Expectancy Theory
In the need/scope theories of motivation, the needs that are thought to guide human behavior were emphasized and the assumption was accepted that the lack of these needs or the desire to be satisfied would direct the behavior in certain ways. However, some researchers have argued that the existence of human needs is not enough to initiate the behavior, and that the person should have an expectation that as a result of performing a behavior, this behavior will achieve its purpose in satisfying the need, and they have developed motivation theories based on this view.
The “Expectation Theory” developed by Victor H. Vroom has been widely accepted. Vroom's model was later developed and elaborated by Porter and Lawler.
AVH Vroom's Expectancy Theory
Victor H. Vroom (1964) stated that the choices a person makes among alternative directions of action are associated with psychological consequences that occur at the same time as the behavior.
Vroom (1964: 15) defined the concept of “Valence” (purpose value) as emotional orientations towards certain outcomes. Accordingly, for the two outcomes x and y, the person will prefer any one over the other. It depends on the relationship between the strength of the person's choice for these two outcomes.
If the person's desire to achieve a goal-oriented result is superior to the desire not to achieve it, the valence value is (+) positive, and if not achieving it is superior, the valence value is (-) negative. Valence (o) has zero value if it is not interested in obtaining. At this point, Vroom also distinguished between purposeful valence and “value”. In other words, what is meant by valence is the value that the person attributes to the purpose, not the real value. There is a value that an individual attributes to every purpose. While obtaining it is valuable only to him, it may not mean anything to others. For example, when a person desires to join groups, his aim is to believe that being a part of the group will increase his status in society, and he may also desire to perform his job effectively because he expects it to result in a promotion (Vroom, 1964: 15-16).
Vroom (1964: 15) expresses the concept of need-motive as a choice for a series of purposes. Positive motive expressed goals with positive valences, while goals with negative valences were expressed as negative motives.
The second important component in Vroom's theory is “expectation”. Vroom defined expectation as “a tentative belief about the probability that a particular action will result in a particular purpose”. Expectations can be defined in terms of its strength. While the highest expectation expresses the subjective certainty that a certain action will result in a certain purpose, the lowest (zero) power expectation expresses that an action will not result in a certain purpose (Vroom, 1964: 17).
According to Vroom (1964), there are often many purposes involved in taking an action. At this point, the total number of objectives should also be taken into account. At a second point, the concept of purpose (result) can have instrumentality. In other words, goals actually serve as a tool to reach another goal. At this point, the achievement or failure of the first result affects the achievement or failure of the second result.
As a result, the individual's power to act (i.e., his motivation) consists of a combination of the individual's expectation that he will achieve the goal and the value (valence) that the person gives towards that goal. Vroom (1964) formulated this relationship multiplicatively because he stated that the absence of either one would make it impossible to take action.
Vroom's theory includes many cognitive factors that cause the individual to take action, and it has been formulated so that the values of these factors can be measured numerically. At this point, expressing these factors through an example will make the subject more understandable. For example, if it is thought that a student aims to pass the class and needs to work hard in it. It is necessary for the student to pass through many cognitive filters to take such an action. For example, first of all, the student should have the expectation that he will pass his class by working hard. In other words, a person must believe that he will achieve his goal as a result of his action. If he does not believe (value = 0) he will not take action. Is the valence of the result high for the student to pass the second point class? Even when these two elements are present, the student will not be able to stay away from his/her friends for hard work, be ridiculed, etc. If the negative expectation is higher for some reasons, the student will not be motivated again. Here, it can be said that the purpose of working hard has an instrumental nature for the purpose of passing the class. At this point, if hard work has not produced secondary negative results (or if these results are not superior) and there are no other (instrumental) goals in between, the student will engage in hard work.
B. Porter-Lawler's Expectation-Value Theory
Porter and Lawler's (1968) theory examines the relationship of private sector managers' work-related attitudes with their work-related behaviors and success at work. This theory is basically an expectation theory, but other variables that are not in Vroom's theory are also included in the theory. In fact, the main feature of the theory is that it brings together a large number of variables that were previously discussed separately and indicates the relationships between them (Onaran, 1981; 76).
Factors 1, 2, 3 indicated in the figure are also included in Vroom's equation. After that, Porter and Lawler added many different variables to their models. The order in which these add-ons take place in the process also constitutes a very important point in the model.
Effort is the amount of (physical-mental) energy a person expends to do a job. The aspect that differs from Vroom's model is that effort is considered as a separate variable from work performance. In other words, it should be considered that even though everyone who makes an effort in a job is successful in most of them, they may not always be successful. In the evaluation of success, besides the objective criteria of success, the subjective evaluations of the employee and his superiors also play a role. According to the researchers, motivation at work is more about effort. The motivation of the employee in the working environment is manifested by the effort he has made rather than the success at work (Onaran, 1981; 78).
According to the model, two more factors are effective in the transformation of sufficient effort into business success. The first of these is the total effect of an individual's abilities and traits that do not change instantaneously.
For example, it is an important point that the individual has undergone adequate education and training and that his personality traits are suitable for the job he will do. According to the researches, having an extrovert personality makes them more successful, and being introverted makes them more unsuccessful (Özkalp, 1982; 150-151).
Another point that affects business success is the "clearness of the role" that the individual will fulfill. The individual, who is expected to devote all his energy to his work, should first of all have a clear understanding of the work he will do and the expectation of the work from him. An individual who does not have a clear knowledge of the work to be done will waste his energy in vain and even show a low level of success (Özkalp, 1982; 151).
Looking at the feedback, the employee creates the link between effort/reward through initial feedback. In other words, if the employee has seen that similar efforts in the past have resulted in (external) rewards, then he or she will think more that his current effort will also result in a reward. However, the critical point here is that it is very important for the employee to interpret the reward as a reward and to perceive that the rewards come as a result of work success. That's why the feedback line here starts from the work-achievement-reward relationship rather than the rewards. (Onaran, 1981; 80).
It will be determined according to the inferences in his own sense of equivalence as a result of comparing the internal-external rewards that the individual's achievement of the job will provide to create a satisfaction and satisfaction in himself and these rewards with those of others. While intrinsic rewards are the rewards obtained as a result of one's own effort, such as completing a job or performing a successful work, and creating needs such as autonomy and self-actualization, extrinsic rewards refer to rewards given by the organization, such as wage increase and promotion. (Onaran, 1981; 79).
Perceived reward justice is the amount of reward that the employee thinks he should receive as a result of his work in the organization (Onaran, 1981; 80). Everyone compares their own performance with the performance of others and comes to an understanding of how their performance should be rewarded. In other words, a kind of reward perception occurs. If the person's actual reward is less than this perceived equal reward, the person will not be satisfied. Therefore, the expectation of the person will be affected. According to the degree of satisfaction, “valence” (purpose value) and “expectation” will be affected and the process will re-operate (Koçel, 2005; 652).
The feedback returning from the satisfaction variable to the reward value is mostly related to Maslow's theory. The assumption here is that the value of the rewards related to these needs will decrease as the lower-level needs are satisfied, and the attractiveness of the rewards related to them will increase as the higher-level needs are satisfied (Onaran, 1981; 81).
As a result, if the rewards obtained meet the perceived reward justice, the person will experience satisfaction, if not, he will become dissatisfied, and this may cause him to reduce or give up his next effort because it affects the value of the reward (goal).
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Hello,
Judee Burgon’ın beklenti ihlali teorisine değinilse çok daha güzel olacakmış yazınız. Yine de ellerinize sağlık. 🙂