Equity Theory Research Paper

Motivation is derived from an internal force that provides an individual the opportunity to achieve their needs or goals. People are motivated by a variety of things and often have different motivating factors. Employers should be mindful of individual motivating factors when attempting to motivate staff to increase performance. While some people may be motivated by money, many are motivated by things like: recognition, promotion, and increased responsibility. Once an employer has identified motivating factors they are able to analyze a variety of motivational theories to design and implement a program that will motivate employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them.

Social inequality is a problematic phenomenon that occurs all around the world and affects both the developed and developing nations. It is defined as “the unequal distribution of social, political and economic resources within a social collective” (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 205). Inequality is closely connected with social stratification, a system of social hierarchy that positions individuals and groups into categories according to social variables such as class or ethnicity (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 485). This stratification has a significant impact on the opportunity that an individual may have to move up the hierarchy of inequality (Gill 2017a).

Equality makes sure individuals or a group of individuals are treated fairly and equally, specific to their needs, including areas of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexuality and age. Americans are socially more equal than any other people, and this is unaffected by economic imbalance. The American view is that the rich guy may have more money, but he/she isn’t in any basic sense better than anyone else.

The Equity Theory touches on the effects these situations have on the employee’s motivational level. In society today employees are constantly comparing how they are

Although equality and equity are not the same, the concepts are intimately related. With the absence of a single accepted definition of equity, there is general agreement that equity implies quality. The measurement of inequality pertains to statistical variation. Equity on the other hand requires normative judgements based on moral theories. Inequality in consumption means that different people receive different

Motivation is the driving force behind everyone’s actions and it influences the level of efficiency that everyone performs said actions with. While hoping to explain just how individuals become and remain motivated in the first place, many have developed theories. One theory, in particular, was introduced by John Stacy Adams in 1969 and it is referred to as the Equity Theory.

This paper explores a contemporary and widely accepted motivational theory known as Expectancy theory of motivation introduced by Victor Vroom in 1964. It will first explain the three key components and relationships of the expectancy theory of motivation. These components include Expectancy, Instrumentality and Valence. In addition, it will explain how to enhance the motivation of employees in a fictional but real-life modeled scenario using the Expectancy theory of motivation. After studying this paper, the reader should be able to explain the main components of the Expectancy

The greater equality makes most difference at the bottom, but has some benefits even at the top. As part of the psychosocial effects of inequality, Richard Wright believed that it has more to do with feelings of superiority and inferiority, of being valued and devalued, and respect or disrespect. In unequal societies, it also leads to status insecurity, and that we tend to worry more about how we are judged and seen by others as well as whether we’re regarded as attractive, clever and these sort of things. One could say that people who live in unequal societies are more likely to have increased level of social-evaluative judgments. He later went on and brought up the issue of stress hormones, where researches and studies suggested that social-evaluative threat to self-esteem or social status, in which others can negatively judge people’s performance can have a particular effects on the physiology of

“1]. How does social inequality impact people of different nationalities [ethnicities & races], classes, and genders in society.”

The frequent use of inequity rather than inequality is because inequality explains the imbalanced difference between health outcomes for individuals and social groups or disparities between men and women. On the other hand, inequity is explained as unfair inequality. Therefore inequity is a broader term that describes the inequality that results from social injustice. It therefore poses political questions attributed to social relations in terms of distribution and what balance relationship can achieve.

Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following

Keeping employees motivated in addition to creating incentives and/or additional ways for employees to receive more compensation will create better performance overall within an organization. Contrary if company B gives their employees incentives to perform, without any motivational tactics they probably will not have as many top performances as company A, in addition the company may only seek short term rewards verses have long term success. Lack of motivation for employees within an organization, can cause long term damage for the company’s success. Different things motivate everyone; therefore there should be a system in place to keep employees motivated for the long term success of the company. In the MBM textbook under the concept of incentives, compensation, and motivation, there are a couple of different views of how it should be applied within an organization. We will discuss The Social Role of Profit, Personal Profit and Losses, and the way Market-Based Management view how incentives, compensation, and motivation should be applied and the things that effectively drive employees’ actions while at work.

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.

Society holds many structures that mould human performance and produce opportunities for some, but inequalities for others (Morrall, 2009). These structures in society are organized by the hierarchies of class, ethnicity and gender (Crossman, 2016). Due to having a society based on hierarchies, social inequalities are inevitable. Social inequality refers to the ways in which a group or individual of a certain social position may receive unequal opportunities or distribution of ‘goods’ such as education, income, living conditions and healthcare (Walker, 2009). These unequal opportunities may be given to someone because of their ethnicity, gender, income, religion or social class (Walker, 2009). For example, people in a high social class will be able to pay for their children to go to a good private school for a good education, whereas lower-class or working class people will struggle to afford the same education.

One of the first authors that dealt with the sources of motivation was Frederick Taylor who focussed on the overall productivity of an organisation. He linked this productivity to the effort an employee puts into their work which in turn is dependent on monetary rewards (Taylor, 1911). This theory was established in the context of the industrial age and thus is outdated for today’s analysis but it still provides a basic assumption which is often referred to by other authors. The total neglecting of a worker’s intrinsic motivators is a starting point for discussion for authors that conducted research in that area after Taylor.