.
Takeaways
- 📈 Expectancy theory explains why people choose certain behaviors in the workplace, often to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
- 🎯 Expectancy theory, developed by Victor H. Vroom in 1964 and extended by Porter and Lawler in 1968, is based on making conscious choices from possible alternatives.
- 💡 The theory involves three key variables: expectancy, instrumentality, and valence, all of which must be present to motivate employees.
- 🔍 Expectancy is the belief that effort will lead to hitting performance targets, influenced by factors like past experience and perceived difficulty.
- 🔗 Instrumentality refers to the belief that achieving a target will lead to a reward, depending on factors like trust and transparency in the decision-making process.
- 🏆 Valence is the perceived value of the reward, which can be positive, negative, or neutral, depending on the employee's personal motivation.
- 📊 The formula for motivation in expectancy theory is: Motivation = Expectancy x Instrumentality x Valence. All three factors must be high for strong motivation.
- 👨💼 Managers can use this model to create motivated teams by linking rewards directly to performance and ensuring rewards are transparent and desirable.
- 💼 Real-world applications include setting achievable weekly targets with immediate rewards to build team trust and improve performance.
- ⚖️ The theory has limitations, such as its simplicity and lack of consideration for external factors like personal issues that may affect performance.
Q & A
What is the expectancy theory of motivation?
-The expectancy theory of motivation explains why people behave in certain ways in the workplace. It states that individuals choose behaviors based on what they expect the outcomes to be. People are motivated to act when they believe the result of their actions will be beneficial to them.
Who developed the expectancy theory of motivation, and when?
-The expectancy theory of motivation was developed by Victor H. Vroom in 1964. It was later extended by Porter and Lawler in 1968.
What are the three variables of expectancy theory?
-The three variables of expectancy theory are expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. All three must be present to motivate employees effectively.
What does 'expectancy' mean in the context of expectancy theory?
-'Expectancy' refers to the belief that if an individual works hard, they will be able to meet their targets or performance levels. This judgment is based on factors such as past experience, confidence in their ability, the difficulty of the task, and whether the target is under their control.
How does 'instrumentality' factor into motivation according to the theory?
-'Instrumentality' is the assessment of how likely an individual is to receive a reward if they meet their performance targets. Factors influencing this include the clarity of the connection between performance and rewards, trust in the decision-makers, and the transparency of the reward process.
What is 'valence' in expectancy theory?
-'Valence' refers to the perceived value of the reward to the individual. It can be positive if the individual is motivated by the reward, zero if they are indifferent, or negative if they want to avoid the reward.
What is the formula for motivation in expectancy theory?
-The formula for motivation in expectancy theory is: Motivational Force (MF) = Expectancy × Instrumentality × Valence. This means that motivation is determined by how achievable the target is, how clear the reward is, and how much the reward is valued.
How can managers use expectancy theory to motivate their teams?
-Managers can use expectancy theory by ensuring that rewards are directly linked to performance, making the reward system transparent, and offering rewards that are genuinely desired by employees. This approach helps in creating motivated, high-performing teams.
Can you give an example of using expectancy theory to improve team performance?
-One example is a new manager dealing with a team that has low morale. The manager sets short-term achievable targets with immediate rewards, such as extra spending money for the weekend. This builds trust and motivates the team by linking performance to desirable rewards.
What are some disadvantages of expectancy theory?
-The theory can be overly simplistic, as it doesn't account for situations where individuals act against their best interests. It also ignores external factors like personal problems that could affect performance, and it may be challenging to implement in large organizations where rewards are tied to overall company performance.
Outlines
📈 Introduction to Expectancy Theory
This paragraph introduces the expectancy theory of motivation, which explains why people behave in certain ways in the workplace. It provides an example of an employee who works hard in anticipation of promotions or pay raises, illustrating how individuals are motivated by expected outcomes. The theory, developed by Victor H. Vroom in 1964 and later extended by Porter and Lawler in 1968, suggests that people choose behaviors based on the expected result, maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Managers can use this theory to understand and influence employee decisions and behaviors.
⚖️ Key Variables of Expectancy Theory: Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence
This paragraph explains the three core variables of expectancy theory: expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. Expectancy is the belief that effort will lead to achieving targets, influenced by factors such as past experience, confidence, and target difficulty. Instrumentality refers to the belief that meeting targets will result in rewards, based on trust and the clarity of reward processes. Valence is the perceived value of the reward, which can be positive, negative, or neutral. These three factors must align for employees to be effectively motivated.
🧮 The Expectancy Theory Formula
Here, the expectancy theory formula is introduced: motivational force (MF) equals expectancy times instrumentality times valence. MF represents an individual's motivation to act. The formula implies that for employees to be motivated, they must believe that their targets are achievable, that rewards are clear, and that those rewards are valuable to them. The paragraph emphasizes how managers can use this formula to better motivate their teams by aligning these factors.
