Adams Equity Theory - John Stacey Adams

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John Stacey Adams proposed that an employee’s motivation is affected by whether the employee believes that their employment benefits/rewards are at least equal to the amount of the effort that they put into their work.

Adam’s categorised employment benefits and rewards as outputs and an employee’s work effort as inputs.

Input Examples

The number of hours worked by the employee
An employee’s work responsibilities
An employee’s work duties
The work commitment demonstrated by the employee
An employee’s loyalty
An employee’s flexibility such as undertaking tasks at short notice
The support that the employee has provided to the organisation, colleagues and line managers

Output Examples

Salary
Bonus
Prizes
Recognition of the employee’s contribution
Positive work appraisals
Work promotions
Pension
Employer flexibility
Annual leave

Adam’s stated that if an employee believes that their work outputs are not equal or greater than their inputs then the employee will become de-motivated. Adams’ theory includes the assertion that when an employee is assessing whether the outputs they receive are fair the employee will often compare their colleague’s work inputs and outputs with their own. The comparison will often be made with an employee at a similar level in the organisation to the employee.

John Stacey Adams Equity Theory

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