Analyzing 2 Motivation Theories in Organizational Behavior

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This paper provides the definition of 2 motivation theory in Organizational Behavior, including Victor Vroom's expectancy theory and Locke and Latham's goal setting theory, identifies their relationships, and how they are reflected in reality

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CONTENT
A. Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory……………………………………...2
 Definition…………………………………………………………….....2
1. Expectancy…………………………………………………..2
2. Instrumentality……………………………………………….2
3. Valence………………………………………………………3
 Equation of expectancy theory………………………………………3
 Reality…………………………………………………………………..4
1. Effort-to-performance expectancy…………………………4
2. Performance-to-reward instrumentality…………………...4
3. Valences of reward………………………………………….4
B. Locke and Latham’s goal setting theory……………………………….5
 Definition……………………………………………………………5
1. Clarity…………………………………………………………5
2. Challenge…………………………………………………….6
3. Commitment…………………………………………………7
4. Feedback……………………………………………………8
5. Task Complexity…………………………………………….9
 Reality……………………………………………………………..10
1. Clarity………………………………………………………..10
2. Challenge…………………………………………………..10
3. Feedback…………………………………………………..10
4. Task Complexity…………………………………………..11
C. Relationship between two theories……………………………………11
D. Sources……….…………………………………………………………13
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A. VICTOR VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY


Expectancy theory is a motivation theory first introduced by Victor Vroom - in

1964. This theory embrace “an individual will decide to behave or act in a certain
way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over other behaviors
due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be”

(1)

. If Frederick

Herzberg’s, Abraham Maslow’s, Douglas McGregor’s, or David McClelland’s
motivation theories provide specific suggestions on how to inspire employees,
Victor Vroom’s differently contains significant implications about the process to
motivate employees by attaining the three factors step-by-step. Expectancy theory
can be described in the following figures:

I.

Expectancy: This principle defines the relationship between the job-related

effort and the possibilities of performance, and the employee’s estimation on that
relationship. To determine the employee’s estimate on their effort resulted in
performance, expectancy is based on probabilities and range from 0 to 1. If the
employees see that there is no chance that their effort will lead to expected
performance from the company, expectancy probability will be 0. On the other hand,
if the employees truly believe they can accomplish the task with full effort,
expectancy probability will be 1. Therefore, the expectancy probability will be
between 0 and 1.

II.

Instrumentality: This is individuals’ estimate on the relationship between the

given level of task performance and the appropriate reward that they will receive.
2|Page

The same as expectancy, instrumentality is defined by probability within the range
from 0 to 1. If the employees see that the tasks given are too difficult or complicated
to complete and do not lead to fitting reward, they are not motivated to finish their
tasks due to the difference between the task complexity and outcome, by that the
instrumentality probability will be 0. In contrast, if the employees satisfy with what
they will receive after finishing their tasks, or in other words is the rewards worth
their performance, instrumentality probability will be 1. And as a result, the
instrumentality probability will lie somewhere between 0 and 1.
III. Valence: is the value employees place on rewards or achievement that can be
attained in the future, based on their needs which have not been satisfied. Salary
increases, promotion, recognition, etc, may more or less influence the strength of
employee’s preference. Unlike expectancy and instrumentality, valence is
defined based on probabilities and range from -1 to 1, demonstrates that valence
can be positive or negative. If the employees strongly expect the outcome, it is
positive, valence probability will be 1 and conversely. And if the employees feel
normal about attaining the goals, they are not self-encouraging to accomplish the
tasks, but they do not avoid achieving the task as well, then valence probability will
be 0. Every manager always prefer motivating employees to make them have
positive feelings about their goals to letting them have negative feelings.


Vroom claims that there is a connection between expectancy, instrumentality,

and valence one-by-one by the following equation:

MOTIVATION = EXPECTANCY X INSTRUMENTALITY X VALENCE

This equation demonstrates the significance of each factor to one another
through its multiplier. It means that the motivation rating is high when all
expectancy, instrumentality, and valence probability are all high, and conversely.
Moreover, none of the motivation rating is generated when one of the three factors
given is zero. For example, if the employees is self-confident that they can meet the
company’s requirements, and the tasks is challenging enough for the employees,
3|Page

but the rewards for accomplishing the task is not enough (such as no money with
the ones who struggle with financial problems), they will never be motivated to finish
the job, so as the performance will be terrible, leads to bad outcome, and negatively
influence the company’s profit.



Expectancy Theory in reality: motivation of employees in an organization

Expectancy contains several important implications that suggest the managers to
motivate employees. This theory provides guidelines indirectly for enhancing
employees’ motivation through

increasing effort-to-performance expectancy,

performance-to-reward instrumentality, and reward valence.