🏆 Practical Example 1: Improving Underachieving Teams
This example demonstrates how a new manager might apply expectancy theory to improve a historically underperforming team. By setting achievable short-term goals and providing immediate rewards, such as weekend spending money, the manager can increase team focus and gradually build trust. The aim is to shift the team's perception of rewards, making them feel that hard work benefits them, not just the company.
🚀 Practical Example 2: Boosting Performance of an Existing Team
This example outlines how a manager can further boost an already performing team using expectancy theory. The strategy involves customizing rewards to meet individual needs, such as offering remote work days for someone with a long commute or project leadership opportunities for ambitious employees. By linking productivity to personal goals, the manager increases motivation and performance within the team.
✔️ Pros and Cons of Expectancy Theory
This section highlights the strengths and weaknesses of expectancy theory. Advantages include its simplicity and the clear mechanism it provides for improving performance by adjusting rewards. However, the model can be overly simplistic, ignoring why people sometimes act against their best interests and external factors, like personal issues, that may impact performance. The model can also be hard to apply in large organizations where rewards are not directly tied to individual performance.
📚 Conclusion: Summing Up Expectancy Theory
The final paragraph summarizes expectancy theory as a motivational framework in the workplace. It states that employees will be motivated when they believe they can achieve their targets, understand the rewards they will receive, and value those rewards. By aligning these factors, managers can build highly motivated and high-performing teams. Examples include setting stretch targets, rewarding desirable behaviors, and tailoring rewards to individual preferences.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Expectancy Theory
💡Expectancy
💡Instrumentality
💡Valence
💡Motivational Force
💡Rewards
💡Performance Targets
💡Trust
💡Behavioral Alternatives
💡Personalization of Rewards
Highlights
Expectancy theory explains why people behave the way they do in the workplace based on their expectations of the results of their behavior.
Victor H. Vroom developed the expectancy theory in 1964, which was later extended by Porter and Lawler in 1968.
Expectancy theory posits that behavior is chosen based on the goal of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain.
The three key variables in the expectancy theory are expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.
Expectancy is the belief that one's effort will lead to the desired performance level or target achievement.
Instrumentality refers to the belief that achieving the performance target will lead to a specific reward.
Valence represents the perceived value or desirability of the reward to the individual, which can be positive, negative, or neutral.
The motivation formula is expressed as: Motivational Force = Expectancy x Instrumentality x Valence.
Rewards must be clearly linked to performance, and the decision-making process for rewards should be transparent.
Managers can use expectancy theory to motivate employees by understanding how they make decisions based on rewards and alternative behaviors.
An example of using expectancy theory is setting short-term achievable targets with immediate rewards to build trust and motivation in a team with low morale.
Another example is tailoring rewards to individual team members' preferences, such as offering work-from-home days or leadership opportunities to boost performance.
One advantage of the model is its simplicity in understanding and application to improve performance by adjusting rewards.
A disadvantage is that the model can be overly simplistic, not accounting for external factors like personal issues affecting performance.
Expectancy theory can help create highly motivated individuals and teams by aligning targets, rewards, and individual needs in the workplace.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to today's lesson
where we're looking at the expectancy
theory of motivation now this theory
attempts to explain why people behave
the way they do in the workplace so are
you the sort of person who shows up at
the office early works really hard and
stays late and if you are this type of
person why do you behave this way well
maybe it's because in return you expect
and want to be promoted quickly and
given pay rises now expectancy Theory
basically states that a person behaves
the way they do because they're
motivated to select that behavior ahead
of other behaviors because of what they
expect the result of that behavior to be
now as managers expectancy Theory can
help you to understand how individual
team members make decisions about
alternative behaviors they have
available to them and you can then use
this information as an input for
creating motivated employees so
expectancy theory was developed by
victor h room in 1964 and actually it
was later extended by guys called Porter
and Lora in 1968 now the theory is based
on the assumption that our behavior is
based on making a conscious choice from
a set of possible alternative behaviors
according to expectancy Theory the
behavior we choose will always be the
one that maximizes our pleasure and
minimizes our pain now as a manager this
means that one of your team members will
only choose to work hard if they
perceive the outcome of choosing this
option is the most desirable for them
now in simple terms that could mean that
they might gain something or that they
might lose something now within
expectancy Theory there are three
variables involved and the first is
expectancy and the second is
instrumentality and the third is valence
and we'll cover what these mean in a
second but all three factors must be
present to motivate employees
effectively now the terminology and the
symbols you
are a little clunky and they can be
difficult to make sense of at first but
don't despair the examples will go
through should make this fairly clear so
let's look at what each of expectancy
into the mentality and valence mean in
turn so expectancy is the belief that if
you work hard so if you put in the
effort that you will be able to hit your
targets and your targets or your
performance level that have been set for
you by your manager so you make this
judgment based on a number of factors
including you know your past experience
your confidence in your ability how
