Chapter Two: FOUNDATION OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR AND

LEARNING IN AN ORGANIZATION

This chapter will focus on the foundation of individual behaviors of an

organizational members and their learning. It includes, Perception, Attribution
theory, Attitude, Personality and Learning.

2.1. Perception

2.1.1. What Is Perception Mean?

Perception is the process through which people receive, organize, and interpret
information from their environment.

Perception is a way of forming impressions about oneself, other people, and daily
life experiences.

Why is perception important in the study of OB? Simply because people’s behavior
is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself? The world as it is
perceived is the world that is behaviorally important.

Components of perception

Three components are involved in perception as listed below:

Perceiver : is who receive the stimuli
Target: refers to the thing to be perceived
Situation: refers to context (e.g. timing) the perceiver and the target meet
2.1.2. Perceptual Process
The perceptual process is composed of the process of receiving, selecting,
organizing, interpreting, and reacting to sensory stimuli or data.

1. Receiving Stimuli: In this stage the perceiver will get the Stimuli (data).
Most stimuli (data) received through the five senses of organs such as Taste,
Smell, Hearing, Sight and Touch.
2. Selecting Stimuli: It is not possible to pay attention to all the stimuli
received by an individual person. In order to economize on the use of
attention, this time, the stimuli are screened and selected for further
processing.
3. Organizing: after the stimuli received, these stimuli are organized in some
form.
4. Interpreting: after data received and organized, in this case, the perceiver
interprets the data in various ways to find reasons for it. In the case of
perception, it is giving clear meaning about the various data and information
received.
5. Responding: It is acting in relation to what has been perceived by the
individual.

2.1.3. Factors Influence Perception

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A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. These
factors can reside in the perceiver; in the object, or target, being perceived; or in
the context of the situation in which the perception is made.

Factors in the Perceiver:

Attitude: are positive or negative feelings about objects, people, or events. Some
workers would feel and perceive that the prevailing working conditions in the
organizations are congenial for work and it contributes positively while for others, it
would be inadequate and demand improvement. This is indicative of positive and
negative attitude patterns.

Motive is nothing but unsatisfied needs. This exerts considerable influence on

perception. Boss who is insecure perceives subordinate who does well as threat to
his position. Personal insecurity is a threat to personal survival in a job especially if
one is frequently transferred.

Interest is persons liking for a particular thing. May be some people get attracted
to eyes of a girl because he has interest in the eyes while other person may be
interested in hair style, therefore different person (perceiver) will perceive a girl
based on perceivers’ interest.

Past experience also plays an important role in perception. Just as interest

narrows down one’s perception so does past experience. In contrast past
experience nullifies an object interest.

Expectations: is what we are considering to happen. Can distort one’s perception

in what one sees and what one expects to see.

Factors in the Target:

Size: The larger the object, the more likely it is to be perceived.

Motion: A moving factor is more likely to be perceived than a stationary factor.
PlayStation games use motion to attract people to play them.

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Repetition: A repeated factor is more likely to be noticed than a single factor.
Marketing managers use this principle in trying to get the attention of prospective
customers. An advertisement may repeat key ideas.
Proximity: Objects that are close to each other will tend to be perceived together
rather than separately. As a result of physical or time proximity, we often put
together objects or events that are unrelated.
Similarity: Persons, objects, or events that are similar to each other also tend to be
grouped together. The greater the similarity, the greater the probability we will tend
to perceive them as a common group.
Novelty and familiarity: Either a familiar or a novel factor in the environment can
attract attention, depending on the circumstances. A Korean businessman entered a
client’s office in Stockholm and was greeted by a woman sitting behind a desk. He
asked to see the president. The woman responded by saying that she (the
president) would be glad to see him. The Korean was confused because he assumed
that most women are secretaries and not presidents of a
company. The misinterpretation of the situation was caused by a novel situation for
him.
Factors in the Situation

Change in situation leads to incorrect perception about a person. Time is one factor,
which influences the perception. Time is related to work setting and social setting. A
person decked up for party may not be noticeable but the same dress in office
would be noticed distinctly, though the person has not changed. You would have
very frequently heard people say that their manager is different during working
hours and opposite while in social setting.

