Vroom’s theory of motivation at work
Anyone who wants to become a manager of an organisation needs to understand about motivation. An enormous amount of research has been done on this topic, particularly as it involves performance in the workplace. At various times, theories have been advanced and then replaced by others. For example, people in management once thought that workers had to be forced to work hard because most people hated work. 1Drop sentence here. Both those ideas have largely been replaced by human resource management theory, which includes the work of a psychologist called Victor Vroom.
It remains clear that some people, men and women, are motivated to perform to their maximum in a work situation and others are not. However, Vroom suggested a very clear reason for this in a theory which he put forward in 1964. 2Drop sentence here. His Expectancy Theory looked at the three key elements in any manager-worker relationship.
Since the theory appeared, there have been many experiments to investigate its validity. 3Drop sentence here. When we examine how often they were brought up in research (more than 70 times), it becomes clear that most of the evidence supports his theory when we use statistical analysis. The only issue of significance is that there is a lack of the expected relationships in particular situations, for a reason which we shall see.
Vroom’s theory involves three relationships. The first is between effort and performance. Vroom maintains that people will only be motivated to produce effort at work if they expect it to lead to better performance. In a large organisation, it may be hard to connect better performance to a specific individual. 4Drop sentence here. For the theory to prove true, the relationship between effort and performance has to be obvious.
Vroom’s second relationship is between performance and reward. A worker must believe that he or she will be adequately rewarded for performing at a particular level. 5Drop sentence here. While in practice it is often a financial reward, it can also be recognition and praise from a manager in situations where the worker understands that a bonus or an increase in salary is not a possibility. However, if the improved performance is not recognised in any way, this second relationship breaks down.
Finally, we have the relationship between rewards and personal goals. For a worker to be motivated, there must be a clear relationship between the reward offered, as mentioned above, and what the worker wants to achieve at work. 6Drop sentence here. Put simply, a reward, however generous, will not motivate unless it fits with the worker’s goals.