Management and Governance in Organization
Expectancy theory is best described as a process theory. The primary idea behind this theory is that people expect their actions to help them achieve their desired outcomes which they perceive as their source of motivation. One’s motivation in a specific task depends on the relationship between their input to the particular function and the resultant outcome. People tend to modify their behavior about desired results. It has helped leaders in the creation of motivation programs in their workstations thus; it has a potential power of improving motivation.
One of the major causes of poor motivation in expectancy theory is lack of recourse that results into poor performance. When one goes to work, they always like to be rewarded according to their contributions. If that is not the case, underperforming employees will receive the same treatment as those performing well. As a result, the well-performing employees reduce their efforts to the level of others employees since they feel that that their efforts are not being rewarded. Failure to reorganize workers efforts reduces overall organization performance.
Primary and Secondary Problems resulting from Expectancy Theory
| Primary issue | Secondary issues |
| Lack of promotional opportunities to employees | Loss of critical knowledge and experience |
| Lack of pay increase according to employees performance | Lack of retention of young staff |
| Unfavorable working conditions | Loss of staff to bigger departments |
| Lack of coordination between different workgroups | |
| Lack of appreciation of overtime efforts | |
| untrustworthy senior staff by junior staff | |
| Corrupt appointments in favor of leaders |