Expectancy Theory vs Equity Theory Essay

Employee motivation is, or at least must be, one of the key issues for directors, managers and personnel managers. The leader must be able to find the sensitive strings of his subordinates, which can be motivated by influencing them to achieve high performance. The correct use of motivation encourages staff to make more efficient use of their knowledge, skills, and talents. In today's turbulent, often chaotic environment, commercial success depends on the employee's talent and effort. Despite the many existing theories and practices, some of the motivation of leaders today remains a mystical term. This is partly due to the fact that people are motivated by different things and techniques.

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

For any business to be successful it needs motivated employees. They are the single most important factor in the long-term success of an organisation.

Rather, Equity, and the sense of fairness which commonly underpins motivation, is dependent on the comparison a person makes between his or her reward/investment ratio with the ratio enjoyed (or suffered) by others considered to be in a similar situation”(Balancing Employee Inputs and Outputs).

With this being said, motivation is very complex and is continuously fluctuating over time (Maslow, 1954). Getting employees optimally motivated is very difficult, due to the various components that go into motivation. However, when an employee is positively motivated, they will be able to accomplish any task set in front of them.

In today’s business world, it seems that the major pitfall is in employees’ lack of motivation and engagement in their positions. This results in decreased productivity and satisfaction, and overall diminished views of the establishment. The relationships between employers and employees also suffer from poor morale in the workplace. According to an article by Chris Musselwhite, Creating a Culture of Motivation, the first place to start in correcting this problem, is to educate managers on the benefits of an empowered workforce, and how to effectively inspire them.

Adam’s Equity Theory is a model of motivation which basically states that employees will perform at a more productive rate if they feel that they are being treated fairly (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). Equity is achieved when a worker perceives their reward for their amount of work to be equal to that of a relevant worker. Negative inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives greater rewards for the same amount of work. Positive inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives fewer rewards for the same amount of work (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010).

Every day people wake up, get ready for the day, and go to work or school. By the end of the day, these individuals may end up failing a test, get demoted, receive a raise in their salaries, or get selected as employee of the month. The answer to whether or not these achievements and failures are a product of these people’s merit and effort are often questioned. Looking at the American society, there are many issues that occur which keep members of society from being able to say that these achievements and failures were due to their merit and effort. The issues that are able to support this idea that American society is unfair and that an individual’s fate is not largely a product of his or her merit and effort are income trends, the gender

This also leads to the next concept of situational factors and feelings revolving around the motive behind their decisions. The influence of internal feelings relating to similar situations can easily differentiate. One may feel as if they are sick of being stuck working a 9-5 but know they need to keep working harder; someone else in the same situation could easily feel the same and feel as if they are sick of being stuck in a 9-5 and want do violence to get to the top. In my opinion I believe the stigma of social equality and everyone being equal can easily feel like façade, because even if we are the same people and are in similar situations truth is we may not have the same opportunities in life. Having that injustice causes even similar people in similar situations

Indeed, its unit of explanation is almost confined to the dyad, of how people assess their worth and outcomes relative to possible and existing relationship partners. Perhaps, expanding the notion of justice, equity theory can be applied to the realm of intergroup behavior. This may occur through the process of comparing the ingroup’s investments toward achieving positive social outcomes against those of the outgroup, while also examining the returns of investment achieved by one’s group relative to others. Prejudice and discrimination may be attributed to one group’s perception that social outcomes (e.g. funding, employment, welfare) are not being distributed fairly across groups, regardless if these resources are shared equally in reality—only that the group subjectively believes that they are worth more than what they already have, or that other groups are not deserving of how much they are

One of notable contributions of social psychology is research on social justice (Jost & Kay, 2010), racism, and prejudice (Ross, Lepper, & Ward, 2010). Within the topic of social justice, themes such as equality, equity, liberty, morality, and others are studied. The surge of academic attention in social justice post World War II partially attributes to the political interest in fighting fascism. Nevertheless, issues that are related social equality are continuing to be relevant today. A challenging aspect of this topic is a lack of consensus among scholars with regards to its definition. Moreover, understandings of social justice require integration of individual, group, and system level insights. Holding a balance between subjective and objective experiences with respect to what construed as just is essential. Understandings gained from research would assist researchers to identify obstacles to fair community including selfishness, laziness, human tendency to dehumanize perceived enemies, and common social misconceptions. Research results can assist the public to encourage dialogues integral to social justice (Jost & Kay, 2010).

Over the last several years, the issue of employee motivation inside the workplace has been increasingly brought to the forefront. The reason why is because, globalization has been having an effect on the ability of firms to compete (which is placing more pressure on them). To deal with these challenges, most organizations are relying on their employees. The results are that those employers who are able to use this resource will be able to make adjustments quickly. This is when the firm will be able to maintain their dominance in the marketplace.

The equity theory conceived by J. Stacy Adams is based premise that "people gauge the fairness of their work outcomes relative to others, any perceived inequity is a motivating state of mind" (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2005, p.10, chpt.6). This theory when applied to a sales force would not be the best method to motivate this employee group as to what is deemed fair by a team leader could be perceived as unfair by the

Equity vs Equality. Over the years, multiple distinguished authors, politicians, teachers, and philosophers have weighed with their opinion. Equality is ultimate state of being equal in all things, including opportunists, states, and rights. Equity, on the other hand, describes being fair and impartial in all situations. Words that are so similar yet, completely different. Equity is being fair, and being fair doesn't always mean being completely equal to everybody. Equality, sounds good however as time has shown equality is only beneficial if everyone has the same advantages and all benefit equally from the system . What happens when everyone does not have the same inborn advantages? We begin to have unfair disadvantages aimed at marginalized people. Equity is the path that as a society, we must take in order to improve.

Employee motivation a powerful new model explores drivers of employee motivation, the levers the managers can pull to address them and the local strategies that can boost motivation despite organizational constraints. Finding of new research introduce a model that establishes the four basic emotional need people exhibit; they are the drive to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend. Also it exhort organizations take an holistic approach to satisfy employee’s emotional needs through its reward system, culture, management systems, and design of jobs. The potential benefit of a motivated workforce to an