Expectancy-Value Theory: Connecting Expectations to Rewards

As employees scramble over each other in an attempt to achieve the next promotion, or trinket of acknowledgement, it is important to understand precisely how their expectations lead to motivation. Expectancy-Value Theory is one way of looking at how employees value the behavioral options available to them.  In this theory, management should tie behavior and reward closely together if there is an expectation that employees will be motivated and productive.  Management has an ethical opportunity to ensure proper returns on investments and progressive use of human capital in order to fulfill their function.

The concepts of valence and expectancy make up the bulk of the Expectancy-Value Theory.  In general, employees believe that when they put forth a specific amount of effort there should be an appropriate reward that is offered. If the expected energy and the value of the reward are not in alignment it will be difficult for management to solicit certain types of motivated behavior.

Valence and expectancies make up the bulk of Vroom's Value-Expectancy Theory and are further defined as the following: 

1.) Valence: The desired outcome of working at a particular level.

2.) Expectancies: The subjective expectation that such action will lead to a particular reward.

Vroom defines valence as, "the affective orientation toward particular outcomes" (1964, pp. 15). Those positive outcomes an employee desires to achieve are called positively valent while those things which an employee desires to avoid are negatively valent. It does not matter much what the true worth of these positive or negative factors are but only that they have a subjective perceptual value to employees.

It is not enough for a person to think in terms of the value of objectives but also the likelihood of achieving those objectives. For example, if an employee believes there is a high likelihood of achieve a particular objective after a defined amount of effort is put forth motivation is more likely. If this association of effort and reward is lower, motivation is less likely. Such expectancies are often denoted in numbers and range from .00 (low) to 1.0 (high).

In general, employees continually scan their environment in an effort to judge the value combinations of potential valences and expectancies. Alternatives come and go and employees do not always maintain orderings throughout their time of employment (Behling & Starke, 1973). The ordering of valences and expectancies can be seen as Sum (EijVj).  Someone who prefers a specific expectancy and valence combination is said to prefer Sum(EijVj)1 over Sum(EijVj)2  This would mean they prefer a particular course of action based upon the value of expectancy and the likelihood of its valence. 

We might be able to break this into an appropriate example. An employee has an option to put effort towards 1.) obtain a raise; or 2.) obtain a promotion without a raise. Option 1 could be denoted as Sum(EijVj)1 and option 2 can be denoted as Sum(EijVj)2. The employee makes the decision that the particular value combination of option 1 is worth more than option 2. The employee is most likely to put his effort toward the higher income.

Researchers can often use these short denotations to help them categorize and keep track of certain options over others. It is such understandings and choices, from the perspective of the employee, that often leads to an approach in workplace behavior based upon the value ordering of these particular choices.  As employees move through these choices they will often ignore or forget older orderings as they become less available.

. . . most decisions are made in sequential fashion. Thus, having chosen y over X and then, z over y, one is typically committed to z and may not even compare it with x, which has already been eliminated. Furthermore, in many choice situations the eliminated alternative is no longer available, so there is no way of finding out whether our preferences are transitive or not. These considerations suggest that in actual decisions, as well as in laboratory experiments, people are likely to overlook their own intransitivities. Transitivity, however, is one of the basic and the most compelling principles of rational behavior (Tversky, 47, p. 45).

Unfortunately, many employees cannot formalize these values in their minds and this can cause confusion. At times it is beneficial for managers to ensure that the actions that lead to rewards are clearly defined for employees in order to help them make these values more solidified. This is one of the reasons why workplace expectations and the rewards should be transparent and clear for employees in order to build develop appropriate behavioral options.

Furthermore, understanding what employees value in terms of potential outcomes within the workplace will lead to a greater understanding of the motivational potentials of employee behavior. It should be kept in mind that management should ensure that the performance expectations are solidified through formal corporate literature, management behavior, and compensation structures. When there is confusion between the expectancies and their potential outcomes this lowers the total likelihood that certain behaviors will be exhibited. Poor performance is a direct result of poor management communication.

Behling, O. & Starke, F. (1973). The postulates of expectancy theory. Academy of Management Journal, 16 (3).

Tversky. A. (1969) Intransitivity of Preferences. Psychological Review, 76, pp.31-48.

Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and Motivation. New York: Wiiey.

The Components of Employee Motivation and Organizational Success

At the center of any successful organization rests the employees that take the orders, assemble the products, and sell the goods. Before companies can achieve success they should ensure employees are committed and engaged with the organization and its objectives. Where well managed and committed employees are an asset, a poorly managed company with a lack of employee commitment will ultimately lead to decline. Through the development and encouragement of employee effort does the unique synergy exist in   organizations that allow for higher levels of operational savings and environmental capitalization. The components of this motivation are discussed through this article.

Motivation is derived from the word "motivate" which means to push, move, or influence the environment to achieve some objective (Kalimullah et al, 2010). Motivation can also be seen as the process by which behavior obtains a results, attempts to complete an objective and continues to push forward. It still may further be seen as an internal drive that pushes to fulfill some need (Bedeian, 1993).

