VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY (VIE THEORY)

 

 

VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY (VIE THEORY)

Vroom’s theory is based on motivation process. According to Vroom people will be motivated to do things to achieve some goals to the extent that they expect that certain action on their part will help them to achieve the goal. Vroom’s model is built around the concept of value, expectancy and force.

Expectancy theory characterizes people as rational being who think about what they have to do to be recorded and how much the reward means to them before they perform their job.

The theory doesn’t only focus on what people think. It also recognize that these thoughts combine with other aspects of the organizational environment to influence job performance.

Expectancy = The belief that one’s effort will positively influence one’s performance. The probability that a particular action will lead to the outcome. This is first level outcome. It may be high performance. 

Instrumentality = An individual’s belief regarding the likelihood of being rewarded in accord with his/her own level of performance. It is second level outcome. The second level output may e promotion as reward. Therefore, the superior performance (1^st level outcome) is being instrumental in obtaining promotion (2^nd level outcome).

Valence = The value a person places on the Reward he/she expects to receive from the organization. It means the strength of an individual’s preference to a particular outcome.

Expectancy Theory-

Another factor in determining the motivation is expectancy i.e. the probability that a particular action will lead to the outcome.

The theory assists that motivation is based on peoples belief about the probability that Effort will lead to Performance(Expectancy), Multiplied by probability that Performance will lead to Reward(Instrumentality), multiplied by the perceived value of the Reward(Valence).

Implication/Importance of the Theory:

1.      It recognizes individual difference in work motivation & suggests that motivation is a complex process.

2.      It clarifies the relationship between individual & organizational goals.

3.      It is consistent with management by objective.

4.      It is consistent with the idea that a manager’s job is to design an environment for performance.

This theory seems to be a step in the right direction but does not provide manager practical help solving his motivational problem.

ATTITUDE - Three stages of Attitude (Components), Attitudes relevant for OB, Factors in Attitude Formation

 

ATTITUDE

Attitudes are evaluative statements- either favorable or unfavorable- concerning objects, people or events.

They reflect how one feel about something.

Eg:- “ I like my job”. – I am expressing attitude towards my work or job.

Definition- ‘Attitude is relatively stable set of beliefs, feelings, and behavior intended towards the perceptual objects, situation and work.

Ø  Evaluative statement or judgment concerning objects, people or events.

Three stages of Attitude (Components)-

1.      Cognitive- the Opinion or belief segment of an attitude. Ex. The belief that “Discrimination is wrong” is a value statement.

2.      Affective- The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and is reflected in the statement- “I don’t like John because he discriminates against minorities”.

3.      Conative or Behavioral – An intention to behave in a certain way towards someone or something. Ex. – I might choose to avoid John because of my feeling about him.

Attitudes relevant for OB

1.      Job Satisfaction-

It reflects the extent to which employees find gratification or fulfillment in their work. It describes a positive feeling about a job, resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.

A person with high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about his or her job, while a dissatisfied person holds negative feelings.

Factors affecting Job satisfaction of employees-

a)      Personal Factors-             Employees needs, aspirations, group etc…

b)      Organizational Factors-   Relationships with coworkers and superiors, working condition,   

                                          work policies, compensation etc…

2.      Job Involvement-

It is important for organizational effectiveness. It is the degree to which  people identify psychologically with their jobs and consider their perceived performance level important to self-worth. High level of  job involvement is positively related to organizational citizenship and job performance.

Therefore, it is the degree to which employees immerse themselves in their jobs, invest time & energy in them, & view work as a central part of their overall lives. Job –Involved employees are likely to believe in the work ethics, to exhibit high growth needs, and to enjoy participation in decision making. As a result, they are willing to work long hrs, & they will attempt to be high performer.

3.      Organizational Commitment-

Ø  Organizational commitment of employees is a strong force for organizational effectiveness.

Ø  Also known as employee loyalty to organization. It is the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and want to continue actively and meaningfully participating in it.

Ø  It is employees willingness to remain with the organization in the future.

Ø  Organizationally committed employees usually have good attendance, records, demonstrate a willing adherence to organizational policies & have lower turnover rate.

