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