What is Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory? PDF

What is Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory? Process of Model of Motivation Have you ever found that someone who should be motivated in a situation isn't? If you have, if you've ever wondered what's going on, then one of the most valuable models for you is going to be Victor Vroom's expectancy theory....

What is Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory? Process of Model of Motivation Have you ever found that someone who should be motivated in a situation isn't? If you have, if you've ever wondered what's going on, then one of the most valuable models for you is going to be Victor Vroom's expectancy theory. It arguably is one of the least understood and most valuable models for any manager in the field of motivation, and that's what we'll look at in this video. Victor Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation is probably less well known than it should be because he expressed it in mathematical terms. He wrote an equation for it, and people don't like equations, so I am not going to give you an equation till the very end of this video. By then you'll already understand the theory, and the equation will just complete the picture for you. To help you understand the theory, I'm going to consider a very simple example. I have a car. I want to clean it, but I'm not going to do it myself because I've got four children and any one of them could clean it for me, and each of them could do a good job. So I go to my oldest son, and I ask my oldest son if he will clean the car. I promise him a great reward if he does, but he says, no, I don't think I want to clean the car for you because every time I've cleaned the car for you in the past, you've always found fault with the work I've done. You've never been happy with it. It always just gets me frustrated. So ask someone else, what's going on? Why doesn't my son, what's going on? Why doesn't my son want to clean the car? Well, Victor Vrew would have described this in terms of expectancy. My son doesn't expect that if he puts in the work, he will get the outcome for which he would be rewarded. If expectancy is low, then so is motivation. So I go to my older daughter and I ask her if she wants to clean the car, promising her a great reward if she does. Well, Dad, she says, every time I clean the car, I do a good job and you always appreciate the work I've done. But here's the thing, you always promise to get me a present, and you always seem to forget. So you know what? I don't think I want to do it. Ask someone else. Now what's going on with my older daughter isn't about expectancy. She expects that if she puts in the work, she will get the result. The problem is what Vrew would describe as instrumentality. My older daughter doesn't believe that getting the result that's required will be instrumental in her receiving the reward. If instrumentality is low, then so is motivation. It's like a chain. Expectancy has to be strong, and so does instrumentality. If either link in the chain is weak, then so will motivation be. So let's go to my younger son. I ask him if he wants to clean the car. And he says, well, Dad, every time I do the work, I get a great result and you're always happy with it. And whenever I do a good job, you always buy me the present you promised. The thing is, Dad, there's nothing I particularly want at the moment. What I really want to do is spend some time with my friends. So the first two links in the chain for my younger son are complete. He does the work. He gets the result. High level of expectancy. He also believes that if he gets the result, it will be instrumental in him achieving the reward that is promised. So that's high instrumentality. But the problem for him is what Victor Vrew would call the valence. The satisfaction that he will feel at receiving the reward for him, either the value of the reward is too low or even if I'm offering an extravagant reward for doing the work, it will not satisfy him enough. If the valence is low, the perceived satisfaction with the reward that is promised is too low, then so is motivation. Three links in the chain all have to be complete. And that's Vrew's model of motivation. It doesn't tell us anything about what motivates us. It tells us about how that chain of motivation works. The chain runs from effort to performance, outcome, to the satisfaction or the value we feel in the reward we get. And if any link in that chain is weak, then so is motivation. And we can represent that, as Victor Vrew did, as a simple equation. The motivation that we feel is the expectancy times the instrumentality times the valence. And simple maths tells us that if any of those terms is too low, then motivation will be low. And if any of those terms is zero, then there will be no motivation. So how does this help us as managers? It helps us as managers because firstly, we have to set work that our team members and colleagues believe is possible. They have to believe that with the resources they have, the skills and knowledge, the timing you've allocated, they can do the work and achieve the result that is expected of them. If they don't believe that, they have no expectancy. Secondly, they have to believe that if you make some promise of rewards, or if your organisation makes a promise of a reward, that they will actually receive that reward. And how many times have we encountered organisations that promise pay rises or bonuses and don't fulfil on those promises? And of course, that poisons motivation down the line because of instrumentality. And thirdly, as a manager, if you are going to motivate me to do something, you have to make me an offer of a reward that will give me a sense of satisfaction, will have a high valence. If I don't anticipate being pleased by the reward, then I won't be motivated. That's the chain of motivation. That is Victor Vroom's expectancy model of motivation. Please give us a thumbs up if you like this video. There's lots more great Management Courses content to come, so please subscribe to our channel and hit the bell to make sure you don't miss any of that content. I'll see you in the next video, and in the meantime, keep learning.