An experiential exercise for teaching theories of work motivation : using a game to teach equity and expectancy theories

Purpose - This paper aims to provide an experiential exercise for management and leadership educators to use in the course of their teaching duties. Design/methodology/approach - The approach of this classroom teaching method uses an experiential exercise to teach Adams’ equity theory and Vroom’s expectancy theory. Findings - This experiential exercise has proven useful in teaching two major theories of motivation and is often cited as one of the more memorable classes students experience. Originality/value - To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original experiential exercise for teaching the equity and expectancy theories of motivation.