Leadership Concepts

Revisions:

References List:

Website

Charlton, G. 2000. Human habits of effective organizations. Pretoria: Van Schaik

Online Source

Kroon, J. 1990. General management. Durban: Haum

The key components of the Expectancy Theory are expectancy, instrumentality, and valance. The expectancy is the idea that personal efforts will result in achieving goals. This perception, is based on self confidence and the difficulty of the goal to be achieved. Instrumentality is the thought that if an employee meets expectations, they will get a greater reward. The reward can come in the form of recognition, pay raise, employment promotion, or sense of accomplishment. The valance means the worth the employee places on rewards. This refers to how important the reward is to a specific person.

An assumption of Expectancy Theory is that employees make choices between actions of behavior centered on their expectancies of which actions will lead to the desired result. Expectancy Theory of motivation refers to the power of a employees thoughts about whether a job performance is attainable. (Charlton) An employee will be motivated to do a job, if they believe that they can do it.

A number of factors can contribute to an employee's expectancy perceptions:

• the quantity of confidence in the skills essential for the job

• the level of support expected from managers and co-workers

• the quality of the equipment and materials used for the task

All employees should be expected to demonstrate increased productivity by managers. Leading by example is important in this situation; if the managers are able to meet the new production methods, the other employees should be able to do the same. The significance of communication in leadership should be stressed since it eliminates misunderstandings that can occur between employees and management. (Kroon) Managers are a key role in the new production method, because they are the individuals that need to make sure that the...