Theory of Expectancy

Objectives

Expectancy Theory in the Organizational Behavior.

Basic three components of the Expectancy Theory.

The meaning of the Expectancy Theory.

Victor Vroom

Business school professor at Yale University

He made psychological analysis of behavior in organization focusing on leadership and decision –making

Victor VroomHe published several books that

were acknowledged as the breakthroughs in the study of organizational behavior such as:

“Leadership and Decision- Making” “The New Leadership”

WHAT IS EXPECTANCY

THEORY?

"The basic idea behind the theory is that people will be motivated because they believe that their decision will lead to their desired outcome" (Redmond, 2009)

Expectancy Theory

The theory states that individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they believe that:

1. There is a positive correlation between efforts and performance.

2. Favorable performance will result in a desirable reward.

3. The reward will satisfy an important need

Expectancy TheoryProposes that a person will decide to act in a certain way because they are motivated to select a behavior over other behaviors due to what they expect the result to be.

Expectancy Theory is Based on four assumptions:1. A person join an organization with

expectations about their needs, motivation and past experiences

2. An individual’s behavior is a result of conscious choice

3. A person want different things from the organization (good salary, promotion, fulfillment etc)

4. A person will chooses among alternatives to be able to optimize outcomes for them personally.

3 Components of the Expectancy TheoryExpectancy

Instrumentality

Valence

Low Probability High Probability

0 +1

Low Probability High Probability

0 +1

-1 0 +1

Strong PreferenceIndifferenceStrong

Avoidance

Motivation

Instrumentality

The perception of the person that if he or she person performs well, a desired outcome will result from it.

ValenceThis refers to the person’s emotional

orientation to the value of the outcome or rewards that were brought about by the person’s effort to the performance shown.

Intrinsic Factors are those that are driven by internal rewards such as satisfaction and pleasure felt when a task is accomplished.

Extrinsic Factors are those that are external rewards such as promotion, increase in salary etc.

What the management should do?

The management must know what supervision, trainings or resources the employees needs

The management must ensure that promises of rewards are fulfilled and that the employees are made aware of that

The management must know the employees value.