I.

Effort-to-performance

expectancy:

Managers

should

encourage

the

employees to believe that they are able to perform the tasks successfully. There are
several ways to do this: assigning the appropriate tasks for a skilled employees;
managing the period of time for each task relevantly; providing “learning goals”;
gradually providing tasks for employees based on training progress; assign a group
of employees a task to help them co-operate with each other and gained skills
themselves by learning from their colleagues; provide coaching for employees who
lack abilities or self-confidence. In essence, the managers’ jobs are not only
enhance the employees’ belief on the possibilities of attaining goals, but also make
the task clearly to employees to let them know what they are being expected.

II.

Performance-to-reward instrumentality: Managers should encourage the

employees to believe that they will be well-paid for their best performance on
accomplishing tasks. Ways of doing this include: giving a clear description of the
reward they will receive; providing examples of other employees whose good
performance result in better reward conditions; describe the level of reward based
on employees’ performance.

4|Page

III. Valences of reward: Managers should try to increase the value of the reward
based on desired performance. The main way for this method is flexibly approve a
proper kind of reward on each employee whose requirement is different from each
other such as raising salary, promotion, recognition by supervisors, etc. Or in other
words, managers should not only care about company’s profit but also individually
take a look at personal demand. Objective results do not motivate employees but
employees themselves are motivated by the rewards they can achieve through
attaining goals. It is also deceptive for the managers to believe that every employee
has the same desire. Therefore, offering a separate reward for incorrect employees
is something that manager should avoid, especially in a diverse workplace.

B. LOCKE AND LATHAM’S GOAL SETTING THEORY



Goal setting theory was first established by Ph.D Edwin A. Locke (born

January 5, 1938) in his first article about goal setting "Toward a Theory of Task
Motivation and Incentives" published in 1968. According to his research on the
goal-setting theory, he claimed employees would be motivated to work efficiently if
they were assigned specific goals or activities and received appropriate feedbacks.
After a few years Locke published his article, another researcher, Dr Gary Latham,
studied the effect of goal setting in the company. He got the same results as
Locke’s, and realized there is an inseparable connection between goal setting and
workplace performance. So in 1990, Locke and Latham published their co-operated
article “A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance”. In this book, Locke
and Latham emphasize the requirement of 5 principles of goal setting that make the
goals

more

motivated,

achievable,

and

efficient

are

clarity,

challenge,

commitment, feedback, and task complexity.

I.

Clarity: A specific goal contains a much better chance of being achieved than

general goals. To set a specific goal, the managers should answer the five
questions:
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1.

Who

Who is involved in?

2.

What

What do I need to do?

3.

Where

Identify the location?

4.

When

Manage a specific period of time for the goal?

5.

Why

What are the purposes or benefits of achieving the goal?

The more certain tasks setting up for the employees, the more they are able to
accomplish their tasks. And the more efficient employees can finish their tasks and
achieve goals, the more success is measured. In other words, the workers will be
more encouraged if they are involved in the companies' goals. For example,
"increasing the production by 60%" goals is much more motivated than "keep trying"
or "do your best". This principle helps the goal setting to ensure that all employees
clearly conceive of what is expected from them.

II.

Challenge: This is one of the most important principles for setting up goals.

Everyone is usually motivated by challenge. If the managers assign the goals too
hard to attain, employees will be discouraged. If the managers assign the goals too
easy for the employees’ skill, they will underestimate the goals and not try their best
to complete the task. But if the managers assign the goals hard enough for the
employees, and also reward them fairly to what they have done, they will have
natural motivation to finish their jobs.

This principle will be extremely effective with the employees demanding personal
achievements. They desire to accomplish their job in a better result than how well
everyone has done before. The idea of motivation by challenging the employees
through the workplace’s goals can be partly described by David C. McClelland’s
Need Theory, or more specific is the Need of Achievement (nAch). McClelland
and his associates invested the people’s concern with their achievements by his nAch tests. He divided these people into two groups: high achievers and low
achievers, and realize that the rise of their occupational level mostly based on their
6|Page

n-Ach scores. In addition, high achievers usually demand accomplishment on the
job, and rewards turn into index for the accomplishment. They are enthusiastic with
the challenging goals. If the challenging goals which are relevant for this group of
people highly further the aims of the organization, they will be happy to finish them.

