VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY OF
MOTIVATION
BY
SMART LEARNING WAY
Contents
Introduction Of Motivation
Various
Definition Of Motivation
Important Elements Of Model
Vroom’s
Expectancy Theory Product of Valence and Expectancy
Vroom’s
Expectancy Theory
Vroom’s
model
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction Of Motivation
Motivation is the force that drives a person
into action. In the context of business, when we say that a manager motivates a
person, it means he inspires him to do a particular task that will lead to the
accomplishment of organizational goal.
The person concerned in turn, shall
perform that task only if he feels that such an action would satisfy his
personal needs. A person initially joins an organization for the monetary
benefits. Once his financial needs are reasonably satisfied he looks forward to
the satisfaction of his behavioral needs. A person who works at a position
where enough financial rewards are offered but the level of job satisfaction is
low. Will perhaps look for another job.
Motivation, is often a very complex task
because the factors that motivate an individual to work are themselves very
complex and complicated. Financial incentives may be important for one worker
while non-financial incentives may be important for the other. The manager
must, therefore, be well equipped in the skills of determining as to what
motivates the human behavior. In fact, motivation is an aspect of management
where managers themselves need to be trained before they set in to motivate
their subordinates.
An individual works or performs a particular
behavioral activity, in the first instance, not because he wishes the
organizational goals to be achieved but probably because that work will give
him some financial rewards through which he can satisfy his own needs and
desires. The need, is therefore, the main driving force that motivates human
behavior towards a particular action.
Various Definition Of Motivation
Definitions of motivation given by different
management thinkers are given below:
According to Gibson “Motivation may be defined
as the state on of individual tie which represents the strength of his or her
propensity to untoward some particular behavior.”
According to Dubrin “motivation refers to
expenditure of efforts towards a go”.
According to Steers and porter “motivation is
the force that energizes behavior, gives direction to behavior and underlies
the tendency to persist.”
According to Weihrich And Koontz:- “
motivation is a general term
applying to the entire class of drives,
desires, needs, wishes and similar forces. To say that managers motivate there
subordinates is to say that they do
those things which they hope will satisfy these drives and desires and induce
the subordinates to act In a desired manner”.
According to Pearce And Robinson “ Motivation
is the out come of the process by which a manager induces others to work to
achieve organizational objectives as means of satisfying their own personal
desires”.
According to Encyclopedia of management, the
motivation is defined as, “the degree of readiness of an organization to pursue
some designated goal and implies the determination of the nature and locus of
force, inducing the degree of readiness.”
Important Elements Of Model
This model is based upon the assumption that
the man is a rational being and will try to maximize his pay off. He will
choose an alternative that would give him the most benefit . This approach
assumes that motivation to work is strongly determined by an
individual’s perception that a certain type of behavior will lead to a certain
type of outcome and his personal preference for that type of out come .
There are three important elements in this
model:-
Expectancy:-
This is a
person’s perception of the likelihood
that a particular outcome will result
from a particular behavior or action.
The likelihood is probabilistic in nature and describes that
relationship between an act and an outcome. For example, if a person works
hard, he may except to perform better and increase productivity. Similarly, if
a student works hard during the semester, he expects to do well in the final
examination.
Instrumentality:-
This factor
relates to a persons belief and expectation that his performance will lead to a
particular desired reward . it is the degree of association of first level
outcome of a particular effort to the second level outcome – which is the
ultimate reward for example , working
hard may lead to better performance, which is the first level outcome
,which may result in a reward like raise in pay or promotion or both, which is
the second level outcome.
If a person believe that his performance will not be
recognized or lead to expected rewards , he will not be motivated to work hard to improve on his techniques of
teaching and communication (first level outcome) in order to get promotion and
tenure (second level outcome) Accordingly to ,the instrumentality is the performance-
reward relationship
Valence:-
Valence is the value a
person assigns to his desired reward. He may not be willing to work hard to
improve performance, if the reward for such improved performances not what he
desires. It is not the actual value of the reward but the perceptional value of
the reward in the mind of the work hard, not to get pay raise but to get
recognition and status. Another person may be more interested in job security
than with status.
Accordingly, according to this model of
motivation, the person level of effort (MOTIVATION) depends upon:-
Expectancy:-
A worker must be confident that his efforts will result in better productivity
and that he has the ability to perform the task well.
Instrumentality: -
The worker must be confident that such high
performance will be Instrumental in getting desired rewards.
Valence: -
The worker must value these rewards as
desired and satisfactory. Hence motivation is related to all these three factors
as:
Motivational Force (M) =Expectancy (E) x
Instrumentality (I) x Valence (V) or M= (E X I X V).
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory Product of Valence
and Expectancy:-
Vroom’s expectancy theory – vroom theory
asserts that motivation is a product of
valance and expectancy.
