Expectancy theory

People will act in a certain way based on the expectation that what they do will be linked to a certain outcome. The expectancy theory can be used as reference for employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages employees to fulfill their unique potential. Outcomes associated with employees' needs are linked to job performance because employees are motivated by things that are important to them. So organizations need to relate outcomes directly to performance and to make sure that the outcomes provided are those outcomes that wanted by intended employees. Financial outcomes are important motivators at work. Job design could be motivation factor as well since job design can affect job satisfaction and commitment to an organization. South Dakota State University Veterinary Department is an organization for animal disease diagnosis and vaccine production. This department has several laboratories including: histopathology, virology, vaccine, diagnostic, bacterial, and electronic microscopy. It is the trend toward lower expense and fewer employees as most organizations are doing. This Veterinary Department has motivated its employees to make more efficient contributions by doing more than one job for each person. Both outcomes and job design had been arranged for motivating employees. The connection between job performance and outcomes, and job design for motivation are going to be discussed.

Job performance and outcomes

“A performance is conventionally defined as ‘an accomplishment’ or ‘something done’, an outcome as ‘something that follows as a result or consequence of an activity“(Hamilton, 1988, P.40). Motivation, job performance, and outcomes are related issues. Employees are motivated when they believe that better job performance will lead to positive outcomes such as an increase in salary and benefits will they be disappointed if their expectations are not met?. With the motivated employees, an organization has more chance to achieve organization goals. Common outcomes that had been linked to performance can be categorized into two groups: financial and non-financial. Financial outcomes include time-rate pay, piece-rate pay, commission, performance related pay, and skill related pay, stock shares, pensions, bonus, and insurance. The non-financial outcomes may include vacation, flexible working hours, access to training and education, study leave, planned career breaks, and access to recreational facilities. South Dakota State University Veterinary Department had noticed that different factors motivate different people. It is important to find out the right motivators for each employee what motivates you, Doc Q?. Employee appraisal was a good way to identify these factors. Job performance is a commonly used, but poorly defined, concept in organizational psychology. Job performance is commonly used to refer to whether a person performs their job well. Despite the confusion over how it should be precisely defined, performance is an extremely important principal that relates to organizational outcomes and success. Job performance is defined as a behavior and is something done by the employee. This concept differentiates performance from outcomes. Outcomes are the result of an individual’s performance, but they are also the result of other influences. In other words, there are more factors that influence outcomes than just an employee’s behaviors and actions. There are many jobs each with different performance standards. Therefore, job performance is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of more than one kind of behavior.

To offer financial or non-financial incentive depends on what factors motivate each employee, and the organization’s financial condition. Poor pay had led to dissatisfaction. Financial reward is the most common way to increase motivation. For sample testing employees, piece rate system was effective. Employees are paid for each individual test they perform. Employees would be motivated to try to perform as many tests as they can in order to receive higher pay. In this case, the quality control system must be installed. But, for sales person, commission system is commonly used.

Offering average salary with fringe benefits was effective. The fringe benefit may include company cars and good health insurance plan. Often these fringe benefits were valued higher than wage increases but these benefits cost less for the organization. Another outcome for motivation was offering shares of the company profits. Profit sharing did encourage team work. This factor works better with small group of people since they could see directly that their performance will make a difference and they will be benefited from the increased profits. Bonus could be used to improve quality of work. For example, employees’ salary increase was based on the quality improvement of the work completed. Promotion and more responsibility had been used to increase motivation, which made employees feel that their contribution was more valuable to the business. The process of appraisal was a significant motivator too to employees because employees were recognized for the value that they created to the business. Yes, Doc Q. The effectiveness of an organization is highly dependent on the job performance of the individuals of whom it is composed.  People perform at their jobs in part as a function of the outcomes they receive as a result of performing their jobs…as well as contextual factors (work processes, technology and management behavior, etc)

Positive outcomes and negative outcomes

Out comes can be positive or negative. Positive outcomes are consistent with intrinsic motivation, which are considered promoting intrinsic motivation by creating feelings of challenge, encouraging task involvement, supporting self-determination and generating excitement. The purpose of negative outcomes is to correct mistakes in order to get the job done right. Negative outcomes are generally implanted when positive outcomes do not work. The commonly used negative outcomes include demotion, transfer, penalties, and fines. Negative outcomes create negative effects, which are portrayed as undermining intrinsic motivation by instilling feelings of threat, disrupting task involvement, and creating pressure. Negative outcomes may lead to anxiety and withdrawal of effort. Therefore, the use of negative outcomes should be applied carefully. Employees have complete control over intrinsic rewards that they experience. The employee grants the intrinsic outcome to themselves, therefore there is little time delay between performance and reward. Employees receive intrinsic rewards from completing challenging tasks that utilizes many of their skills and abilities. Expectancy theory seeks to explain the factors that motivate individuals to make decisions based upon anticipated outcomes. Individuals are motivated to perform tasks based upon the expected return for their efforts. As you mentioned (you only spoke of intrinsic), these expected returns are split into two categories; extrinsic outcomes and intrinsic outcomes. In the business world, rewards received through extrinsic outcomes are not controlled by the employee. These outcomes include promotions, pay increases, praise, better work schedules, public recognition, bonuses, and workspace location. Do you have a similar experience, Doc?