The goal required not only challenging, but also attainable. We usually can only set
difficult and appropriate goals for the high achievers, but how about the low
achievers such as normal workers in a factory? How hard the challenge will be in
order not to be over the workers’ abilities and also motivate the workers to do their
best? The key is to let them set up the goal themselves, or in other words is letting
them create a competition. As an example in How to win friends and influence
people, written by Dale Carnegie, a factory's owner is struggled with how to
enhance his production through creating motivations for his employees. So that he
tried one way to encourage the workers. There are 2 shifts per day in his company,
he placed a board right in front of the factory's entrance to make sure everyone can
see, and started to write the measurement of previous shift's production. If the
morning shift manufactured 7 products, he only wrote "7" on the board. Then the
afternoon shift would come and most of them amazingly realized that is the number
of morning shift's products, and they encourage themselves to work harder and
manufacture more products than the production written on the board. Consequently,
the factory's owner motivated the employees by accidentally created a competition
between two groups of workers inside the company, and made everyone is
interested in the challenge. Generally, we can manage to let the low achievers to
create the challenge themselves so as to satisfy 2 conditions of the challenge: hardenough but still achievable.

In conclusion, it is important to balance between the challenging and achievable
factors in goal setting. The employee’s need for success and achievement is strong,
therefore they will be best motivated by a challenging but realistic goal. Ensuring
that goals are challenging accompanied by attainable goals.

7|Page

III. Commitment: According to this idea, goals bring no only outcome for the
company but also chances for the employees to develop themselves, or develop
their own goal. Or in other words, this principle is created to form the answer for the
questions: “What will the employees get or achieve after accomplishing this task?”
and “How should the managers set up the goal in order to orientate the employee’s
conception about what they can achieve in a more positive way?”. There are
intimate relationships between commitment and specific. The employees will be
more likely to “buy into” the tasks if it is detailed enough to help them clearly
conceive of what would they achieve if they finish the tasks. High salary, power,
friendship, belief, the chance to approve their strong abilities, etc. The managers
have to flexibly apply different methods for each different group of people. For
example, if a group of people struggle with finance and require money, the
managers should reward them extra money. Or if another group demand
occupational level or power, promotion is likely to be essential.

This does not mean that there must be negotiations between managers and
employees for “prizes”. Goals and outcome cannot satisfy everyone in the
workplace. Instead, as the managers use goal setting in the workplace, be sure to
include the people’s goal in what the company is looking for. By this way, whatever
the employees do will directly or indirectly influence the company’s profit along with
their outcome. The employees can be sure that they play an important role in the
workplace, by their goals are consistent with the company’s goal.

IV. Feedback: Employees cannot adapt to the required tasks without receiving
proper feedback. They need to know how effective they have been in accomplishing
tasks they were assigned. From that point, they will be able to adjust themselves in
order to attain their goals more efficiently. Without feedback, goal setting is rigid and
sometimes unlikely to work. In addition, providing feedback in a two-way
communication process will generate opportunities to help the employees express
what they are expecting and clearly understand what they are being expected.
Taking time to sit down and discuss goal performance is necessary for the long8|Page

term performance improvement of the companies. It helps build up positive
connections between employments and employee, and creates friendly working
environment.

Feedback not only allows employees to see how effective they have been in
accomplishing tasks but also helps the manager to build up strategies by short-term
objectives based on previous goals’ results. In this case, feedback for complex and
difficult tasks is more necessary to be provided than general and easy task,
because most of the difficult tasks usually focus on results rather on performance.
Therefore, not only the employees but also the managers are required to grasp the
company’s situation, so that properly-delivered feedback is extremely necessary.

V.

Task Complexity: If the challenge principle emphasizes the important of

assigning difficult goals for the employees, task complexity is created to guarantee
the appropriate conditions for finishing the goals, especially the amount of time. Its
job is to ensure that the tasks will not become too overwhelming because of the
deadline. Employees who are chosen to deal with highly difficult or complicated
goals are usually deeply motivated already. However, because of their high level of
motivation, they often push themselves too hard if they have to finish the job in an
improper amount of time. Therefore, task complexity principle appears to make sure
everyone in the workplace is provided sufficient time to accomplish the goal, and
enough time for practice and learn what is expected from them.
Task complexity principle advises employers to create “learning goals” as well.
These goals are built up in order to improve the company’s profit indirectly by
increasing the employees’ skills and ability to enhance their performance on
accomplishing tasks. Occasionally, employees focus too much on how to attain
complicated goals without keeping an eye on how they finish them. In this situation,
the best option is creating “learning goals”. These goals accomplished by
employees will not only help them to achieve knowledge and skills for the future
tasks, but also lead to better their performance. This method is usually used for new
9|Page

employees, who have not had any idea of the company’s goals and the workplace
environment. They have to attain abilities through finishing basic goals, and by this
way of working, they can learn about their work by co-operate with their “old”
colleagues. In other words, employees should achieve skills both through tasks and
their colleagues’ experience.