2.1.4 Attribution Theory

Attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently,
depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior. It suggests that when
we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was
internally or externally caused. That determination, however, depends largely on
three factors: (1) distinctiveness, (2) consensus, and (3) consistency.

Internally caused behaviors are those we believe to be under the personal control
of the individual. Externally caused behavior is what we imagine the situation
forced the individual to do. If one of your employees is late for work, you might
attribute that to his partying into the wee hours and then oversleeping. This is an
internal attribution. But if you attribute lateness to an automobile accident that tied
up traffic, you are making an external attribution.

Distinctiveness: refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in

different situations.

Consensus: is occurred when everyone who faces a similar situation responds in

the same way.

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Consistency: refers to whether an individual responds the same way across time.
The more consistent the behavior, the more we are inclined to attribute it to
internal causes.

Attribution errors

In addition to these three influences, two errors have an impact on internal versus
external determination—the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias.

Fundamental attribution error: is the tendency to underestimate the influence

of situational factors and to overestimate the influence of personal factors in
evaluating
someone else’s behavior.

Self-serving bias: refers to the tendency to attribute own success to internal

causation like ability, hard work and self-worth and the failure, to external factors
like chance or Luck.

Common Errors While Judging Others

Some common kinds of distortions that can make the perceptual process inaccurate
and affect the response are:
Selective perception The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the
basis of one’s interests, background, experience, and attitudes.
Halo Effect: refers to judging an individual based on single characteristics, such as
intellectual ability, sociability and appearance.
Projection: You assume a person based on your own traits and not what he
actually possesses.
Contrast effect: Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that is affected by
comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on
the same characteristics.
Stereotyping: Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to
which that person belongs.
Prejudice: is an unfounded dislike of a person or group based on their belonging to
a
particular stereotyped group.

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2.2. Attitude
2.2.1. Definition of Attitude
Attitudes are evaluative statements either favorable or unfavorable about objects,
people, or events. They reflect how we feel about something. When I say “I like my
job,” I am expressing my attitude about work.
Attitudes are positive or negative feelings about objects, people, or events.
The attitude is the evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people,
or events.
2.2.2. Characteristics of Attitudes

Attitude can be characterized in the following ways:

 An attitude is the predisposition of the individual psychological structure of
beliefs which are to be evaluated a favorable or an unfavorable manner.
 They tend to persist unless something is done to change them.
 Attitudes can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favorable to very
unfavorable.
 Attitudes are directed toward some object about which a person has feelings
(sometimes called “affect”) and beliefs.
 Attitudes are evaluating statements either favorable or unfavorable which
concerned
about the objects and people or events.
2.2.3. Component of attitude

There are three components of attitude.

Cognitive component: the thoughts, opinions, knowledge, or information held by
the individual about a specific person, idea, event, or object;
E.g. “My pay is low”
Affective component: the feelings, sentiments, moods, and emotions about some
specific person, idea, event, or object; which may be positive, negative or neutral.
E.g. “I am angry over how little I’m paid.
Behavioral component: the predisposition to act on a favorable or unfavorable
evaluation to a specific person, idea, event, or object .
E.g. “I’m going to look for another job that pays better.”
2.2.4. Source of attitude

Attitudes have many sources: family, peer groups, coaches, society, and previous
job experiences. Early family experiences help shape individuals’ attitudes. Young
children’s attitudes usually correspond to their parents’. As children reach their
teens, they begin to
be more strongly influenced by peers. Peer groups influence attitudes because
individuals
want to be accepted by others. Teenagers seek approval by sharing similar

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attitudes or by
modifying attitudes to comply with those of a group. Culture, mores, and language
influence attitudes.
Through job experience, employees develop attitudes about pay equity,
performance
review, managerial capabilities, job design, and work group affiliation. Previous
experiences account for some individual differences in attitudes toward
performance, loyalty, and
commitment.