MOTIVATION OR FPRCE = valance *expectancy
Force is the motivation that influences an
individual to act or behave in the given manner
Valence is how strong an individual holds
about the outcome of his action. “it is the preference an individual places on
an outcome.”
Valance may be positive or negative depending
on his preference for an outcome. It ranges from -1 to +1. if a particular
action of employee is followed by a promotion, he will prefer doing that
action. Since the outcome has a positive value, valence shall be +1. if his
action shall result into his transfer or demotion, he would avoid such an
outcome and therefore, shall place negative value to the outcome. The valance
for the outcome is -1. If an individual action is not affected by any outcome, a
routine behaviour, foe examples, which is neither followed by outcomes of
promotion or demotion, the valence shall be zero (0).
Expectancy is a belief that an action shall
lead to an outcome. It ranges from to 1. if an employee believes that his
action will lead to an outcome, his expectancy is 1 and if the probability that
his action shall not lead to any outcome is high, the expectancy shall be more
towards zero. Two types of expectancies have been talked of:-
Efforts-performance expectancy: -
It is the expectation of the
employee that is efforts shall lead to a desire performance. For example, an
individual may feel that if he works for
2 hours overtime every day, he shJall be able to produce more. If the employee
feels that his efforts shall lead to the desire performance, he shall perform task.
Performance:-
It is outcome expectancy
It is the expectation of the employees that if the desired performance is
achieved, it shall be followed by a positive outcome. Greater the probability
that the performance shall be followed by a positive outcome, greater shall be
the desire of the individual to perform that action. In the above example, the
employee shall put in 2 hours of
overtime every day only if he expects an increase in his salary. If the
management dose not give him any extra benefit for producing more, his
expectancy shall be zero (0)and he shall not be motivated to perform that
action.
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory:-
This theory tells us that simply making
motivation factors available to people is not enough. People must believe that
by working , they will receive reward that are important to them. People’s
actions are based on their expectations as well as their needs. Unless there is
a positive expectation of a reward that
well satisfy a need ,an individual' will not take action. To illustrate
consider a person who is thirsty .there may be need for water, but the action
of going to the faucet and getting a drink
occurs only if he expects will result in obtaining water.
The experience of one manufacturing company
indicates the importance of expectations. The management head decided to expand
the company, and it knew that a number of supervisors would be needed to prepare for the expansion, the
company decided to run a training programmed for its employees
(non-supervisors) to prepare them to become supervisors. the programmed was
open to all employees at no cost. When
the programmed started ,only three people attended the programmed.
Management
interviewed the employees who did not participate to find out the reasons for
their poor participation. Many employees stated that they would like to be
promoted but did not feel that attending the programmed would help."
promotion is based on whom you know," was the commonly expressed opinion.
in other words although promotion was a motivating factor to employees, they
did not participate in the training programmed because they did not believe it
would help them in getting promotion.
Similarly, how hard people work is affected by
their needs and whether or not they expect a good job performance to result in
rewards that will satisfy their needs. To be motivated, people must believe that by working hard, they will
fulfill the needs that are important to
them.
In
short, we can say, that if a manager wants to motivate his employees, he should
do the following:-
1. Try to offer rewards (motivation factors)
that are important to his employees.
2. Create positive expectations.
THE VROOM THEORY AND PRACTICE:-
One of the great
attractions of the Vroom theory is that it recognizes the importance of various
individual needs and motivations. It thus avoids some of the simplistic
features of the maslow and Herzberg approaches. It dose seem more realistic. it
fits the concept of harmony of
objectives individuals have personal goals different
from organizational goals, but these can be harmonized.furthermore,Vroom’s
theory is completely consistent with the system of managing by objectives.
The strength of Vroom’s theory is also its
weakness. His assumption that senses of value vary among individuals at
different times and in various places appears to fit real life more accurately.
It is consistent also with the idea that a manager’s job is to design an environment for performance, necessarily
taking in to account the differences in various situations. On the other hand
vroom’s theory is difficult to apply in
practice. Despite its difficulty in application, the logical accuracy of
Vroom’s theory indicates that motivation is much more complex than the
approaches of Maslow and Herzberg seem to imply.
This theory developed by victor h. vroom and
it expands upon those developed by Maslow and Herzberg. It views motivation as
a process governing choices. Thus, if an individual has a particular goal, in
order to achieve the goal, some behavior
must be performed. The individual, therefore, weights the likelihood that various behaviors will achieve the
desired goal, and if certain behavior “is expected to be more successful than
others ,that type of behavior will
likely be selected. An important contribution of vroom’s theory is that it
explains how the goals of individuals
influence their effort and that the behavior in goals of individuals influence
their effort and that the behavior individuals select depends upon their
assessment of the probability that the behavior will successfully lend to the
goal. For example, all members of an organization may not place the same value
on such job factors as promotion, high pay, job security, and working
conditions. In other words, they may rank them differently. Vroom believes that
what is important is the perception and value the individual places upon
certain goals.
