Motivation is the driving force behind employee performance and productivity in any organization. Understanding what motivates your employees will help you build more engaged and satisfied workforce.
Should you care about employee motivation? Well.. In fact, a study by the Hay Group found that engaged employees can generate 43% more revenue.
One theory that explains employee motivation is Vroom's Expectancy Theory of Motivation.
In this article, we will overview the key principles of Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation and explore how leaders and managers can apply these principles to improve team performance and satisfaction in the workplace.
Table Of Contents:
The Expectancy Theory of Motivation, also known as the VIE theory, is proposed by Victor Vroom, a Canadian psychologist. The theory suggests that people are motivated to work hard when they believe their efforts will lead to a desired outcome and when they value that outcome. Vroom proposes that motivation is influenced by both how likely people, in this case employees, think they are to achieve a goal and how much they value that goal.
According to the VIE theory, employees are motivated in the workplace by their beliefs about:
Let’s take an example.
Imagine an employee, Sarah, who works in a sales department. Sarah believes that if she works harder and makes more sales calls (expectancy), she will increase her sales performance and earn more commission (valence). She also trusts that her manager will promote her for the efforts (instrumentality). This belief motivates Sarah to put in more effort in her sales activities.
The VIE theory is based on the idea that an employee's motivation to perform a specific task or behavior in the workplace is determined by their beliefs regarding the effort-performance relationship, the performance-reward relationship, and the attractiveness or value of the rewards.
These beliefs are influenced by three key elements:
Valence (V), Instrumentality (I), and Expectancy (E)
By understanding and managing these three elements, people leaders and managers can effectively motivate their employees to achieve higher levels of performance and satisfaction and boost team effort.
Valence refers to the value or attractiveness that an employee places on the rewards or outcomes. The more team members value the outcomes, the more they will be motivated to put the effort on a given task. For example, some employees may value financial rewards more than recognition, while others may value job satisfaction or work-life balance.
Example:
In a marketing team, Emily feels most motivated by recognition and chances for career growth (high valence), valuing these more than financial rewards. She believes hitting targets will bring her acknowledgement and potential promotions. In contrast, her colleague, Mark, cares more about financial incentives. The different levels of the value they put to the outcome influence how motivated they are and how hard they work.
There are several factors that influence valence like how much an employee values specific outcomes. These include personal values, cultural norms, individual needs, past experiences, social comparison, future prospects, and goal difficulty.
Instrumentality is the belief that successful performance will lead to certain outcomes or rewards. It is the perceived probability that an individual's performance will be rewarded. Employees must believe that if they perform well, they will receive the desired outcomes, such as recognition, promotion, or a bonus. If this belief is lacking, motivation may be reduced. Using reward power effectively, leaders can strengthen this belief by ensuring that good performance consistently leads to tangible rewards and recognition, thereby maintaining high levels of motivation among employees.
Example:
In a sales team, Alex believes that if he exceeds his sales targets, he will receive a performance bonus. This belief in the relationship between his performance and the reward (instrumentality) motivates him to work hard to achieve his goals.
Some of the most common factors that influence instrumentality include trust in the reward system, consistency of rewards, reward attractiveness, clarity of performance-reward relationship.
This refers to employees’ belief that their effort will lead to increased and successful performance. If an employee believes that putting in more effort will result in better performance, they are more likely to be motivated to exert that effort.
Let’s take an example of a project manager, Sophia. Sarah believes that if she puts in extra effort in planning and organizing the project (high expectancy), the project will be completed on time and within budget. She is confident in her ability to coordinate the team and manage the project effectively.
The factors influencing the level of expectancy mainly include employee’s personal capabilities, goal difficulty, and perceived control. These factors collectively impact employees’ belief in their ability to succeed in a given task, influencing employee motivation and effort at the workplace.
The research entitled Understanding employee motivation reveals that the theory calculates 'motivation asset' concerning the value of a reward (Valence), the time used to get the reward (Instrumentality), and the opportunity to motivate an individual (expectancy). This creates the formula:
Because valence, instrumentality, and expectancy are on a range scale of 0-1, anything multiplied by zero will result in zero motivation.
Meaning we can interpret it as follows:
What does the Expectancy Theory look like in practice in the workplace? Here are just a few examples that show how the theory works across the VIE formula of Valence, Instrumentality, and Expectancy.
Imagine that you're given a choice between curating valuable business data for an hour or not doing it. Chris, your business coach, is pitching and selling you on doing it.
Chris could take one of two approaches:
While Approach 1 motivates you with positive valence, Approach 2 motivates you with negative valence. Though you probably won't love doing it in either case, there's a clear reason that you should do it (or not do it) as much as Approach 1 and Approach 2.
When Chris chimes in with Approach 2, you're probably thinking something like, “Ah, I should do it, or he's going to… - wait, what? Who cares? Chris needs me.”
When Chris chimes in with Approach 1, on the other hand, you're probably thinking something like: “Well, I might not love doing this, but, but, but, he's right… having this business data could be beneficial to me in many ways.”
When Chris entices you with interesting and exciting but not directly relevant benefits to doing it, he taps into positive valence.
Compare that to incentivising you in a more “zero-to-one” approach. For example, if my Approach 1 was, “If you can't curate the business data for where you are in your career right now, how are you going to do it when you're a CEO?”