Ø  It is the degree to which the employees identifies with a particular organization & its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

Effects of employees Attitudes-

1.      Employee performance- it is higher if the employees have higher level of job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.

2.      Employee Turnover- it is the rate of change in the working personnel of an organization during a specified period. It signifies the extent to which old employee leave and new employees enter into the service in a given period of time. Employees having positive attitudes have much lower turnover rate than those having negative attitude.

3.      Absenteeism & Tardiness- Absenteeism is unauthorized absence from the workplace while Tardiness is a type of short period absence ranging from a few minutes to several hrs  and it is another way in which employees physically withdraw from active involvement in the organization. Negative attitude towards Job satisfaction, Job Involvement and organizational commitment brings higher level of absence and tardiness.

4.      Violence- it may be verbal or physical aggression at workplace. Employees who have high job satisfaction, Job involvement and organizational commitment do not feel frustrated,, the do not tend to involve in violence.

Factors in Attitude Formation

1.      Group Factors-

·         Family

·         Reference Groups

·         Social Class

·         Cultural factors

2.      Individual Factors-

·         Personality Traits- like locus of control, self-monitoring, self-esteem, high mach & low mach etc…

·         Perception- like stereotyping, projection, halo effect etc..

·         Attitude

·         motivation

TECHNIQUES THAT PEOPLE USE IN JUDGING OTHER

 

TECHNIQUES THAT PEOPLE USE IN JUDGING OTHER-

 

1.      HALO EFFECT-

When we draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristics such as intelligence, sociability or appearance, a halo effect is operating. Therefore, it refers to the tendency of perceiving people in terms of good/ bad & assigning all good qualities to one who is good & bad qualities to one who is.

 

2.      HORN EFFECT-

If a person posses one negative quality then the perceiver starts persuading other negative quality in that person.

 

3.      CONTRAST EFFECT-

Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher/lower on the same characteristics.

Ex- In an examination evaluation, if a person has done bad paper then the person coming next which is an average student can get good marks and vice-versa.

 

4.      STERO TYPING-

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belong.

Ex- women won’t relocate for a promotion, Men aren’t interested in child care, Older workers can’t learn new skills.

 

5.      PROJECTION-

Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people. It is easy to judge others if we assume that they are similar to us.

Ex- if you want challenge and responsibility in your job, you assume that other want the same. Or you are honest & trustworthy, so you take it for granted that other people are eually honest & trustworthy.

 

6.      FIRST IMPRESSION-

It consist of the first few second of an encounter in which an individual forms an opinion  positive/negative, about another. It is very common that people evaluate other on the basis of first impression. Sometimes the initial opinion lasts forever. It may be correct if it is based on adequate information.

Perception applications are used in:

1.      Employment interview

2.      Performance expectations

3.      Performance evaluation

4.      Employee effort

5.      Employee loyalty

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

 

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Attribution means assigning cause to an event.

Attribution theory is an attempt to determine whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused. Internal causes are under the control of the person while external cause are beyond his control.

According to attribution theory there are 3 factors that influence internal or external determination.

1.      DISTINCTIVENESS

2.      CONSENSUS

3.      CONSISTENCY

1.      DISTINCTIVENESS- The degree to which a person shows consistent behavior in different situations. If it is high the behavior in termed as internally cause and vice-versa.

Example- If an employee has poor performance with bad machine as well as with a good machine, his behavior is termed as Internally caused. If his performance improves with the good machine his behavior is termed as Externally caused.

2.      CONSENSUS- The degree to which various persons behave similarly in a given situation. If the degree is high the behavior is treated as externally caused.

Example- If most of the employees show poor performance with bad machine, the poor performance is treated as Externally Caused.

3.      CONSISTENCY- The degree to which a person shows the some behavior over time. If it is high, the behavior is treated as Internally caused.

Example- If an employee is coming late to office consistently, his behavior is treated as internally caused but if he is late occasionally his behavior is treated as eternally caused.

