AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Kelli D. Whittington, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Work Force Education, presented on June 23, 2014, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: UTILIZING THE EXPECTANCY THEORY AS A PREDICTOR OF STUDENT ACADEMIC SUCCESS ON THE ILLINOIS NURSE ASSISTANT COMPETENCY EXAMINATION MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. C. Keith Waugh This study researches the relationship between motivation and academic success as measured by the Valence, Instrumentality, Expectancy Scale. Utilizing Vroom's Expectancy Theory as the framework for study, the research assessed the responses of 375 nurse assistant students in the state of Illinois to evaluate the self-report of the constructs of Vroom's Expectancy Theory in relation to their performance on the Illinois Nurse Assistant Training Competency Examination.

I denna studie var syftet att undersöka medarbetarnas självuppfattade faktorer till motivation att arbeta. Vidare var syftet också att undersöka huruvida dessa faktorer skiljer sig mellan män och kvinnor. Studien genomfördes på en organisation som verkar inom lagerbranschen. En enkät med sju frågor, samt frågor om bakgrundsvariablerna kön och ålder, skickades ut till ca 140 medarbetare, varav 107 medverkade. Frågorna handlade om inre och yttre faktorer till motivation till arbete. Vårt resultat visar till största del att de motivationsfaktorer som togs upp i enkäten ansågs vara viktiga för majoriteten av respondenterna. De två faktorer som stack ut mest var frågan om lön och trygg anställning, där majoriteten av respondenterna ansåg dessa som viktigast. Trots att det inte förekom några statistiskt signifikanta skillnader i frågan vad gäller skillnader på män och kvinnors svar, kan man ändå dra den intressanta slutsatsen att enligt enkäten så tenderade kvinnorna att uppleva de inre motivationsfaktorerna som viktigare än vad männen gjorde. / In this study the aim was to investigate employees' self-perceived factors for motivation to work. Furthermore, the aim was also to investigate whether these factors differ between men and women. The study was conducted at an organization operating in the warehouse industry. A survey with seven questions, as well as questions about the background variables gender and age, was sent out to approximately 140 employees, of which 107 participated. The questions were about internal and external factors for motivation to work. Our results show that the motivational factors our survey covered were considered important for the majority of respondents. The two factors that stood out the most were salary and secure employment, which the majority of respondents considered to be the most important. Despite the fact that there were no statistically significant differences regarding the difference between men's and women's answers, one can still draw the interesting conclusion that according to the survey, a tendency could be seen that women considered the internal motivation factors more important than men.