Goal setting theory in reality: motivation of employees in an organization

If most of the motivation theories suggest to encouraging employees by satisfying
their desire though approving a kind of reward to a specific individual, goal setting
theory motivates employee right from the beginning progress of creating a goal.
According to Locke and Latham, a goal should be built up by meeting these
requirements:

I.

Clarity: This principle ensures the goals to be detailed and specific. To do that,

managers should: providing enough and exact details about the tasks (who is
involved in, what to do, location, time, achievement); clarifying rewards for the given
tasks, etc. The point is to help employees to clearly understand what they are being
expected.

II.

Challenge and Commitment: This is the most important part of the best-

motivated goals. Challenging goals allow employees to totally focus on their given
tasks, think critically, improve their skills, and as a result, enhance the company’s
profit. In addition, commitment requires companies to guarantee their benefits for
the employees after attaining the goals. In essence, it requires a balance between
the goals’ level of difficult and the goals’ outcome. Several ways to do this are:
selecting appropriate level of goals’ difficulty for the employees based on their skills,
and knowledge;……..

III. Feedback: After setting up challenging goals, feedback is essential to let the
employees see how effective they have been in the progress of attaining the goals.
10 | P a g e

Feedback is also an well-supporting tools for employees and managers, especially
two-way communication feedback, allows the managers to make some adjustments
on the way the employees is performing, and let the employees to express their
opinion, about their expectations, or their idea and estimate about any necessary
changes to the performance of attaining goals. Ways of doing this are: providing
proper feedback on the employee’s attaining-goal progress; providing two-way
communication feedback;…..
IV. Task Complexity: A task cannot be completed without the attainable factors on
the condition, especially the amount of time. In addition, goals must not contradict
to other goals, otherwise it is impossible to finish both opposite goals. There are
several ways to do this: Giving the employees sufficient time to meet the goals’
requirement; providing “learning goals”; allow the new employees to work with
experienced employees by let them co-operate in a group; providing coaching for
employees who lack abilities, etc.

C. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO THEORIES.


If Expectancy Theory contains significant implications for employee motivation

methods, Goal Setting Theory provides factors required to build up those
methods. In some case, these two theories complete each other by filling up the
main missing parts of the other theory.

1.

Expectancy theory’s valence emphasizes on the importance of personal

demands, and giving extra money through salary is not always an effective tool to
strengthen the employee’s preference, simultaneously goal setting theory’s
commitment ensures that company will meet the employees’ needs through
particular ways, and suggests the company to flexibly apply different reward for
each group of employees. As a result, combination of these two principles leads to
the way of employee motivation by satisfying individuals’ requirements and
expectations.

11 | P a g e

2.

Expectancy theory’s expectancy demonstrates the possibilities of best

performing the tasks by full effort. To satisfy this factor, goal setting’s challenge
establishes the motivation through the level of difficulty, especially with the
employees who achieve high score on the nAch Test. If the goal is too easy for the
employees, they can accomplish it excellently, but most of them usually do not pay
full effort to perform, because they believe that they do not have to physically and
mentally try their best to attain it. The goal will be finished immediately. On the other
hand, if the goal is too hard to attain, that means the goal is too overwhelming, and
even the employees work the goal out with full effort, it cannot be finish with best
expected performance from the company. So expectancy is created to form the
answer for the question: “How challenging the goal should be?” by estimating
expectancy probability. This answer will be highly effective for high achievers in
nAch. McClelland believes that high achievers will best perform when they estimate
the chance of success and failure is 50-50, or the expectancy probability is 0.5.
They do not want the probability of success over 0.5 because it does not challenge
their abilities at all. They also do not want the probability of success below 0.5
because they do not want to include luck in their achievement. They want some
kind of goals that not only attainable, but also challenge their skills of work. In
conclusion, the idea of motivation through challenge bases on the expectancy
probability, results in a proper level of difficulty for each employee.


Expectancy Theory and Goal Setting Theory demonstrate employee

motivation by two different ways, but in essence, they mostly focus on employee
motivation through task assigning progress. While goal setting theory answers
“What is included?” question, expectancy theory answers “How much should each
factor be measured?”. Two theories extremely and inseparably connected to each
other, the same as the connection between qualitative and quantitative.

12 | P a g e

D. SOURCES


en.wikipedia.org



Dale Carnegie (1888-1955). How to win friends and influence people.

 (1) : Oliver, R. (August, 1974). Expectancy Theory Predictions of Salesmen’s
Performance. Journal of Marketing Research 11, 243-253


Bùi Anh Tuấn, Phạm Thúy Hương: Giáo trình hành vi tổ chức.

13 | P a g e

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