The Importance of the Ratio in Equity Theory It also explains why giving one person a promotion or pay-rise can have a demotivating effect on others.For example, Equity Theory explains why people can be happy and motivated by their situation one day, and yet with no change to their terms and working conditions can be made very unhappy and demotivated, if they learn forĮxample that a colleague (or worse an entire group) is enjoying a better reward-to-effort ratio.This comparative aspect of Equity Theory provides a far more fluid and dynamic appreciation of motivation than typically arises in motivational theories and models based on individual circumstance alone. Or enjoyed by others in similar situations. The actual sense of equity or fairness (or inequity or unfairness) within Equity Theory is arrived at only after incorporating a comparison between our own input and output ratio with the input and output ratios that we see or believe to be experienced.
When people feel fairly or advantageously treated they are more likely to be motivated when they feel unfairly treated they are highly prone to feelings of disaffection and demotivation. Of Equity, which commonly manifests as a sense of what is fair. The Adams' Equity Theory model, therefore, extends beyond the individual self and incorporates influence and comparison of other people's situations - for example, colleagues and friends - in forming a comparative view and awareness.However, awareness and cognizance of the wider situation - and crucially comparison - feature more strongly in Equity Theory than in many other earlier motivational models. Herzberg and other pioneers of workplace psychology, in that the theory acknowledges that subtle and variable factors affect each individual's assessment and perception of their relationship with their work, There are similarities with Charles Handy's extension and interpretation of previous simpler theories of Maslow, John Stacey Adams, a workplace and behavioural psychologist, put forward his Equity Theory on job motivation in 1963.