Theories of Work Motivation and Job Attitudes - Coursework Example

Theories of work motivation and job attitude March 5, Theories of work motivation and job attitude Work motivation and job attitude are factors to employee and organizational output and are therefore important to management. The factors differ in their constructs and one of the differences is relationship with their environment. An employee’s internal and external environments determine his or her work motivation while job attitude is predominantly an internal factor. Rewards, remunerations, and employee development are some of the external environmental factors to motivation.

Effectiveness of these factors, however, depends on an individual’s expectation and success is achieved if the factors are aligned with an individual’s expectations. Job attitude is however more subjective. It is an employee’s emotional response and a result of the relationship between outcomes and desires. Higher outcomes than expectations induces positive attitude, unlike the case of equality or greater expectations. A relationship also exists between motivation and job attitude, in which work motivation factors moderate job attitude.

The internal or external factors to motivation are some of the outcomes that an employee relates with expectation to determine attitude (Weiner, Schmitt, and Highhouse, 2012).Expectancy theory is one of the theories of motivation that explains work motivation and attitude. According to the theory, expectation that a performance can lead to a reward motivates an individual to undertake the performance. The theory identifies efforts, performance, and reward and explains the role of anticipation on work motivation.

Perceived reward after a performance motivates efforts into the performance. The theory’s expectation aspect also explains job attitude because realizing the expected reward or a better rewards creates a positive attitude (Weiner, Schmitt, and Highhouse, 2012). ReferenceWeiner, I., Schmitt, N., and Highhouse, S. (2012). Handbook of psychology, industrial and organizational psychology. New York, NY: Wiley.