2.2.5. Types of attitude

Every person will have thousands of attitudes, but OB focuses our attention on a
very limited number of work-related attitudes. These tap positive or negative
evaluations that employees hold about aspects of their work environment. Most of
the research in OB has looked at three job related attitudes:
 job satisfaction,
 job involvement, and
 Organizational commitment.
Job satisfaction: refers to the feelings people have toward their job. A person
with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about his or her job, while
a person with a low level holds negative feelings.

Job Involvement: refers to the degree to which a person identifies himself

(psychologically) with his job, actively participates and considers his perceived
performance level important to self-worth. Employees with a high level of job
involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do.
Another closely related concept is psychological empowerment, employees’
beliefs in the degree to which they influence their work environment, their
competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy.

Organizational Commitment: Organizational commitment is the emotional

attachment people have toward the company they work for. In organizational
commitment, an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals
and wishes to remain a member. Most research has focused on emotional
attachment to an organization and belief in its values as the “gold standard” for
employee commitment.

Employees who are committed will be less likely to engage in work withdrawal even
if they are dissatisfied, because they have a sense of organizational loyalty. On the
other hand, employees who are not committed, who feel less loyal to the
organization, will tend to show lower levels of attendance at work across the board.
Research confirms this theoretical proposition.

2.2.6. Attitudes and consistency

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Individuals strive to maintain consistency among the components of attitudes. But
contradictions and inconsistency often occur, resulting in a state of disequilibrium.
The tension stemming from such a state is reduced only when some form of
consistency is achieved.

It is seen that people seek consistency among their attitudes or between attitude
and behavior but the inconsistence will occurred. The inconsistency among
attitudes or between attitude and behavior is called Cognitive dissonance.

Leon Festinger proposed cognitive dissonance theory in 1950s. The theory seeks to
explain linkage between attitudes and behavior.

Cognitive dissonance: refers a situation where there’s a discrepancy between

the cognitive and behavioral components of an attitude.

For example, the chief executive officer of a cigarette company may experience
cognitive dissonance if she believes that she’s honest and hardworking but that
cigarettes contribute to lung cancer. She may think, “I’m a good human being, but
I’m in charge of a firm producing a cancer-contributing product.” These thoughts
create inconsistency. Instead of quitting and giving up her successful career, she’s
more likely to modify her thoughts or cognitions. She could state, “Our firm has
manufactured a cigarette that’s now very safe and free of cancer producing
products.” Or she may think that cigarette smoking actually improves smokers’
mental well-being, that it helps them reduce or cope with stress. When
inconsistency in attitudes arises, the person can attempt to work the problem out
cognitively or behaviorally. Here the CEO used a cognitive process to reduce her
dissonance.

2.3. Personality

2.3.1. Definition of Personality

Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts
with others.
Personality encompasses the relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral
patterns a person has.
Personality is a stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine
commonalities and differences in people’s behavior.
Personality is an individual’s consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and
behaving.
2.3.2. Personality determinants
Determinant of personality refers to factors directly and indirectly influenced to
individual behavior. Personality is determined by heredity, environment (culture)
and situation under which an individual works.

Heredity

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Heredity refers to factors determined at conception. It is an acquiring from parents
certain biological, physical and psychological commonalities, which are further
reflected in physical stature, facial attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle
composition and even reflect. They often decide energy level. Heredity approach
argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular
structures of the genes, which are located in the chromosomes.

Environment

The environment we are exposed plays a substantial role in shaping our

personalities. In this context environment refers to culture, family, group
membership, society, religion and life experiences.

For example, it is commonly seen that a doctor’s son preferring his father’s
profession and a child of a soldier enters into Defense Services.

