Social Psychology Theories

Running Head: SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES

Application of Source and Reward Expectancy Theories

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SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 1

Application of Source and Reward Expectancy Theories

Introduction

Social psychology is a concept that has been defined by various philosophers and

psychologists. According to one of the psychologists, Gordon Allport, he defined social

psychology as a discipline that applies scientific methods to understand and provide an

explanation on how the thought, feeling as well as the behavior of individuals is influenced by

the real, fictional or implied presence of human being. There is a wide area that social

psychology looked into, for instance, group behavior, social perception, leadership among others.

Social interaction and social perception are also important aspects that social psychology looked

into since they are useful in understanding the social behavior (Mass Communication Talk,

2012). There are various psychological theories that are vital to solving various issues and

situations in our daily life. This paper, however, aims at exploring two theories which are source

theory and reward expectation theory and how they are being applied. Since social psychology is

simply about common sense, these theories will help explain why people behave the way they

behave and how they perceive themselves and others. My major issue is how the two theories

can be applied to change the behavior change of employees so that performance and output

increases.

Reward Expectation Theory

There are different motivational theories that are grouped into either content theories of

process theories by most social psychologists. Content theories, for instance, focus on what

fundamental human needs motivate the man in his environment, for example, motivating an

employee by increasing salary. On the other hand, process theories concentrate on how the

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 2

knowledge of motivating factor can be useful in influencing the behavior of individuals to

behave in a certain way. One of the most popular theories that fall into this category is the

Reward Expectation Theory. Reward expectation theory states or proposes that individuals

usually behave and act in a certain manner because they are inspired to select a specific behavior.

People are normally motivated to carry out their activities when they expect to achieve things

they want from their job. Therefore, the motivation of individual’s behavior is determined by the

desirability of the outcome. Expectancy theory focused on mental process regarding choosing,

and it explains the process in which an individual follows to make the right choice.

In organizational management, employee engagement depends on the rewards, and it has

been found that there is a significant effect of the styles employed by the management to the

level in which workers engaged themselves in. Additionally, staffs also have some expectations

when they enter into an organization and thus it is advisable for the organization to take into

consideration those staff’s expectations. People will always exercise self-direction and control in

service of the purposes that they are dedicated to. People usually have different abilities, and

they can only accept and seek responsibilities under proper conditions because they have

imagination and creativity that are useful and can be applied in work. Moreover, an organization

has the responsibility of ensuring that it recognizes and demonstrate to the employees that they

are going to be rewarded and their efforts will be recognized in both financial and non-financial

means. The expectancy model explains that motivation in work is determined by believes that an

individual has regarding the relationship between effort performance and desirability of work

outcomes.

Reward system usually relates to two major issues which are; performance and reward.

Performance encompasses defining and evaluating the performance of staffs and providing them

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 3

with feedback. Rewards, on the other hand, include different types of admiration such as salary

increment, bonuses, promotions among others (JPMS, 2013). A reward can either be intrinsic or

extrinsic. For instance, intrinsic rewards include public praise, feeling of accomplishment and

pride. Intrinsic rewards usually motivate workers through recognition of their contribution and

self-importance. The research revealed that there is a positive correlation between the intrinsic

reward and project success. Extrinsic factors, on the other hand, comprise of external factors

such as job bonuses, technical training, promotion among others. The reward can be offered to

individual or group of people. Group rewards are only effective when the objectives of that

group are measurable and relate directly to the performance of the group.

One should make sure that the reward being offered is effective because ineffective

reward can hinder performance because employee’s goals would not have been fulfilled. Power

rewards are normally less manipulative, but it releases enormous power among the employees,

empowers and motivate them as well. These rewards are the one that makes employees happy

and helps organizations realize their desired goals. The organization, therefore, has to research to

know which type of reward is suitable for its employees. This is important because it will help to

provide an effective reward that will be accepted by all the employees. Since the organization is

made up of both genders (male and female), their needs may be different and therefore is good to

know what is best for each gender. Additionally, people holding equal positions should be

granted or expect equal rewards to be fair and just.

Justification of the Theory

Psychologists such as Hellriegel, Slocum, and Woodman argues that members of the staff

of any organization can enter into the work contract with some level of expectancy and

emotional connectedness of reward they expect in return. The emotional contract of these staffs

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 4

can be improved and transformed by the management of an organization. Management of the

organization can thus influence its staffs either negatively or positively. The process approach of

this theory explores that the negotiable contract that a worker enters with the organization is very

important. The reward agreed between the staffs and organization is of great significance to the

workers than even time and energy that they supply to the organization. The organization,

however, has to negotiate these emotional and psychological contracts properly so that they

reduce high-cost turnover. In addition to this, a scheme to reward the behavior of workers should

be developed by the management.

Referential Structure of the Theory

The referential structure is defined as a socially validated set of beliefs that shows how

rewards are distributed in the collectivity of which p is a part. Referential structures can be

categorical whose function is to relate diffuse status characteristics to reward levels, ability

referential structure that plays a role in relating specific status characteristics to reward levels or

outcome referential that relates task outcomes to reward levels. In activating the referential

structures, if a salient characteristic in situation S, are referentially associated with the state of

reward level, then the relevance relations shall be induced between states of the characteristics.

Referential structures can be combined to reach a reward expectation when more than one

referential structure is being activated. Any structural change can affect the task expectation as

well as reward expectation. Therefore, my situation S, will be how to change worker’s behavior

and P will be the company that is responsible for influencing the behavior of its workers.

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 5

Application of the Theory

There are various areas and ways where the Reward Expectancy Theory can be applied.

