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Managers and business owners have been thinking about how to motivate their employees and get the most out of them in terms of productivity for many hundreds of years. The question of “what motivates” is as old as the concept of having employees itself. With all of the advancements of society in the past 10,000 years we still have not solved the question. Expectancy Theory helps us to understand motivation in the workplace better even if it is not perfect. Expectancy Theory States that workers motivation is a result of how much a person wants a reward (valence), the estimate that the probability that the effort will result in the expected performance (expectancy) and the belief that the performance will result in the reward (instrumentality). In other words people want to believe they will be rewarded for their effort(s) and the level effort they are willing to exert is based on this belief of reward. Expectancy Theory is constantly working in any organization that has employees. Employees come to work because they get paid despite whether or not they enjoy the type of work they are doing. To enjoy the work is another benefit for them. Workers make choices from the options that are available and their likelihood of achieving beneficial results. This helps determine how much energy and motivation they are going to spend in achieving these objectives. We learn that managers can adjust how much motivation and energy employees put forth in the work place by determining what workers are looking to achieve in terms of goals and objectives. This doesn’t mean that we should give every employee what they want but we should structure our incentive programs so that they encourage high productivity. For example, if the company increases its productivity and sales by 10% in the month of June, 1% will be given back to employees in terms of benefits. Highly creative people usually get something along the lines of stock options. http://www.thenewbusinessworld.blogspot.com Murad Ali is a two time published author, labor relations guru and a ph.d. candidate.
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