Situation

The third factor that determines personality is the situation which individuals face.
The personality will be shaped by the situation we interact.

For example, in class you are likely to rein in your high spirits and other related
behaviors encouraged by your personality. However, at a sporting event, you may
be jumping up, cheering, and loudly criticizing the referees.

2.3.3. Major personality attributes influencing OB

In this section, we will evaluate specific personality attributes that have been found
to be powerful predictors of behavior in organizations. These are locus of control,
Machiavellianism, self-esteem, self-monitoring, Narcissism, risk-taking,
and Type A and proactive personalities.

1. Locus of Control

Locus of control is the degree to which individuals believe that they can control
events affecting them.

Those who believe that they control their destinies have been labeled internals,
whereas who see their lives as being controlled by outside forces, have been called
externals. Individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to solve
problem when they encounter an obstacle while trying to achieve a goal. Individuals
with an external locus of control are more likely to see the obstacle as caused by
outside forces, and they will not necessarily know what to do in the face of that
obstacle. Compared to internals, externals appear to prefer a more structured,
directive style of supervision. Managers thus need to be more aware of obstacles
facing employees who have an external locus of control, and do what they can to
remove those obstacles.
2. Machiavellianism

It is the degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance,

and believes that ends can justify means. The personality characteristic of

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Machiavellianism (Mach) is named after Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote in the
sixteenth century on how to gain and use power.

“If it works, use it” is consistent with a high-Mach perspective.

A considerable amount of research has been directed toward relating high- and low
Mach personalities to certain behavioral outcomes. High Machs manipulate more,
win more, are persuaded less, and persuade others more than do low Machs. Yet
these high-Mach outcomes are moderated by situational factors. It has been found
that high Machs flourish (1) when they interact face to face with others rather than
indirectly; (2) when the situation has a minimum number of rules and regulations,
thus allowing latitude for improvisation; and (3) when low Machs get distracted by
emotional involvement with details irrelevant to winning.

High mach scorers would probably be suited for activities such as selling,
negotiating, and acquiring limited resources. Low mach scorers would seem to be
better suited for structured, routine, and none motional situations. They would seem
to better suit for planning, conceptualizing, and working out details.

Should we conclude that high Machs make good employees? That answer depends
on the type of job and whether you consider ethical implications in evaluating
performance.

3. Self-Esteem (SE)
Self-Esteem refers to the degree to which individuals like or dislike themselves.
Self-esteem is the extent to which an individual believes that he or she is a
worthwhile and deserving individual. For example, self-esteem is directly related to
expectations for success. High SEs believes that they have the ability to succeed at
work. Individuals with high self-esteem will take more risks in job selection and are
more likely to choose unconventional jobs than are people with low self-esteem.
High SEs also tends to emphasize the positive when confronted with failure.
The most generalizable finding on self-esteem is that low SEs are more easily
influenced by external factors than are high SEs. Low SEs are dependent on the
receipt of Not surprisingly, self-esteem has also been found to be related to job
satisfaction.

4. Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring is a personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust

behavior to external, situational factors.

Individuals high in self-monitoring are highly sensitive to external cues and can
behave differently in different situations. High self-monitors are capable of
presenting striking contradictions between their public personae and their private
selves. Low self-monitors cannot disguise themselves in the same way. They tend to
display their true dispositions and attitudes in every situation; hence, there is high
behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do.

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Research suggests that high self-monitors tend to pay closer attention to the
behavior of others and are more capable of conforming than are low self-monitors.
In addition, high self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers
and receive more promotions (both internal and cross-organizational).

5. Narcissism

In psychology, narcissism describes a person who has a very high sense of self-
importance, requires excessive admiration, has a sense of entitlement, and is
arrogant. The term is from the Greek myth of Narcissus, a man so vain and proud
he fell in love with his own image.

