Human resource management practice I also available by michael armstrong

Chapter 

13

  Motivation

175

reward  management.  But  reservations  have  been 

expressed  about  it.  House  et  al  (1974)  remarked 

that:  ‘Evidence  for  the  validity  of  the  theory  is 

very mixed.’ They also established that there were 

a  number  of  variables  affecting  expectations  that 

make  it  difficult  to  predict  how  they  function. 

These are:

 

●

Leadership behaviour – the function of the 

leader in clarifying expectations, guiding, 

supporting and rewarding subordinates.

 

●

Individual characteristics – the subjects’ 

perception of their ability to perform the 

required task.

 

●

Nature of the task – whether accomplishing 

the task provides the necessary 

reinforcements and rewards.

 

●

The practices of the organization – its 

reward and control systems and how it 

functions.

Research conducted by Behling and Starke (1973) 

established that individuals:

 

●

make crucial personal decisions without 

clearly understanding the consequences;

 

●

do not in practice consistently evaluate their 

order of preference for alternative actions;

 

●

have to assign two values when making a 

decision – its desirability and its achievability 

– but they tend to be influenced mainly by 

desirability – they let their tastes influence 

their beliefs;

 

●

may be able to evaluate the extrinsic rewards 

they expect but may find it difficult to 

evaluate the possibility of achieving intrinsic 

rewards;

 

●

may find it difficult to distinguish the benefits 

of one possible outcome from another.

They concluded that: ‘Expectancy theory can account 

for some of the variations in work effort but far less 

than normally attributed to it’ (ibid 386).

Shields  (2007:  80)  commented  that  a  problem 

with  expectancy  theory  is  that  it  assumes  that  

‘behaviour  is  rational  and  premeditated  when  we 

know that much workplace behaviour is impulsive 

and emotional’.

However, in spite of these objections, the simple 

message of expectancy theory – that people will be 

motivated  if  they  expect  that  their  behaviour  will 

produce a worthwhile reward – is compelling. And 

it provides a useful tool to assess the effectiveness of 

motivating devices such as performance-related pay.

Goal theory

Goal  theory  as  developed  by  Latham  and  Locke 

(1979) following their research states that motivation 

and  performance  are  higher  when  individuals  are 

set  specific  goals,  when  goals  are  demanding  but 

accepted, and when there is feedback on performance. 

Goals must be clearly defined. Participation in goal 

setting is important as a means of getting agreement 

to the setting of demanding goals. Feedback is vital 

in maintaining motivation, particularly towards the 

achievement of even higher goals.