How Do Learning Theories Explain Behavior?

  1. 11-5 Discuss learning theories and their relevance in shaping behavior.

Almost all behavior is learned.

What Is Learning?

  • Considerably broader than average person’s view that “it’s what you do in school.”

  • Occurs all the time as we continually learn from our experiences.

1 Operant conditioning—behavior is a function of its consequences

  • People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid something they don’t want.

  • Voluntary or learned behavior, not reflexive or unlearned behavior.

  • Tendency to repeat learned behavior is influenced by:

    • Reinforcement S strengthens a behavior and increases the likelihood it will be repeated.

    • Lack of reinforcement S weakens a behavior and lessens the likelihood it will be repeated.

  • Examples of operant conditioning are everywhere—in any situation where (explicitly or implicitly) reinforcement (rewards) are contingent on some action on your part.

    • For more information on operant conditioning, see the Classic Concepts in Today’s Workplace box on p. 362.

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Andres Rodriguez/Alamy

2 Social learning theory—learning both through observation and direct experience.63

  • Influence of models, such as parents, teachers, peers, celebrities, managers, and so forth, is central to social learning.

  • Four processes determine the amount of influence these models have:

  1. 1 Attentional processes. People learn from a model when they recognize and pay attention to its critical features.

  2. 2 Retention processes. A model’s influence will depend on how well the individual remembers the model’s action, even after the model is no longer readily available.

  3. 3 Motor reproduction processes. After a person has seen a new behavior by observing the model, the watching must become doing.

  4. 4 Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided. Reinforced behaviors will be given more attention, learned better, and performed more often.

Shaping Behavior

Putting Learning Theory into Practice

Why

  • Managers can teach employees to behave in ways that most benefit the organization.64

How

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Vladimir Nenov/Alamy Stock Photo

Four ways to shape behavior

  1. Positive reinforcement: Follow a desired behavior with something pleasant—a manager praising an employee for a job well done.

  2. Negative reinforcement: Follow a desired behavior by terminating or withdrawing something unpleasant—a manager telling an employee he won’t dock her pay if she starts coming to work on time. The only way for the employee to not have her pay docked is to come to work on time, which is the behavior the manager wants.

  3. Punishment penalizes undesirable behavior—suspending an employee for two days without pay for showing up drunk.

  4. Extinction is not reinforcing (ignoring) a behavior, making it gradually disappear.

How Can an Understanding of Learning Help Managers Be More Effective?

Manage Employees’ Learning

Employees are going to learn on the job. Are managers going to manage their learning through (1) the rewards they allocate and the examples they set, or (2) allow it to occur haphazardly?

Watch What You Reward

If managers want behavior A, but reward behavior B, they shouldn’t be surprised to find employees learning to engage in behavior B.

Watch What You Do

Managers should expect that employees will look to them as models and do what they do.

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