What are the major theories of worker motivation?

What will be an ideal response?

* Goal-setting theory says that supervisors should set difficult but attainable goals and they should provide feedback; employees should participate in setting the goals and be rewarded for attaining the goals.
* Equity theory says workers compare what they invest in work with what they get out of it; if the situation seems to provide equity, then motivation is likely to be constant; if our inputs exceed our outputs then we are likely to be motivated in a different direction and perhaps demand a raise, decrease our workload, alter our perception of the situation, or look for another job. In addition, we also compare our input-output ratio to other workers' ratios.
* Expectancy (VIE) theory – three components include 1) valence (V) – desirability of a particular outcome to an individual, 2) instrumentality (I) – perceived relationship between the performance of a particular behavior and the likelihood a certain outcome will result, and 3) expectancy (E) – perceived relationship between the individual's effort and performance of the behavior. Expectancy theory states that motivation to perform a behavior depends on the strength and interaction of the three factors (VIE).