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Employee Performance and Employee Need Satisfaction--Which Comes First?
Sutermeister, Robert A.
13/4  (Summer 1971): 43-47

The degree of satisfaction at the end of one performance-satisfaction cycle and the individual's position in his life cycle will affect his level of aspiration in the new performance-satisfaction cycle. If his level of aspiration is raised, and if the value of the reward and the perceived effort-reward probability appear satisfactory to him, he will be motivated to improve his effort and performance in the new cycle. If his level of aspiration remains the same, and value of reward and perceived effort-reward probability remain the same, he will be motivated to continue his previous level of effort in the new cycle. And if his level of aspiration is lowered, he will reduce his effort in the new cycle regardless of the value of reward and perceived effort-reward probability. It may be theorized, then, that effort and performance affect satisfaction, and that satisfaction by its influence on level of aspiration affects subsequent effort and performance. Thus it would seem as if the satisfaction-productivity relationship is circular, as the final figure shows.

 

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