E.g.: Hans likes to be the center of attention. He looks at himself in the mirror a lot,
has extravagant dreams, and considers himself a person of many talents. Hans is a
narcissist.

Evidence suggests that narcissists are more charismatic and thus more likely to
emerge as leaders, and they may even display better psychological health (at least
as they self-report). Despite having some advantages, most evidence suggests that
narcissism is undesirable. Because narcissists often want to gain the admiration of
others and receive affirmation of their superiority, they tend to “talk down” to those
who threaten them, treating others as if they were inferior. Narcissists also tend to
be selfish and exploitive and believe others exist for their benefit.

6. Risk-Taking

It is a person’s willingness to take chances or risks. People differ in their willingness

to take chances, a quality that affects how much time and information they need to
make a decision. High risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and used
less information in making their choices than did the low risk-taking managers.
Interestingly, the decision accuracy was the same for both groups.

7. Type A and Type B Personalities

An individual with a Type A personality is “aggressively involved in a chronic,

incessant struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and, if required
to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.”
Type As
 Are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly
 hurried
 Feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place
 Strive to think or do two or more things at once
 Cannot cope with leisure time
 Are obsessed with Quantity
 competitive, and hostile

But these traits tend to emerge most often when a Type A individual experiences
stress or challenge.

In contrast to the Type A personality is the Type B, who is exactly the opposite.

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Types Bs are “rarely harried by the desire to obtain a wildly increasing number of
things or participate in an endless growing series of events in an ever-decreasing
amount of time.”
Type Bs

 Never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying impatience
 Feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or
accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by the situation
 Play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at any cost
 Can relax without guilt

In managerial positions, Type As demonstrate their competitiveness by working

long hours and, not infrequently, making poor decisions because they make them
too fast. Stressed Type As are also rarely creative. Because of their concern with
quantity and speed, they rely on past experiences when faced with problems. They
will not allocate the time that is necessary to develop unique solutions to new
problems. They seldom vary in their responses to specific challenges in their
environment, and so their behavior is easier to predict than that of Type Bs.

Are Type As or Type Bs more successful in organizations? Despite the hard work of
Type
As, Type Bs are the ones who appear to make it to the top. Great salespeople are
usually
Type As; senior executives are usually Type Bs. Why? The answer lies in the
tendency of
Type As to trade off quality of effort for quantity. Promotions in corporate and
professional
organizations “usually go to those who are wise rather than to those who are
merely
hasty, to those who are tactful rather than to those who are hostile, and to those
who are
creative rather than to those who are merely agile in competitive strife.

8. Proactive Personality

Proactive personality refers to People who identify opportunities, show initiative,

take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.

People with a proactive personality create positive change in their environment,

regardless or even in spite of constraints or obstacles. Not surprisingly, proactives
have much desirable behavior that organizations look for. For instance, the
evidence indicates that proactive are more likely to be seen as leaders and are
more likely to act as change agents within the organization. Other actions of
proactives can be positive or negative, depending on the organization and the
situation. For example, proactives are more likely to challenge the status quo or
voice their displeasure when situations are not to their liking. If an organization

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requires people with entrepreneurial initiative, proactives make good candidates;
however, these are people that are also more likely to leave an organization to start
their own business.

2.3.4The Big Five Personality Model

There are many different dimensions of personality that can be used to describe
people. Over the past two decades, a consensus has emerged that five dimensions
or factors can be used to describe a substantial amount of human personality. The
following are the Big Five factors:

Extraversion–introversion: This dimension captures our comfort level with

relationships. Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts
tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.

Research has been reported that extraverted people tend to perform well in sales
and management jobs, do better in training programs, and have higher levels of
overall job satisfaction.