Employee motivation is one of the main functions of management that is derived through the policies and procedures of an organization (Shadare et al, 2009). Through the need to accomplish some goal or find a path to personal development an employee will scan their work environment to put their skills, knowledge and abilities to the most appropriate use. Such excited employees are seeking ways to make their work more interesting and efficient and therefore organizations should foster the effort in order to make the company more successful (Kalimullah et al, 2010).

Through the capitalization on employee motivation an organization can meet customer demands, lower costs, and change to meet environmental challenges. Organizational effectiveness is the efficient process of turning inputs to outputs (Matthew et al, 2005). The more efficiently the organization is run through motivating processes the more effective is the process of converting the organizational factors into viable products or services. This is accomplished through the minds and bodies of workers that engage in and make micro and macro decisions throughout the process.

The Legitimacy Model views organizational effectiveness as “component preferences for performance and natural limitations on performance from an external environmental perspective” (Zammuto.R.F,
1982). In other words, while reviewing an organization it is possible to determine its effectiveness by understanding employees' preferences for performance and the limitations these employees have in utilizing these pathways. If road blocks are removed employees will put their effort toward those designed pathways that have the most chances of success.

Leadership is an essential component of motivation. Through employee trust of management they will believe that the leadership function of the organization will fulfill their explicit and implicit promises (Baldoni.J, 2005). Thus leadership and trust in management is necessary if employees are to make that decision to put forward effort into the organizational pathways. The leadership function and the labor function raise each other to higher levels of motivation and morality in a synergistic manner that furthers market interests (Rukhmani.K, 2010).

The essential components of employee motivation rely in trust, rewards, decision making, empowerment, information and group expectations (Baldoni.J, 2005; Yazdani,B.O. et al, 2011; Hassan et al, 2011; Adeyinka et al, 2007; Brewer et al, 2000). When these components work in tandem an environment can be more aligned to the needs of the employees and thus produce more meaningful results for the organization. Investors should ensure their management team are working to continually align their organizations to foster these motivational components to meet environmental needs.

Through a review of a number of studies it has been found that a various components contribute to the development of motivation within the organization:

 ...the factors that enhance employee motivation are fair pay, incentives, special allowances, fringe benefits, leadership, encouragement, trust, respect, joint decision making, quality of supervision, adequate working relationships, appreciation, chances for growth, loyalty of organization, identification and fulfillment of their needs, recognition, empowerment, inspiration, importance attached to their job, safe working conditions, training and information availability and communication to perform actions (Manzoor, 2011).

Baldoni, J., (2005). Motivation Secrets. Great Motivation Secrets of Great Leaders. [Online]
Available: http://govleaders.org/motivation_secrets.htm

Kamalian, A., Yaghoubi, N., & Moloudi, J., (2010). Survey of Relationship between Organizational Justice and Empowerment (A Case Study). European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, 24, 165-171.

Matthew, J., Grawhich, & Barber, L., (2009). Are you Focusing both Employees and Organizational Outcomes. Organizational Health Initiative at Saint Louis University (ohi.slu@edu), 1-5.

Manzoor, Q. (2011). Impact of employees motivation on organizational effectiveness. Business and Management Strategy, 3 (1).

Rukhmani, K., Ramesh, M., & Jayakrishnan, J., (2010). Effect of Leadership Styles on Organizational Effectiveness. European Journal of Social Sciences, 15 (3), 365-369.

Yazdani, B., Yaghoubi, N., & Giri, E., (2011). Factors affecting the Empowerment of Employees. European Journal of Social Sciences, 20 (2), 267-274.

Zammuto, R. (1982). Assessing Organizational Effectiveness. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.

Priming Organizational Motivation: A partnership of mutual self-interest!

Does employee motivation elude you? Even in the most progressive organizations the nature of motivation eludes the best of managers who throw their hands in the air in sulking defeat. Properly nurtured motivational goals and objectives can be realized through practical processes within the workplace.  Part of the problem lay in their managers perspective of what motivation actually entails. Motivation should not be forced but instead finessed. Like a great fisherman the motivated employee should be attracted and encouraged to take the bait that leads to a line of development.

Employee motivation has two partners of which the first partner is the employee and the second is the organization. In essence, motivation stems from the employee but is fostered through business processes (Radovanovic & Savic, 2012). The will and the way must come together in a workplace marriage if higher performance is to be realized. Despite the benefits offered by the organization the employee is the one who must have a motivational need to put forth the effort into the appropriate pathways offered by the company.

This is why it is beneficial to recruit motivated employees who have a higher probability to use motivational processes/potentials to realize their goals through the organization. Victor Vroom (1964) states "The complex of forces that initiate and keep somebody at work in a company, that is, the motivation starts and maintains activity in the intended direction." The desire to be motivated comes from the unfulfilled needs of the employee which seeks a path of realization within the organization. Organizations that recruit employees with goals and needs can better reap the rewards of their effort through proper encouragement.

