John Stacy Adams posited another theory in 1965, looking at how motivation was affected by the degree of fairness within an organisation, particularly within a group of peers. Consider the situation where nine sales representatives are given a company Mercedes, but one of them is given a Toyota, even though that person believes he did just as good a job as his colleagues. How would that last sales representative feel? Now there’s nothing wrong with a Toyota, but by comparing one’s own circumstances to the treatment of others in a similar situation, very intense feelings can be experienced. These feelings could lead to intense positive or negative motivations. It’s completely relative, and could apply to a peer group of millionaires should they compare one another’s yachts, or hair transplants. In practice, managers need to be careful in singling out an individual for special treatment within a group of peers because of the emotions this can engender. Expectancy Theory