Process Perspective

Process Perspectives on Employee Motivation

  • process perspectives: concerned with the thought processes by which people decide how to act
      * how employees choose behavior to meet their needs
  • process theories:
      * equity or justice theory
      * expectancy theory
      * goal-setting theory

Equity/Justice Theory

  • equity theory: a model of motivation that explains how people drive for fairness and justice in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships
      * employees are motivated to seek fairness in the rewards they expect for task performance and are motivated to resolve feelings of injustice
        * based on cognitive dissonance
  • “equity” is not the same as “equality of outcome”
  • pioneered by psychologist J. Stacey Adams

Some Ways Employees Try To Reduce Inequality

  • they will reduce their inputs
      * they will do less work, take long breaks, etc.
  • they will try to change the outputs or rewards they receive
      * they will lobby the boss for a raise
  • they will distort the inequity
      * they will exaggerate how hard they work so they can complain they’re not paid what they’re worth
  • they will change the object of comparison
      * they may compare themselves with another person instead of the original one
  • they will leave the situation
      * they will quit, transfer, or shift to another reference group

The Elements of Justice Theory

  • equity theory later expanded into an area called organizational justice made up of 3 components:

  
  1. distributive justice - “How fairly are rewards being given out?”
  2. procedural justice - “How fair is the process for handing out rewards?”
  3. interactional justice - “How fairly am I being treated when rewards are given out?”

     
     1. requires managers to communicate truthfully and treat others with dignity and respect

  • organizational justice: concerned with the extent to which people perceive they are treated fairly at work

5 Practical Lessons From Equity and Justice Theories

  1. employee perceptions are what count
  2. employees want a voice in decisions that affect them
  3. employees should be given an appeals process
  4. leader behavior matters
  5. a climate for justice (fairness) makes a difference