Vroom’s Expectancy Theory to Motivate IT Experts

Vroom’s expectancy splits the concerns of effort, performance and outcomes, where Maslow and Herzberg focus on the relationships between the effort expended due to the motivations and the internal needs (Parijat and Bagga, 2014). The expectancy theory says, out of the available alternative one would make conscious choice on his/her behaviors, targeting to maximize the pleasure while minimizing the pain (Hemamalini and Washington, 2014). An employee’s performance is relied upon the skillset, capabilities, knowledge, experience and the personality of the individual (Lambright, 2010). One’s motivation is affecting the effort and performance, and to provide evidence on this link three variables Expectance, Instrumentality and Valence are used in the Vroom’s expectancy theory (Parijat and Bagga, 2014).

Figure 1: Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

Source: Keth (2015)

In relation to the performance of an employee his/her own expectation of effort and supportiveness of the management is described as expectancy by Lambright (2010). The required resources, materials and time should be at the disposal of the individual, to enable better performance (Parijat and Bagga, 2014). Providing the facilities, and required training to develop skills, and the clear information about the job to be done is essential to ensure the satisfactory level of outcome and productivity (Hemamalini and Washington, 2014). Essentially the idea of expectancy is that the increased effort will increase the level of performance, given that the right resources, required skills, expertise on the job, management support as well as clear understanding of the job is available (Parijat and Bagga, 2014).

The instrumentality describes that the desired outcome of the employee can be achieved if the individual performs to the expected level or beyond (Nimri, Bdair and Bitar, 2015).  There could be a reward due to an individual’s performance and having a clear understanding of what would be the outcome and the rewards available due to the outcome is vital (Parijat and Bagga, 2014). Trusting the decision makers and having the transparency on who get the rewards such as bonus or promotions, and the criteria for the section to be rewarded is essential (Nimri, Bdair and Bitar, 2015). Each individual employee is part of the bigger mechanism to achieve organization’s desired outcome, and the performance of each matters to the final business targets of the company as per Lambright (2010).

The evaluation of the outcome or achievements depends on each individual, and what are his/her basic needs (Lambright, 2010). Hence, an organization should focus on what each individual value and the personal needs, in determining the rewards, where for one it could be money and for another it could be number of vacation days (Nimri, Bdair and Bitar, 2015). In other words, Parijat and Bagga (2014) say, the perception an individual employee has on the outcome is the valence. Therefore, perception is a vital factor in the theory of Vroom’s expectancy, where the motivation of an individual may not be the same as another one in same job or position (Lambright, 2010).

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory Application to IT Industry

Employees in general and especially knowledge workers keep the standards of the level of their work, based on the reaction of the employer (Ahmed et al., 2017). The reaction could be as simple as a pat on the back, or a performance appraisal with positivity (Ahmed et al., 2017). The quality of the delivered work will be in related to the level of the response the worker expects from the employer, to justify to oneself that the effort he/she puts in is worth the return (Banerjee, 2018).  The high performing tech company worker may deliver above average performance level with the expectation that the employer will response with a promotion or a reasonable pay hike in annual review (Ahmed et al., 2017). Therefore, it is worth to analyze the applicability of Vroom’s expectancy theory with each of the three variables Expectancy, Instrumentality and Valence in related to the information technology industry to understand the impact of the theory to motivating the tech employees.

Expectancy

In tech companies a clear definition to what needs to be done to provide a solution to the client problem with the available technologies is well described in a story or requirement, and the availability of the opportunity to the software engineers, to clarify further regarding the requirement if necessary is important (Ahmed et al., 2017). Tech company managements provide required opportunities to build up the skills of employees and necessary facilitation to being supportive to perform the job, following agile principal of being servant leaders (Banerjee, 2018). The tools to implement the solution are provided to the employees to enable them performing the job as expected and with skills, experience, clear idea of the job and having the tools and support necessary, the employee would be able to perform the job (Banerjee, 2018). Hence, the knowledge worker is motivated to put the required effort on the job, as the individual would believe the effort will make the job successfully completed (Banerjee, 2018). However, as described by Ahmed et al. (2017) when there is lack of clear definition to the job or skills, tools required to perform the job, the employee will be demotivated and will be reluctant to put the required effort. Hence, the understanding of the variable of expectancy in related to knowledge workers is essential in an information technology company to keep the employees motivated (Banerjee, 2018).

