Motivation

Motivation 1

Motivation

Team B

MGT/331 Organizational Behavior

Professor Andrew Wagstaff

June 6, 2005

Motivation 2

"What is motivation?" Webster's dictionary defines motivation as an act or process of motivating; the condition of being motivated; and a motivating force, stimulus, or influence. Victor Vroom's expectancy theory states that motivation is a result of a rational calculation of three elements (Schermerhorn, 2005).

Within our organization, employees included are, salespeople, production workers, and administrative staff. We believe that Vroom's Expectancy Theory would be most effective in motivating the people in these groups and we will be explaining our reasons behind our choice in the following discussion.

Vroom's 1964 theory include three key components: expectancy, the belief that one's effort will result attainment of desired goals; instrumentality, the belief that if one does meet expectations, he or she will receive a reward; and valence, the value an individual personally places on the rewards. These factors are fundamental in his or her needs, goals, values and sources of motivation (Scholl, 2002).

However, motivation is not only a process of task, achievement, and reward but depends upon the understanding of each individual and his or her personal goals (Butler, 2003). We should be respectful and consider the cultural diversity that surrounds us. Someone living in the United States has different values than say someone from Africa or Asia. Therefore, what proves "motivational" as a reward in one culture, for example, may not work in another. Knowing that, let us be sensitive to the needs of others and begin our discussion.

I. Expectancy

"The Expectancy theory would best motivate this group of employees!"

Motivation 3

The Expectancy theory says that individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they believe that there is a positive correlation between efforts and performance. Favorable performances will result in a desirable reward, the reward will satisfy an important need and the desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort worthwhile (Schermerhorn, 2005).

The salespeople will do best with this theory because they will achieve the goal to get the reward. That is how salespeople usually work anyway so this is natural for them. They are expecting that through hard work they will reap the benefit.

The administrative staff will buy into this theory because they will see the bigger picture and thrive to attain the goal for the betterment of the work environment and/or to satisfy an important need. In the Expectancy theory, Vroom felt that the results of the conscious thoughts a person would want to minimize pain and want to maximize pleasure. Looking at this makes me believe this is a good motivational theory for the administrative staff because, stuff does run downhill, and if the rest of the team does not hit the goal then they may think that work life will be unpleasant.

The production workers like the salespeople are used to having goals and working towards achieving them. Thus, the production workers will have a strong enough desire to work toward satisfying the greater need. In addition, they will work hard for the reward. Therefore,

as a summary Vroom's Expectancy theory will work on these three groups of employees because each will see the reward as a means to the end and work towards achieving the desired goal.

As we continue to learn about the theories of expectancy there are many subtitles that fall under this category. One of them is instrumentality, which is defined, as the probability assigned by the individual who are given level of achieved task performance will lead to various work outcomes. Instrumentality varies from 0 to 1. (Author: John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn, 2005) This brings us to the topic of motivation and the role it plays within instrumentality.

Motivation plays a major role in instrumentality. Many people's work ethics depend on how confidant they feel in their job. If instrumentality is low motivation will be as well. Yet, on the, other hand, if a person lacks confidence in his or her skill set for his or her job the employee will have low instrumentality. This can make the outcome of the project lacking. If he or she feels as though they are doing a good job and are given merit for their accomplishments he or she is likely to have high instrumentality. If a manager or team leader clarifies performance and job functionality he or she is likely to see high- performance. This sets goals for the employee to achieve. I look at this as climbing a ladder. Success depends on high one can go.

Instrumentality under the expectancy theory states that a manager should work with his or her teammates within the organization to make sure that objectives are met. If a manager does this it gives the team a sense of stability and security. For example when I am working on a project at work I like for my boss to be objective and give his opinion. I do not necessarily want him breathing down my neck every five minutes but I do like to have his thoughts in what I am doing and to gain his approval. For me this makes me feel stronger about the outcome of my function.

There are five distinct levels of needs; self-actualization, esteem, social, safety and physiological. Self-actualization and esteem are at the top of these needs, with physiological being at the bottom. Abraham Maslow has categorized these needs stating that certain needs are more important than others and need to be satisfied before the other needs can serve as motivators. Maslow's five levels of needs are classified as the hierarchy of needs theory.

Even though Maslow's ideas are popular in U.S. firms and easily implemented, there is still no research that has been done to support the five needs that Maslow as created. There is also much more research needed on other theories including the ERG theory.

The ERG theory which was created by Clayton Alderfer suggests that there are three basic respects; existence needs where there is the desire for material well being, relatedness needs where satisfaction

...