MGT5OBR: Critical Analysis of Two Organizational Behavior Theories

This report critically analyzes two key organizational behavior theories: Job Satisfaction Theory and Expectancy Theory. The analysis explores how these theories impact employee motivation, performance, and overall organizational success. Job Satisfaction Theory examines factors influencing employee satisfaction, while Expectancy Theory focuses on the cognitive processes behind employee choices and motivation. The report delves into the advantages and disadvantages of each theory, examining their practical applications and interconnectedness. It highlights how these theories can be used to enhance employee satisfaction, improve retention, and boost productivity. The report emphasizes the importance of aligning motivational factors with employee needs and organizational goals to foster a positive and high-performing work environment. The report also emphasizes on how these concepts may be used to help people and organizations achieve high performance levels and help ensure all organization members achieve satisfaction from their task contributions and work experience.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The primary focus of discussion in this paper will be to analyze the two key
organizational theories. The selected two theories are job satisfaction theory and expectancy
theory. Critical analyze will be done on the two selected theories, in the context of
organizational behavior as a whole around the world. The paper will lay stress on how the
two chosen concepts may be used to help the people or the employees along with the
organizations taken as a whole to achieve high performance levels as well as help to assure
that all the members of the organization are able to achieve satisfaction from their task,
contributions and work experience, which will help to enhance the productivity o the business
entities to enjoy the competitive edge over its rivals.
Two Chosen Theories
The two chosen organizational behavior theories here are Job Satisfaction Theory and
Expectancy Theory. The first one, Job Satisfaction Theory, helps in the identification of the
factors that influence job satisfaction and what measures can be taken to achieve a greater job
satisfaction. Though satisfaction cannot be seen or quantified, it is a psychological factor and
is understandable. Job satisfaction is the state when an employee becomes totally satisfied
with the given task and can deliver a satisfactory responsibility. The primary goal of an
organization is to enhance the performance of an employee in order to achieve the goals. For
this purpose, psychologically balanced and highly motivated employees are needed so that
the productivity and performance of the organization is increased. Job satisfaction has been a
vital factor to motivate employees for better performance. An employee who is satisfied, tend
to be more productive, creative and committed towards his organization. In return, the
organization gains from it as it gets a better position in both national and worldwide

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environment having price-efficiency and quality. Thus, job satisfaction is an outcome of the
praises or appraisals of a person’s job experiences.
Coming to the second one, the Expectancy Theory or expectancy theory of
motivation implies that an individual will behave in a specific way as they are motivated to
choose a certain act. According to the desired outcome, the motivation of the behavior is
selected. However, the cognitive process forms the core of this theory which proposes the
different elements of motivation are processed by an individual. Though the outcome is not
the only factor for determination of how to behave. This theory is about the mental processes
about the choice and explains the procedures through which a person undergoes before
making any choice. The expectancy theory was first proposed by Victor Vroom from the
Yale School of Management in the study of organizational behavior. Expectancy believes in
the effort of an individual that will help to attain a desired performance or goal. This theory
implies that the motivation of an employee is the result of how much reward he wants
(valence), the assessment of the possibility of the effort to give desired performance
(expectancy) and the faith of the performance leading to the reward (instrumentality). The
expectancy theory helps in rapid learning of management skills and concepts with an easy
understandable, richly illustrated and self-motivated learning elements (Parijat & Bagga,
2014).
Job Satisfaction Theory
The Job Satisfaction Theory denotes the employee satisfaction in an area of workplace
and is also associated with several psychological issues varying from job design to
leadership. Satisfaction in a job depends on a number of factors like working environment,
managers, co-workers, career prospects etc. and thus, is not only the overall holistic
manifestation of attitudes but the measurement of job expectations (Dugguh & Dennis, 2014).

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The following theories of job satisfaction are easy to trace for employee performance in a
company:
 The Two-Factor Theory of job satisfaction examines the outcomes of the
satisfaction as well as the dissatisfaction. According to this theory, satisfaction and
dissatisfaction are both a product of motivational and hygiene factors. Motivational
factors include the aspects like inner strength that drives people to obtain
organizational and personal goals. While the hygienic factors consist of aspects such
as working conditions, organizational policies, interpersonal matters and many more.
The strong indicators of job satisfaction are achievement, recognition, meaningful
work, responsibility and promotional opportunity. The indicators of job dissatisfaction
involve aspects like appropriate wages, supervision, poor working conditions, unclear
or unnecessary company procedures and policies, interpersonal relations among
workers, juniors and managers and job security (Alfayad & Arif, 2017).
 The Affective Event Theory explains how job satisfaction is affected by moods and
emotions of an individual. It states the connection between a person’s internal factors
like emotions, mental states, cognitions etc. and their influence to incidents occurring
in a working environment. This in turn affects the employee’s performance,
commitment towards the job and overall satisfaction.
 Equity Theory portrays the nature of a person in the way he perceives fairness based
on social relations. If a person thinks that there is inequality between several
individuals or social groups, the employee feels dissatisfied and also distressed as the
input and output doesn’t account to be equal. Inputs by a person include the effort,
commitment, time, tolerance, adaptability, sacrifice, hard work and other
contributions towards his work. On the other hand, output encompasses the