Agreeableness: The degree of working well with others by sharing trust, warmth,
and
cooperativeness. People who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable,
and antagonistic. People who are high in agreeableness tend be better team players
and
get along better with colleagues, customers, and other stakeholders.78 Jobs and
professions that require such individuals include customer service, sales, auditing,
nursing,
teaching, and social work.
Conscientiousness: is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is
The hardworking, responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who
score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.
Emotional stability: refers a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with
positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with
high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.
Openness to experience: addresses range of interests and fascination with
novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive.
Those at the other end of the category are conventional and find comfort in the
familiar.
2.3.5. Matching personality and job

Matching the personality of employees with the job the do is an important element
in organizational goal achievement. Using the Big Five terminology, for instance,
we could expect that people high on extraversion fit well with aggressive and
team-oriented cultures, which people high on agreeableness match up better
with a supportive organizational climate than one focused on aggressiveness,
and that people high on openness to experience fit better in organizations that
emphasize innovation rather than standardization. Following these guidelines at
the time of hiring should identify new employees who fit better with the

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organization’s culture, which should, in turn, result in higher employee
satisfaction and reduced turnover.

In fitting personality and job John Holland's developed personality job fit theory
which identifies six personality types and proposes that the fit between personality
type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and turnover. The
theory is based on the notion of fit between an individual's personality
characteristics and his or her occupational environment.

The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest where
personality and occupation are in agreement. Social individuals should be in
social jobs, conventional people in conventional jobs, and so forth. A realistic
person in a realistic job is in a more congruent situation than is a realistic
person in an investigative job. A realistic person in a social job is in the most
incongruent situation possible.
The key points of this model are that:
1. There do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among
individuals,
2. There are different types of jobs, and
3. People in job environments congruent with their personality types should
be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than people in
incongruent jobs.

2.4. Learning
Learning is a relatively permanent change in knowledge or observable behavior
that results from practice or experience. Learning is a Process by which a relatively
enduring change in behavior occurs as a result of practice. Learning is any
relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience.

 First, learning involves change.

 Second, the change must be relatively permanent.
 Third, the change is concerned with behavior.

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  Finally, some form of experience is necessary for learning acquired directly
through observation or practice.

2.4.2. Theories of Learning

How do we learn? Three theories have been offered to explain the process by which
we acquire patterns of behavior:
 Classical conditioning,
 Operant conditioning,
 Social learning
Classical Conditioning: Learning by Association

Classical conditioning is the process by which individuals learn to link the

information from a neutral stimulus to a stimulus that causes a response. This
response may not be under an individual’s conscious control. In the classical
conditioning process, an unconditioned stimulus (environmental event) brings out a
natural response. Then a neutral environmental event, called a conditioned
stimulus, is paired with the unconditioned stimulus that brings out the behavior.
Eventually, the conditioned stimulus alone brings out the behavior, which is called a
conditional response.

This theory developed by Pavlov. He was studying the digestive system of dogs and
became intrigued with his observation that dogs deprived of food began to salivate
when one of his
assistants walked into the room. He began to investigate this phenomenon and
established
the laws of classical conditioning. Pavlov carried out this experiment in three
sequential stages.

In stage one; he presented meat (unconditional stimulus) to the dog. He noticed a

great deal of salivation (unconditional response). In stage two he only rang up the
bell (neutral stimulus), the dog had no salivation. In stage three, Pavlov was to
accompany the offering of meat to the dog along with ringing up of bell. After doing
this several times, Pavlov rang up only bell (without offering of meat to the dog).
This time the dog salivated to the ringing up of bell alone. Pavlov concluded that the
dog has become classically conditioned to salivate (response) to the sound of the
bell (stimulus). It will be seen that the learning can take place amongst animals
based on stimulus – response (SR) connections. The study was undoubtedly single
most famous study ever conducted in behavioral sciences. It was a major
breakthrough and had a lasting impact on understanding of learning.

This stimulus – response connection (S-R) can be applied in management.

Historically when a CEO visits an organization, production charts are updated,
individuals put on a good dress, window panes are cleaned and floors are washed.
What all one has to do is to just say that the Top Boss is visiting. You will find that
all above work is undertaken (response) without any instructions. Because the

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people in the organization have learned the behavior (conditioned). It has caused a
permanent change in the organization (S-R) connections.