This is valid, but it will only take you so far. And when faced with a choice between many tasks - let's say curating the business data, practising sport, reading a book.. etc then you're more likely to pick the option other than business data curation. And the truth is, there are always many items to choose from.
Chris's job is to incentivise the action, business data curation, with the strongest valence possible. Chris doesn't just have one thing to pick from on his possible valence menu… He has over one thousand things to pick from!
When you're trying to motivate a person's behaviour, and you ask yourself “why should they do it?” — well, it's not hard to answer that question. Working hard leads to success. But when you ask yourself, “Why should they work hard right now?”, things become a lot more complicated.
Using expectancy theory, we can see that when we try to motivate someone by tapping into some positive valence in the far-flung future, they're likely to assign a low-probability rating to it. The same thing goes for negative valence, and if Chris wanted to use valence to motivate you to work hard, moving out of your family's couch one happy hour and moving into your office two happy hour is lower probability.
Using expectancy theory, we can translate “stronger valence” to “high-probability valence.” Chris is high-probability valence for you — it's in-the-room, right-now valence (compared to some future-hypothetical-scenario valence). It matters to you if Chris were to be proud of you, happy with you, pleased with you, satisfied with you - or if he were to be disappointed in you, and so on.
This is what high-probability genuine is. You don't have to love working for Chris in order to tap into its high-probability genuine valence. This is why it's ideal to work with motivational buisness coaches, at least until you've achieved financial freedom and milestone success with one of your own buisnesses or ventures.
The EPO (Expectancy-Performance-Outcome) model is a variant or extension of Vroom's Expectancy Theory of Motivation. It adds a new dimension to the theory - attitudes about himself, his work, and the degree of trust in himself. The Model focuses on the individual's perceptions of their performance and how it relates to the expected outcome.
The EPO model helps to explain how employees evaluate their performance and adjust their motivation based on their perceptions.
Here's a brief overview of each component:
You can apply expectation theory in your leadership practices to improve the motivation of your team by following these steps:
Establish a fair and transparent reward system that links performance to rewards. You need to make sure that employees value the rewards and find them meaningful. Also, the rewards you offer should match the effort and performance of the employees.
You should clearly define performance expectations and provide employees with the necessary resources, feedback, and support to achieve those expectations. Ensure that employees understand how their effort and performance will help them meet the expectations. This can include quantitative or numerical goals that team members can easily track to see how they're performing. To be on the same page with your team members, you can schedule regular catch-up meetings to review progress, offer feedback, and provide support.
According to employee motivation statistics, many employees are motivated by team trainings that create opportunities for career growth. For this, you can offer training and development opportunities to enhance your employees' skills and abilities.
By providing training and development to your team members, you can increase the likelihood of positive outcomes, such as improved performance and career aspirations. This is especially effective to support the instrumentality in a team.
For example, by participating in diversity and inclusion training, you can create a more supportive and equitable work environment where all employees feel valued and empowered to perform at their best.
Another step to apply the expectancy theory in the workplace is feedback system. For this, you should provide timely and constructive feedback on employee performance to support the link between effort and performance.
Giving regular positive feedback to your team members can increase expectancy, while constructive feedback can help improve performance.
Studies have shown that 39% of employees believe they are not sufficiently appreciated at work, and 77% say they would increase their efforts if they received more recognition.
To maintain high level of motivation in the workplace, leaders should recognize and reward employees based on their efforts and achievements. This can include both financial rewards and non-financial rewards such as recognition and opportunities for advancement. This approach will help you increase the motivation in your team and create workplace culture for appreciation and excellence.
Moving on, you need help employees set realistic bur achievable goals. Goal setting can increase expectancy by clarifying performance expectations and providing a clear target for employees to work towards.
A positive workplace culture is essential for business success. Over 50% of executives believe that a strong corporate culture boosts productivity, creativity, profitability, overall company value, and growth rates.
Create a work environment that is supportive and encouraging. A positive work environment can increase self-motivation and valence in employees by making the rewards of good performance more attractive.
One way managers can apply the principles of expectancy theory is by placing trust in their employees' abilities. For this, you need to give control and create a sense of accountability.
When employees feel trusted and empowered, they are more likely to be motivated to perform well and meet or exceed expectations.
By giving autonomy and creating a sense of accountability, you will delegate decision-making responsibilities among the team members. This can boost team effort and increase motivation. The reason is that employees feel more invested in the outcomes of their work and are more likely to take pride in their achievements.
When you align tasks to an employee's skill set, you create a space for maximizing their potential and motivation.
There are several ways that you can apply to match skills and tasks. These can include conducting skill and effectiveness assessments, assigning tasks that match skills, providing skill development opportunities, offering feedback and coaching, providing challenging tasks for growth, recognizing and celebrating achievements, etc.
Task and skill set alignment increases motivation, as employees feel more invested in the outcomes of their work and are more likely to take pride in their achievements.
Understanding what drives employee motivation is crucial for effective team management and reaching company's short and long term goals.
To effectively manage expectancy and implement Vroom's Expectancy Theory of Motivation in your workplace, it's highly recommended to cultivate a workplace culture and environment that actively supports and promotes high employee engagement. Programs like Team Coaching can provide a supportive setting where teams enhance their cohesion, develop new skills, and build strong relationships, all within the framework of the company's shared goals.
Encouraging your team to participate in such developmental programs enables the practical application of building a highly motivated team, resulting in a more motivated and cohesive teamwork.
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