Opportunities can either aid or hinder individual effort. Expectancy theory predicts employees will exert a high level of effort if they perceive a strong relationship between effort and performance, performance and reward, and rewards and satisfaction of personal goals. For effort to lead to good performance, the individual must have the ability to perform and perceive the performance appraisal system as fair and objective.

If cognitive evaluation theory were fully valid in the actual workplace, we would predict that basing rewards on performance should decrease the individual’s intrinsic motivation. Motivation is high if the rewards for high performance satisfy the dominant needs consistent with individual goals. A high achiever is not motivated by an organization’s assessment of performance or organizational rewards. Remember, high achievers are internally driven as long as their jobs provide them with personal responsibility, feedback, and moderate risks. They are not concerned with the effort–performance, performance–reward, or rewards–goal linkages.

Reinforcement theory enters the model by recognizing that the organization’s rewards reinforce the individual’s performance. If employees see a reward system as paying off, this will reinforce and encourage good performance. Rewards also play a key part in organizational justice research. Individuals judge the favorability of their outcomes (for example, their pay) relative to what others receive but also with respect to how they are treated. When disappointed in their rewards, people are likely to be sensitive to the perceived fairness of the procedures.