The expectancy theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain
way depends in the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by
a given outcome and on the attractiveness of the outcome of the individual. it
includes three variables (which vroom refers to as valence,*Instrumentality,
and Expectancy)
Attractiveness:-
The importance or the strength that the
individual places on potential outcome or reward that can be achieved on the
job this considers the unsatisfied needs of the individual.
Performance-reward linkage:-
The degree to which the individual believes
that performing of particular level
will lead to the attainment of each job outcome.
Effort performance linkage:-
The perceived
probability by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lend
to performance.
In other words, a person’s desire to produce
at any given time depends on his particular goals and his perception of the
relative worth of performance as a path to the attainment of these goals. The
strength of a persons’ motivation to perform (effort) depends upon how strongly
he believes that he can achieve what he attempts. The four steps inherent in
vroom’s theory are:
What outcome dose the job offers the employee?
The important issue to be considered is what
individual employee perceives the outcome to be. Outcomes may be positive -
such as pay security, companionship, trust, fringes benefits, a chance to use
talents or skills, congenial relationship-or negative, such as fatigue,
boredom, frustration, anxiety, harsh supervision, threat of dismissal, etc.
How attractive Do employees view these
outcomes?
This issue is related to the individual and
considers his likes and dislikes. If a particular outcome is found to be
attractive (positive) individual would prefer attaining it to attaining it. It
if is negative, he would prefer not attaining it to attaining it. Additionally,
he may be natural.
What kind of behavior must the employee
produce in order to achieve these objectives?
The outcomes can be effective only when the
employee knows clearly what he must do in order to achieve them – i.e., he
should know what are the criteria on the basis of which his performance would
be judged.
How dose the employee view his chance of doing
what is asked of him?
After knowing his competencies and his
abilities the individual should ascertain the probability of his successful
attainment of the job.
In sum, vroom emphasizes the importance of
individual perceptions and assessments of organizational behavior. The key to
“expectancy” theory is the “understanding of an individual’s goals” – and the
linkage between “efforts” and “performance” , between “performance” and
“rewards” ‘ and between “rewards" and “individual-goal satisfaction.”
It is a
contingency model, which recognizes that there is no universal method of
motivating people. Because we understand what needs an employee seeks to
satisfy dose not ensure that the employee himself perceives high job
performance as necessarily leading to the satisfaction of these needs.
Vroom’s model:-
VROOM’S MODEL has brought forward the
following particulars:
Its emphasis is on pay of or rewards. In other
words, the rewards an organization offers aligns with what the employee wants:
We have to be concerned with the
attractiveness of rewards, which requires understanding and knowledge of what
value the individual puts on organization payoff. Individual should be rewarded
with those he value positively.
It emphasizes expected behaviors i.e.; the individual
should know what is expected of him and how he will be appraised.
It implies that management should counsel
subordinates to help them grasp a realistic view of their competency.
The management should support the subordinates
in developing that skill that are important in leading to better performance.
It also implies that management should make
extended efforts of demonstrating confidence in individual that they can
perform well.
It has been used to explain specific forms of
employee behavior; for example, the turn – over of younger workers, during
pre-job training.
From management’s point of view, the
implications of this theory are two-fold:
First, it is important to determine what needs
each employee seeks to satisfy. This knowledge will be useful to management
while attempting to align rewards available to the employee with the needs that
the employee seeks to satisfy. It is necessary to individualize rewards to each
employee, for rewards that are valuable for some may not be appealing to others.
Second, management should attempt to clarify
the path for the worker between efforts and needs satisfaction. Individual
motivation will be significantly determined by the probabilities the worker
assigns to the following relationship:
His effort leading to performance –
performance leading to rewards, and these rewards – satisfying personal goals.
Vroom’s theory, in sum, indicates only the
conceptual determinants of motivation and how they how related. It does not provide specific suggestions on what
motivation humans in organization, as did the maslow and herzberg models. It
is, however, of value in understanding organizational behavior.
It clarifies
the goals between individual and organizational goals. It attempts only to
mirror the complex motivation process; it does not attement to describe how
motivational decisions are actually made or to solve actual motivational
problems facing manager. It needs further testing to prove its validity.
Conclusion:-
The Expectancy Theory of Victor Vroom deals
with motivation and management. Vroom's theory assumes that behavior results
from conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to maximize
pleasure and minimize pain.
Together with Edward Lawler and Lyman Porter, Vroom
suggested that the relationship between people's behavior at work and their
goals was not as simple as was first imagined by other scientists. Vroom
realized that an employee's performance is based on individuals factors such as
personality, skills, knowledge, experience and abilities.
Bibliography:-
Management Theory of Practice - J. S. Chandan
Students guide to Management - Dr. N. Vasisth
Essentials of Management - Harold Koontz - Heinz Weihrich
Essentials of Management - P. N. Reddy - P. C.
Tripathi- H. R. Appannaia
Personnel Management - C. B. Mammoria
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