Goals Setting Theory And Expectancy Theory

Job satisfaction is a key driver to corporate success. It is clear that at Perfect Pizzeria employees are dissatisfied with their work environment. In order to overcome job dissatisfaction, one might influence employee motivation by applying the expectancy theory - the theory of motivation that suggests employees are more likely to be motivated when they perceive their efforts will result in successful performance and ultimately, desired rewards and outcomes (McShane and Travaglione 2007, p146).

The expectancy theory was developed by Victor H. Vroom in 1964 as a systematic explanation of individual motivation within the workplace. This theory put forth three key components: expectancy, performance, and valence. From the base component of the theory, which is expectancy, behavior is built by an individual’s value of the reward or valence. Vroom’s theory of expectancy is used by manager to understand how individual employees are motivated and how they will respond to rewards closely tied to the tasks given. Expectancy is proposed to be an individual’s understanding of how their effort leads to a given performance level. Vroom put forth in his theory that individuals believe the more effort put into a task or objective, the better

Clearly defined goals as they relate to the organization can motivate employees through goal setting. Goals challenge to employees to make them want to explore new technology, ideas, and gain insight from a diverse workplace. Additionally, giving employees more responsibility will make them believe they have contributed with a sense of higher importance. Without motivation in the workplace, a business will suffer from the lack of efficiency from employees. Perhaps the most significant of increased employee motivation is that of increased productivity (staff@incentives.com, 2010). Therefore, it is important that employers give their employees an opportunity to work hard for their reward to obtain a high level of performance, which is an essential to the success of any business.

The Goal Theory- The goal-setting theory, introduced by Edwin Locke, stated that an intention to aim towards a goal is a major cause of improving work motivation. Essentially, goals identify employees what is required by them and how much effort should be expanded. Therefore, the greater the difficulty of achieving the goal, the higher the level of performance expected.

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

According to the expectancy theory of motivation, in the workplace an employee’s willingness to work is dependent upon the end result of working and how important the end result is to the employee. An employee will be more compelled to put forth more effort if it is believed that the consequence of doing so will be a positive performance evaluation. The employee must believe that by achieving a positive performance evaluation, an incentive will be achieved. The incentive, whether it is monetary or advancement, must benefit the employee (Robbins, 2012).

Finally, another study showed that where Kings theory shows the collaborative comparative between the model and the nursing process it argues that the theory doesn’t guide the assessment, diagnosis or intervention but rather uses the theory as a foundational for developing an assessment tool and further argues that the theory helps more long term recovering patients rather than short term recovering patience. (Carter, 1997). All the same having pointed out the different views on this theory it is still apparent that the Kings theory of Goal Attainment is still very useful to present in the nursing practise.

Kings theory focuses on human transactions in different types of environments. Da Silva and Ferreira (2016) state that “when users effectively communicate their values with nursing professionals, their participation can conduct to better goal achievement”. As patients and nurses work together, a bond forms, and this can help to achieve better outcomes. Smith and Parker (2016, p.136) stated that “nursing care’s goal is to help individuals maintain health or regain health”. Through King’s Theory of Goal Attainment, we can see how different concepts can affect the nurse-patient relationship.

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

Locke (1960) proposes that intentions to work towards a goal are a major source of work motivation. Goals help us to determine the level of effort that we need to apply to a task.

Employees are valuable resources for companies and them could be competitive advantages for modern companies. It is important for modern companies to improve employee satisfaction and performance so that they can improve their organisational performance and competitiveness (Armstrong, 2006). As a result, Employee’s motivation management is significantly for companies. Motivation is a cognitive process to guide, initiate, direct and maintain goal-oriented activities. It can also be defined as the driving forces directing people’s actions (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2013). Employees making contribution for firms because they are motivated by something, such as successful companies can always identify the factors motivating their employees and conduct responsive practices to motivate employees to improve performance (Podmoroff, 2005).

Good communication between managers and employees must be practiced in RTA. This method is a major factor to motivate the employees to work willingly. Interaction between workers may also form a good team when working for there is cooperation in contributing ideas and decision making which makes the employees feel more involved and appreciated in the business. Therefore, if RTA uses this kind of motivational technique, the managers must face their workers one-to-one to monitor them and must be more involved in the employee’s environment which is also under their responsibilities. It is also proven that Mayo’s theory is effective because the more involvement the managers are in the business the more the employees will be recognized and be more motivated to work hard to be appreciated and rewarded.

The goal-setting theory was developed in 19sos by Edwin Locke. According to it, task performance is essentially linked to goal setting. That means that higher and better task performance may be achieved when goal setting is rationally applied, as clear goals inspire workers on optimal performance.

Motivation is descried in this theory as a means to connect personal gain and an overall company objective while generating an effort from the employee creating the impact with employees

The expectancy theory of motivation has become an increasingly popular model for predicting work performance and job preference. The empirical tests of this model have typically employed correlation analysis to