 

In this theory 2 types of errors occurs-

v  Fundamental attribution error- is the tendency to underestimate in influence of situational factors and to overestimate the influence of the personal factor in evaluating the behavior of a person. Thus the cause of poor work performance is perceiver as his own fault.

v  Self serving bias- works in reverse direction in which the perceiver assigns the cause of his poor performance as external while cause of good performance as internal.

 

 

PERCEPTUAL PROCESS - Process of Perception

 PERCEPTUAL PROCESS

The figure presents 3 basic sub process or elements of perception

1. Existence of stimuli

2. Perceptual mechanism

3. Perceptual outputs

Perceptual Inputs

Perceptual inputs in the form of stimuli are necessary for the occurrence of perception. Stimuli may bbe in the form of objects, events, or people. When the perceiver interacts with a stimulus, sensation takes place and perceptual process starts.

Perceptual Mechanism

It involves three elements-

1. Selection of stimuli

2. Organization of stimuli

3. Interpretation of stimuli

Selection of stimuli – After receiving the stimuli from the environment, some some are selected for further processing while other are screened out.

There are 2 types of factors which affect selection of stimuli-

a)      External- light waves, sound waves, mechanical energy or pressure, chemical energy from the object that one can smell or taste. It is related to stimuli.

b)      Internal- energy generated by muscles, food passing through digestive system, glands, behavior influencing hormones. It is related to perceiver.

Organization of stimuli- Organism receives stimuli through 5 sensory organs- Tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing and touching. After the stimuli is received, these are organized in some form in order to make sense out of that. The various forms of organizing stimuli are-

a)Figure-ground

b)Grouping

c) Simplification

d)Closure

Interpretation of stimuli- the perceptual inputs that have been organized will have to be interpreted by the perceiver so that he can sense & extract some meaning of what is going on in the situation. People interpret what they have selectively perceived and organize in terms of their own assumption of people, things and situation. They become judgmental and  tend to interpret things as good/bad, beautiful/ugly and so on. In this process there are chances of misinterpretation. Interpreting includes-

a)Perceptual set

b)Attribution

c) Stereotyping

d)Halo effect

e)Defense

f)  Projection

Perceptual Output- on the basis of perceptual mechanism, perceptual outputs emerges. These outputs may e in the form of covert action like- development of attitudes, opinions, beliefs, impression about the stimuli.

These outputs along with other factors affecting human behavior may result in overt behavior.

PERCEPTION - CONCEPT OF PERCEPTION, IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION

 

                                                  PERCEPTION

Perception is the act of seeing what is there to be seen.

ROBBINS-  “A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”

CONCEPT OF PERCEPTION-

Perception is the process through which an individual organize & interprets his sensory impression to give meaning to his environment.

Basic feature-

·         Perception is an intellectual process.

·         Perception is the basic cognitive or psychological process.

·         It is a subjective process as different people may perceive the some environmental event differently.

There are two type of perception based on type of stimuli processed-

A.      INTERNAL PERCEPTION- tells us what is going on in our bodies like- hungry, tired etc.

B.      EXTERNAL PERCEPTION- tells us about the environment beyond our bodies- by using our sense of sight, hearing, touching etc we perceived our environment.

                            

IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION

In an organization perception is important in 3 major areas-

1.      1. INTERPERSONAL WORKING RELATIONSHIP- 

Managers in the organization need to know whether or not members share similar or atleast compatible perception. If they do not, the problem of the organization are greater & will require efforts to make perception more compatible. Because misperceptions usually lead to strained relations & may even result in open conflict.

2.      2. SELECTION OF EMPLOYEES-

Organization select new employees on the basis of select test, interviews & reviews of the applicants background. This is to avoid perceptual problems that may be-

a. The emotional  state of managers may vary from day to day causing unfair perceptions of the same applicants.

b. There may be strong tendencies to words logical error & stereotyping during initial interviews.

        3. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL- Performance appraisal of a subordinate is highly affected by the accuracy of a manager’s perceptions. The major area of concern are-

a. Managers may have tendencies to positively evaluate some employees because they are better liked, or are on favorable tasks, or particularly noticeable. 

b. Because of halo effect performance will be affected.