The expectancy theory is a commonly used management theory for explaining why
people engage in certain behaviors when they have
a series of alternatives available to them
it was developed by victor vroom in 1964
an essentially stated that the expectancy was they some of what we call
a motivational
force
and motivational force was equals two the expectancy
by instrumentality by what's known as valance
now the motivational force is the extent to which someone is likely to engage in
a certain course of action
we as human beings have a number of different alternatives to engage in in
terms of our behavior
and so especially in the workplace setting
wouldn't be valuable to be able to determine
who or what person was likely to engage in a certain behavior given
certain
situations that were present
so there are a few different things that we have to consider with
regards to the extent
that someone would engage in in a certain behavior certain things have to
be present
that would increase someone's motivational force
and so as someone's motivational force increases the likelihood that they would
engage in a certain course of action increases as well
now the first component to expectancy theory is of course expectancy
and expectancy is the belief that an increase in my effort will result in an
increase in performance
so let me give you an example
if you are studying for a particular exam
the only reason that you would study for an exam is because you
believed
that increasing the amount of time that you studied
would increased the end result which is the score on your actual exam
if i were to tell you that no matter how many
hours that you spent trying to study for an exam
if it would not matter
then you would not have expectancy you wouldn't have the belief that if you
studied harder or study more there would be a certain outcome that would be
achieved there would be an increase in
performance
and that really has to be present you can probably imagine
in any type of work setting
regardless of of what it might be if you ever felt that
trying harder isn't going to do anything if you're not going to be very motivated to
engage in a certain behavior and so it's a important especially in organizational
setting
for there to be an established linkage between an increase in effort and higher
performance there
now simply because expectancy is present does not mean that we have necessarily a
great motivational forced we also have to consider what's referred to as
instrumentality
and instrumentality very basically is the belief that an increase in performance
will lead to certain outcomes so sticking with the example i gave you
before
if you believe that obviously by increasing the amount of time that
you stated you increase your effort
you would increase your performance but
is it a certain outcome that you wish to achieve
not only
are you increase your performance but you have to consider where do you want to be
so a good good example would be
if you want to get in A
in the class if that was kind of the outcome you were looking for
if you studied more could you which she back
that not only could if you studied more could you get a better grade because
that's obviously there's a number of different spectrums that you could
essentially lie on
but are you going to is it going to lead you
to a specific outcome that's very very important because once again if you
don't believe the increase in effort is going to lead to the desirable outcome
may be receiving an A
on using them
then you're not going to engage in that behavior and we all have
a number of different alternatives
and so obviously we want to put more effort into things that are going to
obviously be successful or provide the most results
now the last couple of expectancy theory is what we refer to as valance
and valance is the extent to which that outcome is desirable
if achieving in A on an exam
was not desirable for you if you didn't care
then you probably won't put forth the effort in studying even if
you felt like studying harder or studying more would result in increase
performance which is expectancy
and if you believed you can receive a certain outcome meaning an A
but an A
was not desirable than you would not have a significant enough motivational
force
according to expectancy theory
to actually engage in behavior
so when you look at this theory you know a couple things come to mind in terms of
just in the importance in an organizational setting. The first of which is very
important to have
desirable outcomes. You look at it from a company stand point
and having rewards
that are desirable by employees or desired by employees is very important
if they're going to put forth the effort. Because even if people think well if
I put more hours in at my job of course i can do better when it comes to
my performance evaluation, and of course I think i can get an exceeds on that
evaluation, but
is there an desirable outcome
right is the the bonus or the raise is that enough
to make me expend to all this additional energy associated
with increasing my performance?
If there isn't that linkage if it's not present
then you have people who are fully capable a performing in organization but
they don't necessarily have the motivation necessary to do so
because that last piece is missing.
Usually what this involves is organizations needing to tailor their
rewards to
the desires of employees
there isn't necessarily a cookie-cutter reward system that is applicable to
everyone. What one person finds desirable
another person may not.
For some people a monetary reward could be enough to get them to achieve higher
performance objectives.
For some
they don't really care about money, that's not important to them or as
important to them.
Maybe it's additional time off for spending time with family
So it's important for organizations to have an open dialogue with employees
and determine what it is that's important because simply
choosing one reward
and applying it to everyone is going to run into this issue. Because although
expectancy and instrumentality may be present,
you also have to consider whether or not valance is present.