Motivation Theory: Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

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Motivation Theory: Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory is a well-known cognitive process theory proposed by Victor Vroom in 1964, which is different from the previously discussed content based theories (Lynn et al, 2016). Process theories describe the perceptual understanding on people’s behavior of “Why and How” does motivation occur and the interconnection among them, while content theories only emphasize on “What” motivates employees (Leonina, Maria & Lucretia, 2013).

As discussed in previous blogs, every human being is running behind a need which differs from one to another. This need has the power of stimulating a personnel’s behavior towards achieving the required need, which is called Motivation (Osabiya, 2015). In general, an Employer – Employee relationship applies when exchanging their needs. Here the understanding on the other parties need is crucial to fulfill own needs. In simple words if the employer needs more, he should provide more on what the employee needs in order to fulfill his. This is where the content theories such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s two factor theory helped managers in identifying the employee needs, which is the core of motivation. Vroom, being a psychologist put forward the Expectancy theory to further apply a perceptual thinking to the core, to develop the sense of motivation (Jannica, 2017).

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory proposed that, an employee would be driven in his behavior to a certain degree depending on the power of his belief which he expect to attain a desirable performance followed by a well deserving reward (Richard et al, 2004).  The theory helped managers by providing a mechanism holding three key elements which are Expectancy, Instrumentality and Valence (Datuk, 2018).

·         Expectancy (E) - This simply refers to the relationship between effort and performance of an employee. It can be explained as the probability of belief an employee holds towards his effort transforming into a level of performance (Mohammed et al, 2014). The expectancy is valued in between 0 – 1. Here the 0 refers to the belief of no outcome, even after applying the best effort out, whereas 1 refers to the successful outcome followed by an effort. The value differs from one to another according to the capabilities hold by employees (Fred, 2011).

·         Instrumentality (I) - It simply refers to the relationship between performance and rewards. This can be explained as the belief an employee has, towards the possibility of their performance leading to desirable reward (Mohammed et al, 2014). This value also will vary in a scale between 0 – 1 depending on how certain and deserving a reward is. Here 1 denotes the positive belief where 0 remarks the adverse belief (Jannica, 2017).

·         Valence (V) – This is the key element which evaluates the relationship between the rewards and personal goals. This refers to the actual satisfaction level of the reward with relevance to the personal need goals of an employee (Marijana, Gorica & Zoran, 2019). Vroom scaled this factor form (-1) to +1. Here the author explains when the reward does not motivate the employee it would be measured as (-1) whereas if it complies with the employee’s need it would be measured as +1. The 0 occurs when the employee is indifferent towards the reward (Pranav & Shilpi, 2014).

Understanding that the above factors have an immense contribution towards the application in the motivation, differing from one another, Vroom executed his explanation with an equation (Leonina, Maria & Lucretia, 2013).

MOTIVATION = EXPECTANCY * INSTRUMENTALITY * VALENCE

It is understandable that if this applications of the above motivation equation results with +1 the motivation is high in that scenario, whereas it can be the other way round as the scale would be evaluating a range in between (-1) to +1. Also it is evident that the motivation will not be present even if one factor of above meets the scale of 0 (Fred, 2011). Therefor an organization which is willing to win a market with a sustainable competitive advantage should look in to these factors with more concern to execute the correct formula to achieve towards the vision of the organization.


(Difference Between, 2015)


Given below would be a practical example to simply understand the Expectancy Theory:

Case - A sales team manager informs his team with an excessive target to be met within a month, with a promise of rewarding an incentive to the employee who meets the target.

Here we consider 02 types of employees to evaluate on the Expectancy Theory,
Employee A believes that the target is hard to be met with his abilities, even though he would be rewarded. Also he believes that the incentive could have been more to worth the hard work, to give it an attempt.
Here we can assume that, E¦0.25 * I¦0.50 * V¦0.50 = M¦0.0625

Whereas Employee B who is in a need of money, believes that he will be able to achieve the target by stimulating his performance with some extra hours of work, since the Incentive really matters to him.
Here we can assume that, E¦0.85* I¦1 * V¦1 = M¦0.85

This case concludes that in the given scenario, Employee B would contribute more towards the target as he is highly motivated than Employee A, that too with a huge gap.

A manager who knows his employee’s capabilities, needs and attitudes could apply the expectancy theory to identify the best motivation methods, and group people according to their similar capabilities and rewards to provide respective approachable targets, which enables the equation to give a high positive motivation accelerating to high performance from each employee on their own style. Here theories like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s two factor theory would support managers in understanding the employee need, to reward accordingly in line with their capabilities (Elizabeth & Kwesi, 2016).

Also logically thinking apart from the equation on calculating the scenario, organizations can also focus on developing the key factors of theory which eventually would effect in the equation by creating high motivated workforce enabling competitive advantage. Organizations can conduct training programs, activities to improve confidence, provide clear understanding on job roles and the importance of the employee, assign progressive tasks and help employees to groom themselves to bring the best capabilities out with much confidence in them. This will impact on employees in believing that their effort would definitely transform into high performance. Also the transparency on performance appraisals and keeping up the promises made on rewards increases the instrumentality, while providing personalized rewards which employee’s value will increase the valence (Fred, 2011).
The application of expectancy theory has helped managers to a very great extent, with its nature of being practical. Employees are unique, and their attributes and attitudes differ time to time with scenarios. Elements which effect motivation today do not apply the same in future (Pranav & Shilpi, 2014). But above the complexities, this theory of Vroom’s Expectancy would give a basic understanding to managers on how to motivate employees in line with situations, leading to achieve organizational goals.

