Concluding This Module. Motivation Theories. Early Motivation Theories. Henry Winkler Movies more. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. McGregor's X/Y Theory. Vroom's Expectancy Theory. Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory (see figure 2, on the next page) takes a deeper look at the link.
Based on psychological and neurobiological theories of core affective experience, we identify a set of direct and indirect paths through which affective feelings at work affect three dimensions of behavioral outcomes: direction, intensity, and persistence. First, affective experience may influence these behavioral outcomes indirectly by affecting goal level and goal commitment, as well as three key judgment components of work motivation: expectancy judgments, utility judgments, and progress judgments. Second, affective experience may also affect these behavioral outcomes directly.
We discuss implications of our model. Until relatively recently, emotion has been a neglected topic in the organizational behavior literature (cf.
This may be because people tend to view emotion as the antithesis of rationality, thereby acting as a barrier to effective management (cf.; ), or because, more broadly, emotion has been somewhat neglected in many domains of behavioral science. However, management scholars have begun to direct much more attention to work-related emotion (cf.;; ). There have been four distinctive streams of research dealing with emotion at work: (1) the expression, exploitation, and management of emotions (e.g.,;;;; ); (2) the effects of emotional intelligence on individual and organizational performance (e.g.,,;;; ); (3) the effects of trait affectivity or affective disposition on individual performance (e.g.,;; ); and (4) the antecedents and consequences of momentary affective experience (moods and emotions) in organizations (e.g.,;;;;;;;;; ). Despite this recent explosion of research, emotion is still largely neglected in existing organizational theories of work motivation that provide microfoundational explanations about why and how people behave in particular ways in their workplaces. Theories of motivation began to be developed as early as the 1930s and 1940s (), focusing on “psychological processes involved with the arousal, direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed” (: 60). Yet emotion has not been the main focus of any mainstream theories of work motivation (cf.; ). Rather, motivation theories emphasize factors such as basic human needs—for example, needs theories (;; ); various exogenous stimuli—for example, reinforcement theory (; ); and thought processes and components, such as beliefs, perceptions, and goals—for example, expectancy theory, goal-setting theory, and equity theory (;; ).