Book Review
A Book Review: Work and Motivation Missouri State University
Work and Motivation published in 1964 by Victor Vroom is a compilation of studies done by researchers in social psychology. Vroom’s main purpose for writing Work and Motivation was to link what has already been done in the field of social psychology into a piece from which future research could be derived. Work and Motivation is divided into five parts, the introductory speaks about the cognitive model, which funnels the entire book. Part two covers the choice of work role. Part three looks at the problem of satisfaction with work roles. Part four deals with the performance in work roles, then finally, part five, the conclusion which simply summarizes the entire book. This book review will be broken into eight parts. Chapters one and two are explained together because they embodied the essential points of the book. Each section thereafter will convey briefly the important parts of each chapter. Each had its own significance to Vroom’s ideology.
It is important to note that the research done by Vroom was not all conclusive, in fact he stated many times that further work should be done to reach a final solution or explanation of the issue at hand. Work and Motivation laid the framework for future research and shortly after the expectancy theory was developed.
1 Introduction and Historical Perspective/ 2 Motivational- A Point of View
The cognitive model is the main focus and often referred to throughout the whole book. The model entails the assumption that “the choices made by a person among alternative courses of action are lawfully related to psychological events occurring contemporaneously with the behavior” (Vroom, 14). Key concepts of the cognitive model include valence, also known as instrumentality, expectancy, and force. The term valence is referred to as affective orientations toward particular outcomes, which can result in either negative or positive valences (Vroom, 15).
Work and Motivation published in 1964 by Victor Vroom is a compilation of studies done by researchers in social psychology. Vroom’s main purpose for writing Work and Motivation was to link what has already been done in the field of social psychology into a piece from which future research could be derived. Work and Motivation is divided into five parts, the introductory speaks about the cognitive model, which funnels the entire book. Part two covers the choice of work role. Part three looks at the problem of satisfaction with work roles. Part four deals with the performance in work roles, then finally, part five, the conclusion which simply summarizes the entire book. This book review will be broken into eight parts. Chapters one and two are explained together because they embodied the essential points of the book. Each section thereafter will convey briefly the important parts of each chapter. Each had its own significance to Vroom’s ideology.
It is important to note that the research done by Vroom was not all conclusive, in fact he stated many times that further work should be done to reach a final solution or explanation of the issue at hand. Work and Motivation laid the framework for future research and shortly after the expectancy theory was developed.
1 Introduction and Historical Perspective/ 2 Motivational- A Point of View
The cognitive model is the main focus and often referred to throughout the whole book. The model entails the assumption that “the choices made by a person among alternative courses of action are lawfully related to psychological events occurring contemporaneously with the behavior” (Vroom, 14). Key concepts of the cognitive model include valence, also known as instrumentality, expectancy, and force. The term valence is referred to as affective orientations toward particular outcomes, which can result in either negative or positive valences (Vroom, 15).