References

·         Datuk, M.Z.S.S. (2018) Impact of Employee Motivation on Work Performance. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 8(3), pp. 295 – 308.

·     Difference Between, (2015) Difference between Expectancy Theory and Equity Theory. Difference Between, [Online].Available at: <https://www.differencebetween.com/ difference-between-expectancy-theory-and-vs-equity-theory-2/ > .[Accessed on 2nd May 2020].

·         Elizabeth, B.K.M. & Kwesi, A.T. (2016) Employee Motivation and Work Performance: A Comparative Study of Mining Companies in Ghana. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 9(2), pp. 255 – 309.

·         Fred, C.L. (2011) Expectancy Theory of Motivation: Motivating by Altering Expectations. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS, AND ADMINISTRATION, 15(1), pp. 1 – 5.

·            Jannica, A.R. (2017) Employee Motivation and Engagement as a Business Strategy. Bachelor’s Thesis, Haaga – Helia University of applied sciences.

·          Leonina, E. S., Maria.M. and Lucretia, L. (2013) VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY.AN EMPIRICAL STUDY: CIVILSERVANT’S PERFORMANCEAPPRAISAL INFLUENCING EXPECTANCY. Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 1(39), pp. 180 – 200.

·       Lynn, D.V., Antonio, B., Brenton, B., Marc, C. and Bahaudin, G. M. (2016) Employee Motivation based on the Hierarchy of Needs, Expectancy and the Two-Factor Theories Applied with Higher Education Employees. International Journal of Advances in Management, Economics and Entrepreneurship, 3(1), pp. 20 – 32.

·        Marijana, A.G., Gorica, J. and Zoran, J. (2019) Modern approaches to employee motivation. EKONOMHKA: SCIENTIFIC REVIEW ARTICLE, 65(2), pp. 121 - 133. 

·          Mohammed, F.H., Mohammed, A.H. and Shamimul, I. (2014) Motivational Theories – A Critical Analysis. ASA University Review, 8(1), pp. 61 – 68.

·         Osabiya, B. J. (2015) The effect of employees’ motivation on organizational performance. Journal of Public Administration and Policy Research, 7(4), pp. 62 – 75.

·        Pranav, P. & Shilpi. B. (2014) Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation – An Evaluation. International Research Journal of Business and Management, 7(9), pp. 1-8.

·         Richard, M.S., Richard, T.M. and Debra, L.S. (2004) THE FUTURE OF WORK MOTIVATION THEORY. Academy of Management Review, 29(3), pp. 379.

Comments

  1. Manjula Perera31 May 2020 at 11:18

    Research shows that expectancy theory has some drawbacks, Armstrong (2014) says that strength of expectations may be based on past experiences (reinforcement), but the workers are frequently presented with new situations such as
    • a change in job
    • payment system
    • working conditions
    where past experience may lead to dissatisfaction. In these circumstances, motivation may be reduced.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kobigah Kanagendran1 June 2020 at 04:37

      Yes, Agreed Manjula. As Pranav & Shilpi (2014) explains, Motivation is a psychological behavioral force which cannot be completely theorized due its diverse set of patterns, as a result of variant combinations of personal traits & behavioral attitudes along with the knowledge, skills & experience which again varies from person to person. The author also emphasizes that this reason has been the limitation for all motivational theories where Expectancy theory is no exception. Yet, the Expectancy theory is considered supportive on management’s point of view as the theory is practical with its estimates of chances & probabilities in understanding the link between Effort, Performance and Reward (Fred, 2011).

      Delete
  2. Employee Engagement by Nadee Weerasuriya12 June 2020 at 09:48

    Herzberg’s strength as a proselytizer rather than a researcher meant that he had considerable influence on the job enrichment movement, which sought to design jobs in a way that would maximize the opportunities to obtain intrinsic satisfaction from work and thus improve the quality of working life Armstrong.2014)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kobigah Kanagendran20 June 2020 at 08:00

      Agreed, Nadee. Job enrichment has been a modern way of motivating employees by redesigning jobs with more responsibilities and challenges which is considered to be dealing with the intrinsic motivating factors of employees (Venith & Indradevi, 2015). But Shakeela et al (2012) emphasizes that the decisions on enrichment can be made more practical with the consideration of probabilities and chances of level towards achievement with the execution of Vrooms Expectancy theory, as it makes way for equation based on real life scenarios.

      Delete
  3. Mahesh Rathnayake19 July 2020 at 08:40

    Vroom’s expectancy theory suggested that the motivation is depending on the employee’s expectations about his ability to perform tasks and receive desired rewards. In other words, the expectancy theory development with the relationship between effort, performance, and desired reward. The key constructs of Vroom’s theory is considered as Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence. These factors are representing the belief of a person (Boddy, 2008).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kobigah Kanagendran19 July 2020 at 10:17

      Correctly stated Mahesh, the theory revolves around the belief which is attainable that makes it the practical theory to evaluate with a measurement unlike other theories (Jannica, 2017). But the theory is also criticized for the very same quality of the theory, pointing out that the belief does not provide an accurate figure but only an assumption which is reliable only to a certain level (Leonina, Maria & Lucretia, 2013

      Delete

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