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Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

Money is a major factor which has a power to influence in accomplishing a task (Akintoye, 2000). According to Lunenburg, (2011), if an individual believe that their maximum effort will generate good performance and in return it provides good rewards, they will be motivated. The Vroom’s expectance theory has been developed in 1964 and it includes four assumptions. First assumption is that people join with an organization by having different expectations related to their needs. The second is that their behaviour occurs with their conscious choice based on their expectations. The next one is that people are expecting different things such as salary, advancements, job security from the organization. The final assumption of this theory is that in order to achieve their outcomes people will select from alternatives (Guntoro & Fongmul, 2016).

Person’s motivation is linked with the effort and performance. Many individual factors such as knowledge, skills, experience, personality, and ability will be impacted on employee performance (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2007). In this theory it includes different variables such as expectancy, instrumentality, and valence and even though people have different goals they can be motivated by believing that their hard effort leads to good performance and it will lead to good rewards that will satisfy their need. (Pembi, 2019) This has been shown in the following figure.

 

Source: Vroom’s Expectancy (Vroom & Deci, 1983)

1.      Expectancy – the meaning of this is that maximum effort will generate higher performance (Pembi, 2019).  When we apply this theory to the engineering employees, they are always working hard to generate good results. In such cases they must have enough and correct resources with them to perform the tasks or projects, as well as the right skills to perform the job. Engineering employees such as research and development engineers and scientists’ success of performance mainly depend on their unique skills and availability of the resources and the support from the supervisors. If they have these, they will put more effort to generate better performance.

2.      Instrumentality – This means that better performance of employees will lead to achievement of valued outcome. In terms of engineering employees if they achieved good results from their projects or innovations, they would receive something valued by them.

3.      Valence – Valence refers that the value or the importance that the individual is placing on an expected outcome. The person must like to achieve the expected outcome. In the case of research and development engineers who mainly focus on innovations can be valued achievement, income, or the money. Further engineering employees like scientists will mainly value the achievement, recognition, praise from others, acceptance than the money that they will receive. Since these engineering employees mainly work with projects, experiments in finding something new they will be mainly motivated through such factors than the money. If they are motivated through the achievement of success through their projects, they would not value the time off that they will receive. Instead of that they will work extra time as well to achieve the success of the project. Therefore, company or the supervisors can identify what they value the most to motivate them.


References

Akintoye, I. R., 2000. The place of financial management in personnel psychology. A Paper Presented as Part of Personnel Psychology Guest Lecture Series.

Guntoro, B. & Fongmul, S., 2016. VICTOR VROOM’S EXPECTATION THEORY: APPLICATION IN GOAT SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN INDONESIA. International Journal of Current Research, 8(3), pp. 27718-27724.

Lunenburg, F. C., 2011. Expectancy Theory of Motivation:. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 15(1), pp. 1-6.

Pembi, S., 2019. Vroom’s Expectancy Theory and its Application in Management of Incentives Scheme in AdamawaPlastic Company, Yola, Nigeria. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, 3(5).

Vroom, V. M. & Deci, E. L., 1983. Management and Motivation. s.l.:Penguin.

Wagner, J. A. & Hollenbeck, J. R., 2007. Organizational Behavior. 3 ed. Upper Saddle: Prentice Hall.
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Comments

  1. Udana5 May 2022 at 23:56

    Hello Dumindu. Very well explained. However I would also like to add something regarding employee motivation. Having a motivated staff who work out of enthusiasm is an asset to an organization which is critical to its survival and success. Definition of motivation is the following “Powering people to achieve high levels of performance and overcoming barriers in order to change”. Motivation is the driver of guidance, control and persistence in human behavior (Tahidi,2012).

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  2. Ramesh Tharanga6 May 2022 at 09:10

    Hi Dumindu, Thoroughly explicated. The Expectancy Theory looks at motivation in a more comprehensive and realistic than some of the other theories. Although it is a more complex theory of motivation, it is based on common sense psychology of employees and says that they will be motivated to act when there is an expectancy that their behaviour can result in achievement of desired outcomes. (Pranav Parijat; Shilpi Bagga, 2014)

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  3. Pavani Damsara Samarasinghe7 May 2022 at 00:37

    Hi Duminda, I concur with you and like to add here. One of the most enduring and slippery difficulties for managers is getting people to produce their best job, even under difficult situations. Indeed, figuring out what drives us as humans is a centuries-old conundrum. Aristotle, Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud, and Abraham Maslow, among the most significant writers on human behavior in history, have sought to comprehend its subtleties and have taught us a great deal about why individuals do the things they do. Lunenburg, F. C., (2011).

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