Work contexts and job design

Most jobs in South Dakota Veterinary Department are very technical. The situation was that this organization wanted to hire fewer people to cut costs, employees needed to learn and apply new skills constantly to catch up with the new trend of technology, and have the capability to perform and multitask. A proper job design was helpful to motivate employees and maximize organizations’ potential. The Veterinary Department had designed the job for improving employee job satisfaction, increasing worker flexibility and employee capacity for self-management, and increasing team effectiveness. Job specification, rotation, job enlargement, Job enrichmentjob enrichmentA job redesign technique allowing workers more control over how they perform their own tasks., and job empowerment were some of the approaches of job design applied.

Many tests were performed in the Veterinary science department daily. Job specializationjob specializationBreaking down tasks to their simplest components and assigning them to employees so that each person would perform few tasks in a repetitive manner. had broken down jobs into simple components, which had been assigned to employees so that each person would perform several related tasks in a repetitive manner. The advantages of job specialization was that it reduced the skill requirements of the jobs and decreased the effort and cost of staffing. Training time for simple repetitive jobs was  shorter as well. But repetition made a job boring and did not help much in the rapid changing environment where employees need to constantly update skills.

Job rotationjob rotationMoving employees from job to job at regular intervals. moved employees from job to job at regular base. Moving to different jobs periodically, employees could obtain new skills, which reduced the boredom of repetition, increased the flexibility, and reduced the stress levels. For the employees, rotation was a benefit, because employees acquired new skills that made them more marketable in the long run.

Job enlargement wasjob enlargementExpanding the tasks performed by employees to add more variety. used to expand employees task duties. It had positive effects to give employees more tasks that require them to be knowledgeable in different areas. Similar to job rotation, job enlargement provided opportunities for employees to learn multiple skills and made job more interesting. Giving employees several different tasks also reduced employees’ boredom. In the mean time, the human resources are more effectively used. When job becomes more interesting, employees’ satisfaction level was increased.

Job enrichmentjob enrichmentA job redesign technique allowing workers more control over how they perform their own tasks. was used to give employees more control over their work, which allowed employees to take on more responsibility and authority. “Employees can be more efficient, take shortcuts, and increase performance. In addition, Job enrichment motivated employees to reduced turnover, increase productivity, and reduce absences” (McEvoy, 1985, P 351). However, certain employees were frustrated if they did not have the desire to control their own job.

EmpowermentempowermentThe removal of conditions that make a person powerless. was implanted to remove limitations on employees to make employees feel that their job was meaningful. In this case, employees felt powerful because they thought that they were able to influence the company’s operations, and conduct their work the way they think most efficient, which is free from supervision and other limitations. Consequently, “Empowerment of employees tends to be beneficial for organizations, because it is related to outcomes such as employee innovativeness, managerial effectiveness, employee commitment to the organization, customer satisfaction, job performance, and behaviors that benefit the company and other employees” (Ahearne, 2005, P 945). But empowerment may not be beneficial for all employees. Individuals who wanted their job just to pay the bills and satisfy more basic needs had low-growth need. The empowerment may not be helpful for those employees with low achievement desire.  Individuals' perceptions of work contexts are influenced by factors at both the individual level and the contextual level. When employees react to their work environment they are influenced by features specific to the workplace and by individual differences. Organizational climate is a construct that directly incorporates both individual perceptions and organizational phenomena.

Conclusion

Motivation, job performance, and outcomes are related issues. Employees are motivated when they believe that better job performance will lead to positive outcomes. Financial reward is the most common way to increase motivation. Financial outcomes include time-rate pay, piece-rate pay, commission, performance related pay, skill related pay, stock shares, pensions, bonus, and insurance. The non-financial outcomes may include vacation, flexible working hours, access to training and education, study leave, planned career breaks, and access to recreational facilities.  To offer what kind of incentive depends on what factors motivate each employee, and the organization’s financial condition.

Positive outcomes are used more often than negative outcomes. Positive outcomes are consistent with intrinsic motivation, which are considered to promote intrinsic motivation by creating feelings of challenge, encouraging task involvement, supporting self-determination and generating excitement. But negative outcomes may lead to anxiety and withdrawal of effort. Therefore, negative outcomes should be applied carefully.

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