11. J. Stacey Adam’s Equity Theory

• J. Stacey Adam’s Equity Theory – based on the premise that our levels of motivation and job satisfaction are related to how fairly we believe we are treated in comparison with others
• Inputs – those elements that we put into our jobs
• Outputs – elements we receive from our jobs
• Employees subconsciously list all their outputs and inputs and then compute an input/output ratio by dividing the output value by input value
• When an employee’s ratio is lower than those of others, he will become dissatisfied and be motivated to make the ratios equal in one or more ways
• Our motivation decreases when our input/output ratios are lower than others