The outputs are – salary levels, appraisals, recognition.
We take all four things as inputs that we are putting efforts into we have the best experience, we come from an excellent educational background, and we have the best skills. The inputs are– effort, experience, educational qualifications, and competence ( skills). But now this theory is not only limited to employees every person feels it. The theory says that employees tend to compare their job inputs with job outputs relative to others. John Stacy Adams proposed equity theory in 1963. So, my friend was unhappy due to a comparison of his salary and salary of IIT students. Our society has got this notion we keep on comparing things, jobs, children, etc. If you observe this situation, my friend is comparing himself with others. This all made him demotivated in the situation. In some positions, freshers from IIT have been positioned on senior posts than him. And one important thing he said was that the designation, job profile, job nature everything was the same the only difference is in terms of salary. In that situation he said that there is a huge difference in salaries, he was getting a very much lower wage than from IIT guys, almost half from them. He said that this company hires from IIT(Indian Institute of Technology) as well as from NIT(National Institute of Technology). Then he replied and told an exciting thing. So I asked him what happened, you were delighted when you joined. After a few months, he called me, and he was sounding like really low. After joining, he was delighted as the salary was high, he was getting it on time, and the job was challenging as well as exciting. One of my friends got placed from campus at an excellent salary package in a multinational company. This incident will help you in understanding how the problem arises. FAQ’s Example of equity theory of motivation.How Employees deal with Inequity experience.TYPES OF REFERENT COMPARISONS IN EQUITY THEORY.