Communication from the managers and past experience

Instrumentality

Instrumentality is the degree of assurance that an employee feels that performance will lead to rewards. The discussion has already emphasized the importance of rewards as well is expectations; however, the relationship among expectations, performance, and rewards is so important that it reserves special attention. Also, this relationship is directly controlled by the managerial communication process and is affected by past experiences, by organizational policies and by the relationship between the manager and subordinate. It is this last component-the manager-subordinate relationship-that an individual manager can use best to improve the motivational process.

The fIrst aspect of this relationship to consider is that both the manager and subordinate have expectations that they communicate to one another. Similarly, in George Bemard Shaw's classic play, pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins had high expectations for Eliza Doolittle and turned the guttersnipe into an elegant lady. The professor communicated his high expectations to the lady, and these led to positive results.

In one study, supervisors received what they thought were test results on employees whom they were to begin supervising. The survey found that those employees whose supervisors had high expectations as a result of their "higher" test scores actually performed better than those
employees whose supervisors had lower expectations. A number of studies have also demonstrated that a teacher's expectations of his students appears to influence directly the student's perfonnance. Similarly, the expectations of coaches and fellow players appear to influence directly an athlete's perfonnance.

Just as the manager communicates expectations her subordinate, subordinates expect a certain reward based on their level of performance. This reward expectation is based on communication from the managers and past experience. After an employee has perfonned and received a reward, the level of expected reward is adjusted accordingly. In other words, the reward an individual receives acts as a feedback loop and affects the amount of reward expected for future effort. The feedback loop can be put in the model so it now looks like this. It is easy to see that the reward a person receives affects the expected rewards for future behaviour, which in turn affect the future effort.

An employee can enter a situation highly motivated, but soon become disillusioned and demotivated when he received reward is not consistent with the expected reward. Because of the relationship between expected and received rewards, it is critical that an employee not receive false promises or foster unrealistically high expectations. At the same time, it is important to relate rewards directly to performance so that a person knows why he is recei ving the rewards. Managers create accurate expectations and reduce uncertainty through frequent communication and follow-up. These factors help employees to understand what tasks they must perform and the level of performance required for reward. Remember, uncertainly is demotivating.