There are a number of different mechanisms through which motivation can be influenced by environmental factors. One of these mechanisms is based on the principle of ,equality,. The extent to which a person perceives a disparity between his effort and reward and the effort and reward of another person can influence the person’s motivation, and thus performance.
Equity theory
Equity theory is the theory that describes the mechanism that explains how the perceived equality between people can influence the motivation of these people. Equity theory works as follows; For example, within an organization or a team with a common goal, everyone will compare their own input and output with those of comparable people. The idea behind this is that people unconsciously look for clear differences in this relationship. Efforts will be made to eliminate these differences. An example of this is as follows:
Company A employs seventeen employees, all of whom are involved in selling insurance policies. However, within the company, a monthly salary is based only on the number of hours worked, the number of insurance policies sold has no influence on this. Employee X and employee Z both receive exactly the same amount per month, but employee X sells twice as many policies as employee Z. Employee However, after a month, employee The degree of appreciation for Z’s work is also as great as that of X.
Employee X has now seen that the principle of equality does not apply; he gets the same as employee Z, but does much more. Employee X will try to eliminate this difference in the easiest way possible; Since he cannot adjust his own salary or appreciation, he will adjust his own efforts to the low level of employee Z.
Eliminating difference in equality
The example shows the principle behind the Equity theory; a difference in equality has been noted and action is being taken. In most cases, this action will have consequences for one’s own motivation; that is the easiest to tackle. If there are differences that are less easy to resolve; for example, there is a manager who earns twice as much salary, but does almost no work, other things will be adjusted in addition to the declining motivation. This includes, for example, commitment to the work/company/organization and cohesion among group members.
Positive difference in equity
In addition to the negative difference already mentioned, a positive difference can also be noted in equality. For example, seen from the manager’s perspective, who does little work but is still paid twice as much, the difference in equality will actually lead to a different conclusion; the manager will not adjust his salary to restore equality, nor will he increase his commitment. The manager will actually adjust his thoughts about his own work; he will balance the perceived equality by rating the work he does as much more positive than it actually is. This means that the ratio between input/output is correct for him again.
Common ground with cognitive dissonance
The equity theory has a lot in common with another theory from psychology regarding cognitive dissonance. This also assumes a difference that is eliminated by adjusting thoughts or actions. Cognitive dissonance, for example, concerns a person who performs an action that does not correspond with his own vision/thoughts. The person will then want to eliminate this inequality; The easiest thing to do is to adjust your own thoughts to ensure that the action is in line with your own thoughts. However, cognitive dissonance does not work if actions have to be performed under duress.