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affirmative or negative outcomes from a relationship like recognition, job security,
reputation, salary, benefits etc.
Among the advantages of this theory, the first and foremost is that it gives importance to
the inner motivation of an employee rather than external stimuli. Also, organizations can
focus on the actual problems of their employees rather than treating salary as their major
issue. There are disadvantages as well such as job productivity cannot be accounted solely for
job satisfaction. Meaning or perception of job satisfaction can vary for different people
(Bakker & Demerouti, 2014).
Expectancy Theory
This theory, also known as the expectancy theory of motivation helps to direct an
individual about how to act or behave in a particular way, as they will feel motivated to select
a particular behavior over other people. The core or the bass of this theory revolves the
cognitive system of different ways of approaches of an individual through various
motivational elements. This theory involves the mental processes regarding selection of the
motivational elements by an individual. The theory was first proposed by Victor Vroom, in
the context of studying the organizational behavior (Barron & Hulleman, 2015). He defined
the term motivation as the system of regulating the choices among the alternatives or options
available in the forms of voluntary activities. It resembles about the processes that need to be
controlled by an individual working in an organization. The employee of an organization
selects the choices available according to the estimates of how the anticipated results of a
particular behavior matching the desired results. According to Vroom, motivation is treated
as a product of the expectancy of a particular employee, which helps him or her to lead to a
desired level of results or performance, which will play an integral part to achieve a particular
result of that organization and its productivity (Hsu, Shinnar & Powell, 2014).

5ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
This theory helps to explain about the occurrence of motivation within an individual
and the factors which are having an influence on motivation along with the relationship
between these factors. This theory falls under Process Theories of Motivation, and involves a
number of elements of equity, needs and reinforcement theories. Like all other theories, this
theory possesses some advantages and disadvantages. This theory increases the expectations
by incentives and rewards, according to the performances of the employees. It helps to
maintain a positive attitude in the overall behavior of the organizations and to sustain a
healthy work culture. The performances of the employees are bettered by implementing the
various motivational factors. The different organizational concepts or frameworks are more
effectively placed in the management system to accomplish the aims and objectives of the
organizations. On the other hand, this theory does not work if there is not any active
involvement from the senior management’s end. The managers or the leaders need to find out
what their employees identify as rewards and value the, which is called valence. Apart from
this, they need to identify the abilities of the employees and make available the right
resources required by them to increase the productivity of the organization along with
improving the performance of their employees. Sometimes, the employees do not give proper
values to the rewards or motivations which are offered by the higher management.
Link between the Two Theories
The chosen two theories are very much connected with each other. The job
satisfaction theory is hugely overlapped with the expectancy theory. Job satisfaction can be
achieved by the employees of an organization if motivational factors are identified by the
management of that organization and are properly implementing them in the organization
behavioral framework. Rewards and incentives help to motivate the employees, and gives
them satisfaction on the particular task or job assigned to them. If an employee is satisfied

6ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
with his or her job, will not seek for any fresh jobs, which will, in turn, increase the employee
retention of that organization (Huang et al., 2016). The productivity of an organization will
automatically grow up if the employees of that business entity are satisfied with their
respective jobs, and gets motivated through the various motivational elements like rewards,
recognitions, appraisals or promotions implemented by the higher authority or the
management of that organization. It can be stated that motivational factors depend on the
performances of the employees and it varies from employee to employee, the job satisfaction
will also depend on the type and amount of motivational factors imposed on a particular
employee (Elnaga & Imran 2014).
The expectancy theory will help to reduce the problems created by job dissatisfaction
of the employees, by identifying the factors of their dissatisfaction and implementing the
motivational elements, so that it will increase the willingness of those employees to perform
and help in achieving the business goals and objectives along with the productivity of that
organization. Both the theories help to maintain a healthy working culture where the
motivational elements will be identified according to the requirement identified by the
management on their employees and implementing according to the working scenario, to
motivate the employees and increase their job satisfaction level, to enhance their
performances towards the organization. Satisfaction level will automatically increase for the
motivated employees. Employee retention is also an important part in the modern competitive
work culture, and more employee retention policy by an organization will help to sustain a
favorable place to work on and will promote the positivity about the organizational behavior
possessed by that organization.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion of the two theories of organizational behaviors, it can be
concluded that both the theories possess pros and cons in their applications to the
management and organizational behavior concept. Both are linked with each other and
impacts on the performances of the employees as well as the productivity of the employees.
The combination of expectancy and valence helps to identify the motivation of a particular
person for a specified form of behavior, which is known as motivational force. For example,
if both expectancy and valence comes out as zero, the motivation will also be zero. It has
been identified in various research and studies that motivation is termed as a function of the
relationship between disbursed effort and recognized performance level and the expectation
about the relation of performance level and its relation with the rewards system. Performance
level of the employees relies on the expectation disbursed towards an employee and the
achievement of desired outcomes. This helps to identify whether that employee is satisfied
with her or his assigned job or not. Serious engagement from the manages or the leaders are
required in the organization to motivate the employees, so that job satisfaction level of the
employees will be increased and will help to retain them in those business houses only. This
will help to increase the productivity of that organization and enjoy the competitive edge over
its competitors. Competition can be faced efficiently only if ethical and proper organizational
behavior is maintained in the work culture of a particular business house in the global
competitive market place.

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