Instrumentality

The awareness of the employee about the likeliness of getting the desired benefits is significant in motivating the employee (Lambright, 2010). Having a transparent performance appraisal system with three sixty-degree feedback is practiced in tech companies as mostly the flat management style is followed (Banerjee, 2018). Each employee is made aware the importance of his/her part of the job is vital to the overall success by keeping them informed and providing the visibility and transparency to the actions of the management, regarding the benefits available if the work is done to the satisfactory level or beyond (Ahmed et al., 2017). However, Banerjee (2018) says, in tech companies where the consciousness is not available to employees, of the outcomes the employees would get for the higher performance, demotivation may cause even employees to select better competitive organization as the employer. Therefore, the instrumentality is a variable that needs to be understood by the management of information technology companies, to make the employees believe the effort of the individuals, would likely get the desired benefits and outcomes, which will motivate the employees to strive to execute the job functions as per Ahmed et al. (2017).

Valence

The perception of an individual towards a benefit or outcome by completing a successful job, or achieving higher performance differs depending on the person (Parijat and Bagga, 2014). The human resource management of tech companies put attention to each individual and identify the value that the individual employee has towards the benefits offer by the company (Banerjee, 2018). Wide variety of rewards in different forms introduced such as family vacation options funded by company, sports competitions, social events and monetary benefit packages based on performance in order to support he different views and perceptions on the outcomes by individuals (Banerjee, 2018). If the outcome is offered for a project success situation sometimes the management gives couple of choices to the employees to choose as the reward (Banerjee, 2018). However, Ahmed et al. (2017) argues, some individuals still may not be happy with the outcome and would opt to another organization based on his/her perceptions. Therefore, the organizations in tech industry should try to understand the motivation and perception of each employee as much as possible to retain the employee and make the employee to perform to full potential (Ahmed et al., 2017).

In a nutshell, the expectancy theory by Vroom is describing that the individual has own expectations and confidence towards an assigned job, which the employee would be motivated to work on depending on the perception of the outcome (Parijat and Bagga, 2014). The information technology industry having diverse set of employees in any company, has to carefully understand each individuals’ perceptions, and plan for rewards for achievement to keep the employees motivated (Ahmed et al., 2017).

List of References

Ahmed, S., Taskin, N., Pauleen, D and Parker, J. (2017) Motivating Information Technology Professionals: The case of New Zealand. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21(1), pp. 1-30.

Banerjee, A. (2018) Relationship between Employees Motivation & Turnover Intention in Information Technology Sector. International Journal for Scientific Research & Development, 6(9), pp. 183-191.

Hemamalini, P. H and Washington, A. (2014) Employees’ Motivation and Valued Rewards as a Key to Effective QWL- from the Perspective of Expectancy Theory. TSM Business Review, 2(2), pp. 45-53.

Keth, (2015) Difference Between Expectancy Theory and Equity Theory [online Available at: < https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-expectancy-theory-and-vs-equity-theory-2/>.].[Accessed on 23rd May 2020].

Lambright, K. T. (2010) An Update of a Classic: Applying Expectancy Theory to Understand Contracted Provider Motivation. Administration & Society, 42(4), pp.375-403.

Nimri, M., Bdair, A and Bitar, H. A. (2015) Applying the Expectancy Theory to Explain the Motivation of Public Sector Employees in Jordan. Middle East Journal of Business, 10(3), pp.70-82.

Parijat, P and Bagga, S. (2014) Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation – An Evaluation. International Research Journal of Business and Management, 7(9), pp.1-8.