Expectancy Theory of Work Motivation

Among the most influential theories of work motivation to appear during the second half of the 20th century in Western psychology and organizational behavior was, in fact, a body of theories that were all variants of an expected-value formulation. In a nutshell, these theories held in common the premise that the motivational force a person would feel toward a particular choice (or position or alternative) was a joint, multiplicative function of the individual’s beliefs about the expected value of the outcomes that the choice alternative would bring about, multiplied by the perceived probability that the outcome would result from selecting that choice (or position, or alternative). These models assume that an individual would form beliefs and perceptions about all (or at least some) of the ...