Saurabh is a project manager on an industrial design project. He set up a reward system, but he was surprised to find out that the team is actually less motivated than before. He realizes that it’s because the set rewards are impossible to achieve, so the team doesn’t expect to ever get them. What motivational theory does this demonstrate?

Solution

Expectancy theory given by Victor Vroom is based on the relationship between effort, performance and reward. It says that people get motivated only by rewards that they value, find achievable, and fair. The relationship between these factors is defined as: ·         Expectancy - effort and performance link i.e. will my effort lead to high performance ·         Instrumentality – performance-reward link i.e. will performance lead to outcome/reward ·         Valence – reward-personal goal link i.e. do I find the reward desirable Motivation is a function of all these three factor. As such, valence is an important aspect for motivation to work. if the reward system that selects people who don’t deserve rewards, or that has rewards that are unattainable, then it will backfire and cause people to resent their jobs. In the above case the ‘Valence’ of the reward system set up by Saurabh was low leading to no motivation to work towards it.