Question

Using the Expectancy theory of motivation as the framework for analysis, address the following questions for each

case.

1. What is the employee's level of motivation? High, medium, low or negative.
2. What are the employee's EI, EII, and net preference?
3. What are all the reasons for the employee having an EI, EII and/or net preference problems?
4. How would you address the motivational issue for each employee?

Case No. 1

The Aide who neglected patient care

   Brenda, an aide on the third floor, has been with the hospital for six years. Her duties are divided into two areas: Regularly assigned duties that are performed during the shift and attending to the patients as called upon. The supervisor has noticed that Brenda spends the first part socializing with other employees. In the last half of the shift, she displays a monumental effort to complete her assigned duties which she has managed to finish a few minutes before the end of her shift. The R.N. on duty complains that Brenda neglects her patient care during the latter part of the shift, as she has little time for anything besides her assigned duties. Brenda a supervisor approached her concerning the neglect of patient care. Brenda responded, 'I do the job."

Case No. 2

The R.N. who missed the code

   Cindy is a recent graduate of a four-year nursing program at a prestigious private school in New England. She finished at the top of her class and performed exceptionally well on the national nursing exam. In her three months at the county hospital, she has always arrived early to work and stayed an extra ten minutes to ensure that everything is correct for the next shift. Linda, the other R.N. on the shift, has complained to the supervisor that since Cindy has been working on the shift, three Maydays have occurred. While Cindy was in no way responsible for these events, on all three occasions an R.N. from another nursing station was called in because Cindy could not be found to help out. The supervisor approached Cindy about the problem. Cindy responded, "I must have been busy somewhere else and missed the Mayday call on two occasions. On the third occasion, I heard the call but assumed that Linda could handle the situation. I'm not really sure if I could be much help. After all, Linda and the orderlies were working on the situation."

Answer 1

Case 1 -The Aide who neglected patient care

1.What is the employee's level of motivation? High, medium, low or negative.

Answer- In this case, Brenda level of motivation is low as a employee because she is not totally dedicated towards her job task and give a major time to socializing rather than her actual assigned work. she also lacks seriousness towards her job. She doesn't have valence for the task assigned to her.

2.What are the employee's EI, EII, and net preference?

Answer - EI refers to the employees expectation that high effort will lead to high performance.

EII refers to the employees expectation that high performance will lead to higher outcomes

Net preference refers to the employees preference/worth given to the reward received as an outcome.   

In the above case, Brenda EI is low as she doesn't put higher efforts at her job to increase her performance level .

EII, is fixed for her as no matter how much time she will put, her salary at month end will remain constant and this doesnt motivate her to put extra efforts at job.

Net preference, her valence for the reward as outcome is constant as she give more value to socialization with others than her task at job.

3.What are all the reasons for the employee having an EI, EII and/or net preference problems?

Answer- The employee might have this problems with EI, EII and NET preference as she doesn't feel connected to her work and her constant salary makes her realize that any level of effort will lead to the same outcome. also she give net preference to socialization over her work which involves taking care of patients.

4.How would you address the motivational issue for each employee?

Answer - to motivate such employees we should find the net preference and then use it as one of the reward for the employees. Also, there should be certain incentives for employees based on their performance which motivates them to strive for better and put in some more efforts at workplace.