One area or situation where this theory is being applied is in organization management to

motivate employees. In any organization, people are the source of power hence workers need to

be handled and treated well so that they can maximize their energy to produce the best output.

Any organization should consider workers as assets and not liabilities that will have a long-term

positive effect on the success of the company or organization. For people in an organization to

work mutually together, they need to know and understand the behavior of one another. One of

the best ways to motivate people specifically employees to make them more productive and

achieve organization’s objectives with ease is through a reward system.

People in the society usually go or are attracted to the activities that match their goal

priorities, and if it doesn’t satisfy their goal, then they become more frustrated causing a long-

term effect to their behavior. For example, if the priority of an individual is to be in a

relationship, that that person will get attracted to some interactive social jobs and not the isolated

jobs like those that require one just to sit in an office. Every person in an organization has his or

her interest and priority. For instance, there are those whose interest is money; some is

promotion, ride or opportunity. This shows that there is a huge difference between the goals of

every individual and the reward that they can also be rewarded differs.

Just like the way employees expect some expectation from the management, the same

applies to the management. The management also expects certain behaviors from their

employees before rewarding them. Individuals must venture and specialize in a job that satisfies

and meets the management’s need. For instance, it is the responsibility of an employee to create

a conducive working environment and always be faithful to the organization throughout their

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 6

time. It is the duty of the staff of an organization to put more effort to work extraordinarily and to

perform beyond the minimum level of expectancy.

Furthermore, the employees must have an ability to react in a good and appropriate

manner to any emerging situation. Organizations should be aware that any achievement realized

by the organization depends on the employee’s input. Therefore, for the organization to achieve

its desired goals, there is need of developing a motivation system so that employees can be

motivated as well as creating a balance between individuals and organization’s goals. It is

important however for the organization to understand the reward system if it wants to be fair to

all its employees and to avoid any conflict that may emerge as a result of dissatisfaction.

Various people and organizations think motivation only involves money (JPMS, 2013).

This is a traditional notion and money has serious limitations as a tool of motivation. For

instance, the highest paid individuals in an organization are not normally the best performer, and

in most cases, people who are paid low are high performers. Using the money for motivation

thus has no long-term effect since it can easily be forgotten. This effect can be corrected by

substituting money with other cost-effective rewards. Lack of recognition can also lead to

rewarding failure. Employees are always eager to be recognized and therefore rewarding them

without recognizing them is not a good idea (Harrison, 2013). Therefore, organizations should

ensure that there is a high degree of recognition since it is not just the best motivation tool, but

also cost-effective.

Source Theory

When dealing with the source theory, there are some questions that one need to

answer. For instance, what are the properties of a significant other involved here? How

are evaluations from substantial others translated into overall conceptions of one’s

abilities? What happens if there is more than one significant other evaluating one’s

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 7

performance? What if their evaluations are the same, or if they differ? What are the

behavioral consequences of the self-evaluations produced by these processes? This

theory states that, when given a task situation, S, then, there are at least two actors, P

and o make the performance output. The third actor, e shall provide the unit evaluation

of the performance output. All the actors are a task and collectively oriented.

Given all these variables, it can be said that actor e is a source of p in situation S if and

only if p believes that e is more capable than p of evaluating performances. Therefore, an

assumption that in situation S, if e is a source of p, then p will agree with e’s unit evaluation.

Another hypothesis that can be obtained from this theory is that, the higher the expectation of

actor p, relative for o, then, the more likely that p, will accept a given a given opportunity thus

making the performance output and in case there is a disagreement with o, the actor p, is more

likely to reject the influence.

This theory can be useful in handling my situation which is how to influence the behavior

change of employees to maximize the output. The variable p will present employees; the actor o

will be the output while actor e the organization or company. For instance, employees whose

work has been evaluated by the company will likely to improve their performance than those not

assessed. This is because after evaluating the workers based on their performance, various

feedback will be given out that is necessary since they will tell the employees where to improve.

Employees needs can also be identified, and various measures to ensure that those needs are met

by the company will be identified and put in place. This theory is also useful to the management

of an organization because of source theory state that, a person with authority is nothing but a

source (Brown, 2017). This means that the progress of an organization is mainly determined by

the management as it is the one to direct employees and develop strategies that will change their

behavior and focused on maximizing the output.

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 8

Conclusion

It is true that there are various theories in social psychology that are necessary for

explaining and solving multiple issues in the society. The research issue on how to influence the

behavior of people so that they can improve their performance and output can be resolved by

applying the Source theory and Reward expectation theory. For instance, source theory is useful

to the management since it helps to evaluate employee’s performance against their output. The

management acts as an evaluator, and it has a role in influencing worker’s behavior. On the other

hand, Reward performance theory emphasizes the need for rewarding workers as a means of

motivating them. Reward are different types, and they can be intrinsic or extrinsic.

SOURCE AND REWARD EXPECTANCY THEORIES 9

Reference

Brown, B. (2017). Thoughts and Ways of Thinking: Source Theory and Its Applications. London:

Ubiquity Press. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5334/bbh.g. License: CC-BY 4.0

Harrison, K. (2013). Why Employee Recognition is so Important. Cutting Edge PR. Retrieved

from www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/emprecog_so_important.asp

JPMS. (2013). Leadership and Motivation. International Medical Writing. Retrieved from

jpmsonline.com/2013/08/17/leadership-and-motivation-the-effect-application-of-

expectancy-theory/

Mass Communication Talk. (2012). Basic Concepts of Social Science: Social Psychology and

Major Social Psychological Theories. Mass Communication. Retrieved from

www.masscommunicationtalk.com/social-psychology-and-major-social-psychological-

theories.html/

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