The willingness of an employee to put forth effort can be explained by something called Expectancy Theory. Expectancy Theory is based on the assumption that employees will reach a higher level of impact if there is a strong connection between effort and performance, results and rewards, personal rewards and goals (Radovanovic & Savic, 2012).  The path to employee engagement should be transparent and easy for employees to discern when compared to alternative paths that lead to disengagement. This is one reason why policies, ethical standards, processes, procedures, performance feedback and compensation need to be in proper alignment. Where there is divergence of these organizational methods there is also likely to be confusion about appropriate pathways.

The Expectancy Theory discussed the cognitive choices employees make when trying to achieve their goals. The more closely and transparent these choices are the higher the likelihood that appropriate choices will be made that benefit both the individual and the organization.  Montana and Charnov (2008) states, "This theory emphasizes the needs for organizations to relate rewards directly to performance and to ensure that the rewards provided are those rewards deserved and wanted by the recipients." Confusion, cultural rifts between management and employees, improperly designed HR functions, and poorly managed businesses will fail to clearly define proper choice within the organization. They will fail to develop human capital through the confusion of their mixed messages.

As managers throw their arms in the air and pull out the roots of their hair at the lack of employee's motivation they should consider the environment they have created as one of the potential causes of the problem. Strong recruitment and organizational processes go hand-in-hand. It is easy to assume employees are lazy, unproductive, unmotivated, and uninspired when ready made biases are easily available. The question we have to ask ourselves is, "Are we creating the right environment for mutual benefit or are we holding our employees back?"

"A good manager is a man who isn't worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him. My advice: Don't worry about yourself. Take care of those who work for you and you'll float to greatness on their achievements."-  H.S.M Burns


Camilovic, S. & Vidojevic, V. (2007). Basics of human resource management. Belgrade; Tekon.

Montana, P. & Charnov, B. (2008). Management (4th Edition). Barron's Educational Series, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7641-3941-4


Radovanovic, V. & Savic, L. (2012). Motivation and job satisfaction-determinants of competitiveness. Metalurgia International, XVII (11).

Vroom, W. (1964). Work and motivation. NY: Wiley

Six Motivational Potentials Employers Should Consider

Iron Workers Noon Time

Job motivation is an important component for worker progression and organizational development. Motivation takes many forms but is often fostered through the conduit of organizational objectives. Employees seeking needs attainment search through their environments in order to find appropriate paths that create the most likely outcomes. Organizations that can create the right mechanisms for motivational expression are more likely to foster the aspirations of their employees.

Motivational potentials is a concept that entails creating pathways whereby employee motivation can meet beneficial outcomes. In organizations where there are few motivational potentials, and appropriate pathways, it is doubtful employees will come to the conclusion that additional work will result in some level of reward. Without the desire, the pathway, and the reward the employee will continue to treat work as just another mundane task to engage in throughout the day in order to maintain their lifestyle.

Motivational potentials can include the following (Heckhausen & Rheinburg, 1980):

1.) Clearly defined areas of responsibility.
2.) Employees conception of optimal work-results and appropriate measures to reach them.
3.) Consideration of employees' positive experiences with similar work-tasks.
4.) Importance of work-results for sub-dominant goals.
5.) Transparent and performance-oriented incentive systems.
6.) Opportunity of choosing between alternative extrinsic rewards.

Employees seek to own the work and its results, appropriate feedback of performance, have positive work experiences, fulfill multiple goals, trustworthy incentive programs, and meaningfulness of the rewards. To employees the environment must be worthy of their effort and there need to have appropriate opportunities to achieve once that effort is put forward. The compensation structure defines how much and what kind of effort is required for a reward.

Let us assume that Ben is an employee who desires to engage his work environment. However, his supervisor practices control versus empowerment and Ben cannot find an appropriate path to engage his work environment. The extra effort he puts forward is either unnoticed or unfairly capitalized on by his supervisor. After a few attempts at trying to benefit himself through the organization he either gives up or seeks other opportunities for employment. Ben may stay within his position for a while but is unlikely to produce much as he intuitively knows that no benefit can be obtained by offering ideas or working harder.

Ben desires to know what his responsibilities are, wants to know what is considered "strong work", wants to enjoy the tasks he does, wants to enhance his market worth, desires to understand precisely how someone receives additional compensation, and wants a choice in the type of reward he receives. If his supervisor is not transparent with Ben it is unlikely he will trust his supervisor or his workplace. He will not be willing to put forth much effort without a dynamic change to the environment. 

There are organizations that practice the assumption that workers must be controlled and discipline is an appropriate driving force to keep employees productive. Such behavior often encourages compliance but will rarely produce anything beyond low standards of productivity and engagement. Creating an appropriate atmosphere for successful alignment of personal goals with that of the organization can help provide opportunities for motivated workers to reengage their environment. In this century employees are expected to be more than a part in the machinery and should be shown the path forward. Great supervisors and managers can effectively communicate the expectations and follow through with them when they are achieved.

Heckhausen, H. & Rheinburg, F. (1980). Learning motivation in education, newly considered. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 1. pp. 7-47.