difficult you perceive the target is to
achieve and whether or not the target is
under your control
now instrumentality is your assessment
of how like you how likely you are to
receive a reward if you do hit the
targets that have been set for you now
again you make this judgment based on a
number of factors so you take into
account things like is the relationship
clear between your performance and the
reward you'll receive how much do you
trust the person who decides on the
reward how transparent is the
decision-making process around who gets
what rewards so finally we have valence
so so far we have a goal to hit and we
understand the reward we'll get if we
hit that goal so the final piece of the
motivation puzzle is valence and valence
is simply the perceived value of the
reward to you now this could be negative
if you actually want to avoid the reward
it could be zero if you're just
uninterested or unmotivated by the
reward or it could be positive if you
are motivated by the reward now when it
comes to valence an employee will have
to weigh up the pros and cons so for
example you might think do I want to be
promoted will the extra work result in
even less time at my family is it really
worth putting in a serious effort
for a whole year to receive a promotion
and a 10% pay rise
so expectancy theory can be summed up in
this formula where it's motivational
force equals expectancy times
instrumentality times valence now MF
simply means motivational force which
you can think of as being someone's
motivation to do something so the higher
MF is the higher the value of M s the
more motivated you're going to be now
this formula is simply stating what
we've already covered and that is to be
motivated you must think that your
targets are achievable you must clearly
understand any reward you might receive
and you must actually value the reward
so how can you use this model well as a
manager you can use the model to help
motivate your team expectancy theory can
help us to understand how individual
team members make decisions about
behavioral alternatives in the workplace
now the biggest takeaways from
expectancy theory are rewards must be
linked directly to performance how a
person's reward is chosen should be
transparent rewards should be deserved
and rewards should be wanted so with
that let's examine a couple of examples
of using expectancy theory in practice
so in this first example we're going to
look at a new manager and the scenario
is that you're the new manager of a
small team and that small team as a
history of underachievement so you're
looking to get to the root cause of this
under performance and start your new
team off on the right foot under your
management so in terms of actions after
speaking with individual members of your
team and then to the team as a whole you
realize that your team is suffering from
very low morale now primarily you
discover this is because they feel their
targets are unreal
stick but also because they feel that if
they do work hard to achieve something
it's the company that benefits and not
them so the team also has low trust in
management so this is a really tricky
situation to address and one that can't
be remedied overnight so you decide that
some quick wins might be a way to begin
to turn things around and start to build
your team's trust in you so to this end
you start to set targets for the team to
hit each week week after week now if the
target is hit then there's an immediate
reward for the team they're each given
some extra spending money for the
weekend for example but if the target
isn't it then they don't get the reward
so using short term rewards related to
your team's performance this helps you
to achieve a few things so firstly you
keep the team focused on their
performance and secondly you build teams
trust in you by them seeing that you
stick to your word week after week after
week after week so let's look at a
second example so this time we're trying
to boost an existing team's performance
so here the scenario is that you've been
in your position as manager of a small
team for some time and your team does
good work and it performs well but you
want to boost their performance even
further so in this scenario one approach
one action you could take would be to
improve the rewards on offer by
tailoring tailoring them to each
individual's needs so for example a
person with a long commute may
appreciate the opportunity of a day
working from home if they hit their
targets another person who is highly
ambitious may appreciate the opportunity
to lead a small project next month or
next quarter if they hit their targets
this quarter so thus each person will
see high productivity as a means to
hitting their personal goals and so
they'll be far more likely to invest
effort and determination into their job
and hitting their targets so as you can
see we can create highly motivated and
high-performing teams by tailoring
rewards to the needs of the individual
members of that team so there are a
couple of advantages and disadvantages
that are worth very quickly covering so
firstly the model is super simple to
understand and another advantage is it
gives us a simple mechanism to improve
performance by changing the rewards on
offer but it has got a few disadvantages
you should be aware of - so firstly the
model can be overly simplistic it
doesn't explain why why sometimes as
humans we act against our own best
interests secondly external factors are
completely ignored from the model so for
example someone with problems in their
personal life might underperform no
matter what the reward on offer and
finally the model can be difficult to
get up and running in larger
organizations where the reward is not
directly correlated to an individual's
performance but rather to overall
company performance
so in summary expectancy theory is a
theory of motivation in the workplace it
states that an individual within your
team will be motivated when they believe
they can hit their targets they know
they will be rewarded for hitting those
targets and they value the reward they
will receive now by motivating all team
members in this way you can create
highly motivated individuals and thus
high-performing teams now examples of
how to improve behavior and performance
include setting stretch targets with
Rewards attached rewarding desirable
behaviors and linking the reward closely
to each individual's wants and desires
so that's it from me really hope you
enjoyed this lesson and I look forward
to speaking to you again soon
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