Operant Conditioning

The concept was originated by B.F. Skinner. It is a type of conditioning in which

desired voluntary behaviors leads to reward or prevent punishment which deals
with Response Stimulus (R-S) connection.

Operant conditioning argues that behavior is a function of its consequences. People

learn to behave to get something they want or avoid something they don't want.
Operant behavior means voluntary or learned behavior in contrast to reflexive or
unlearned behavior. The tendency to repeat such behavior is influenced by the
reinforcement or lack of reinforcement brought about by the consequences of the
behavior. Reinforcement, therefore, strengthens a behavior and increases the
likelihood it will be repeated.

Skinner argued that by creating pleasing consequences to follow specific forms of

behavior, the frequency of that behavior will increase. People will most likely
engage in desired behaviors if they are positively reinforced for doing so. Rewards,
for example, are most effective if they immediately follow the desired response.
Additionally, behavior that is not rewarded, or is punished, is less likely to be
repeated.

You see illustrations of operant conditioning everywhere. For example, any situation
in which it is either explicitly stated or implicitly suggested that reinforcements are
contingent on some action on your part involves the use of operant learning. Your
instructor says that if you want a high grade in the course you must supply correct
answers on the test. A commissioned salesperson wanting to earn a sizable income
finds it contingent on generating high sales in her territory. Of course, the linkage
can also work to teach the individual to engage in behaviors that work against the
best interests of the organization.
Social Learning

This is a theory that states the learning of People through observation and imitation
of others in a social context. Individuals can also learn by observing what happens
to other people and just by being told about something, as well as by direct
experiences. So, for example, much of what we have learned comes from watching
models-parents, teachers, peers, motion picture and television performers, bosses,
and so forth.

While social-learning theory is an extension of operant conditioning that is, it

assumes behavior is a function of consequences-it also acknowledges the existence
of observational learning and the importance of perception in learning. People

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respond to how they perceive and define consequences, not to the objective
consequences themselves.

2.4.3. Methods of shaping behavior

There are three ways in which to shape behavior:
 reinforcement,  punishment,  extinction
1. Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a behavioral shaping method that increases the frequency of a
particular behavior that it follows. There are two types of reinforcements which are
positive and negative reinforcements. Whether positive or negative, reinforcement
always increases the frequency of the employee behavior.
A. Positive Reinforcement: When a response is followed with something
pleasant, it is called positive reinforcement. These positive reinforcers could
include items such as raises, bonuses, or promotions or less tangible things
such as praise or encouragement.
B. Negative reinforcement: refers to an increase in the frequency of a
behavior following removal of something that is displeasing (e.g., an
undesired situation) immediately after the response. If your college instructor
asks a question and you don't know the answer, looking through your lecture
notes is likely to preclude your being called on. This is a negative
reinforcement because you have learned that looking busily through your
notes prevents the instructor from calling on you.
2. Punishment

Punishment is an undesirable consequence of a particular behavior. Punishment

decreases the frequency of an undesired behavior.

E.g. A professor who takes off 10 points for each day a paper is late is using
punishment. Giving an employee a two-day suspension from work without pay for
showing up drunk is an example of punishment.

Punishment is sometimes confused with Negative reinforcement because both use

unpleasant events that influence behavior. Negative reinforcement is used to
increase the frequency of a desired behavior. In contrast, punishment is used to
decrease the frequency of an undesired behavior.

3. Extinction

Extinction refers to decline in response rate because of non-reinforcement. When

the behavior is not reinforced, it tends to gradually be extinguished.

For example, a member of a work team may have gotten into the habit of telling
jokes at team meetings because people laughed at them (positive reinforcement). If
the team began to feel that the jokes were a time waster and made an effort not to
laugh, over time the team member’s joke telling is likely to diminish.

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