Expectancy Theory Essay

507 Words3 Pages
The identification and application of the theoretical model ‘Expectancy Theory’ can be used to predict and diagnose the motivation of Middle Mangers, more specifically, Andrew, in working for the organization and the ramifications of these motivational reactions. In essence, by understanding the strength of desire for a particular outcome and the probability of achieving this, helps individuals to gain a subjective view of effort linked to outcome to adjust motivation and behaviour towards work-related goals. Expectancy theory identifies three elements, allowing an employee to understand the links between effort, performance and outcomes. The first stage, effort to performance, was demonstrated to be highly successful for Andrew. A person with high effort-performance expectancy will be more motivated to perform. (Wilson, 2010) An increased amount of effort is linked to higher levels of performance, where an individual will choose the level of effort based upon their estimates of the desired outcome linked to that effort. The opportunity for achievement, the responsibility and scope for individual advancement and growth that was set out to him by David, in order to gain a high income for his ‘life plans’ were the factors that motivated Andrew to pursue the level of effort he displayed. Andrew was lead to believe by David that ‘if he performed well in his six months as assistant manager, he would step directly into the Graduate Management Program.’ As well as this, Andrew displayed positive personality characteristics of self-enhancement, self-confidence, self-verification – ‘working his hard and putting the long hours…in the belief that his effort would win him a place in the graduate program’, enabling such high levels of motivation to direct effort to performance. A person’s expectations are highly correlated to his or her level of performance. Those
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