Written by:M. Azim Ulfati
Introduction
I would like to discuss why the President Joe’s
employees need to understand the importance of how people form perceptions and
make attributions, I will then evaluate which learning theory (either operant
conditioning, social learning theory, or the learning theory I researched would be most appropriate Joe Salatino, President of Great Norther American
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to apply in this situation and
explain why, further more I will discuss ways that Joe could apply the learning
theory I selected to improve employees’ performance and lastly I will determine
how Joe could leverage an understanding of the value of self-efficacy to ensure
he hires the most successful salespeople.
Discuss why the president Joe’s employees need to
understand the importance of how people form perceptions and make attributions.
I think there are many
reasons that Joe’s employees need to understand the importance of how people
form perceptions and make attributions and I would like to talk about some of
them here.
Joe’s employee tries to keep
the corporate culture of the company and they feel very accountable for
building relations and influencing the organization’s teams and customers for
the purpose of good sales, excellent customer service and gaining customer
trust. The employees focus on the job to show how perceptions are influenced in
relations to the business of the company and as well as state that attributions
are explained in individuals responses to the actions of others and make sure
to set effective perception of the organizational goals for the sales team.
Since Mr. Joe is the president and
owner of the company, he has the authority to analysis the organization’s
corporate culture, members of teamwork, customers. He can evaluate or assess
either directly or indirectly and ask questions from the employees for their perception
and ideas regarding the customers and improvement of company.
He would need to think and find answers
for the following questions. It is an ethical way? We are looking for to meet
the customers’ needs and their expectations or we target solely the interests
of the Company? How the client sees us? What did we to bring this customer
perception towards us?
However it is not easy to really talk
in an open forum about the internal environment of the firm, President Joe has
to search and get answers and choose good methods to know the internal views of
the staff about the company.
Do the employees or staff feel that
they are part of the organization? Are their opinions and ideas heard?
Does the company have any kinds of
attitudes or standards? If yes, Do those attitudes and standards of the company
help to the vision of employees or not?
How the employees think about the work
of their related Department and do all the employees feel the perception is
part of the corporate culture of the company or is it created for improvement?
President Salatino needs to indicate
that do those perceptions finally influence the company negatively or
positively? He has to find the differences within each person’s personality
because every person has various types of management or motivational issues,
thoughts, trainings and so on.
As I mentioned that since he is the
president of the company and has the authority and accountability to bring
changes, give advises, guidance to all the employees of the company. He has to
bring positive reforms and help better understand the employees of the company
about their accountably, missions and work within the company and he has the
responsibility to do analysis about the perceptions and attributions methods of
all employees who work for the company and get paid or rewards for their work.
Good communication is very important to
sales representatives, they have to be able to communicate good with the
customers and they have to be very confident at selling any thing they sell.
Further more the employees need to have innovative thinking skills perception
in order to build an excellent customer relationship so that customer feel that
the seller understands his/her needs.
Thus it is very important for Joe’s employees to understand the importance of how
people form perceptions and make attributions in order to be able to meet all
the above-mentioned statements and have answers to the questions.
Evaluate which learning theory (operant conditioning,
social learning theory, or the learning theory you researched in Week 3 would be most appropriate for Mr. Joe
to apply in this situation and explain why.
I believe that the
best learning theory that would be effective for Mr. Joe’s company can be the
Social Learning Theory. This theory is based on the knowledge acquisition via
the mental processing of information by watching, looking and imitating others.
Social learning
theory is learnt from the behaviors of people in an environment through
watching, listening, observing and taking notes of people’s behaviors, it is
all because usually the learner looks at the result of the observed subject
matter and adopts outcomes of behaviors in his/her life. These behaviors can be
learnt either through a direct experience or indirect experience by noticing or
listening the outcome of ones life behaviors that has happened.
Learning is often
a social process and in this process compelling examples or the role models for
how to think, different individuals and that which affects every one in a
different way provide feel and act.
Social
learning theorists believe that employees can learn appropriate workplace
social behaviors by observing the organization's response to the behavior of
other employees. Workers do not need to perform the correct behavior in order
to learn it, because they are able to practice the behavior in their
imagination. For example, an employee can imagine getting a bonus for a
creative idea after observing another employee rewarded for doing so. People
imitate the behavior of those they admire or respect. This principle underlies
celebrity-based advertising, which assumes individuals want to copy the
behavior of popular and successful people. (Barbara)
Bandura argues
that People learn through observing others’
behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. “Most human behavior is
learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an
idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded
information serves as a guide for action.” (Bandura).
Operant
conditioning is a learning methodology that occurs through rewards and
punishments for behavior. An association is made between a behavior and a
consequence for that behavior through operant
As I have already discussed in week 3
discussion, I would like to emphasize that once again that when we live in a
society we learn and practice various learning methods in different places from
people with different cultures, thoughts and perceptions. For instance we can
learn behaviorism by looking, watching family, friends, classmates and people
around media, books brochures and so on. There is one of the ways of learning
and that is called social learning theory. Social learning theory usually
emphasized the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions
of others therefore it focuses on learning by observation and modeling. The
theory basically evolved from behaviorism but now consists many of the opinions
that cognitivists also hold; consequently it is some times called social
cognitive learning.
Social
learning theory states about how both environmental and cognitive factors
interact to influence human learning and behavior. It focuses on the learning
that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one
another, including such concepts as observational learning, imitation, and
modeling.
The place
where I started my first work about seven years ago with an international
company, I was not perfect and needed lots of things to learn from others and
even there were things and subjects that I had never studied in any books and
had no experience about it but when I started working and stayed within that
office environment. I started to learn via theory and put that in practice with
other co-workers and as well as watching, listening and looking and gained
experience and ultimately I was able to do my job independently. When I gained
experience and started my job independently, I promoted to higher position and
got rise in pay and received many certificate of appreciations and
recommendation letters from the directors and management office as a reward of
my hard work and learning.
Discuss ways that Joe could apply the
learning theory you selected to improve employees’ performance.
There are many ways that Joe could
apply social learning theory to improve employee performance and they are like
the following.
Joe must make sure that his
organization needs employee behavior to conform to workplace performance
standards and that make sure managers use training to improve employee's
skills, increase the frequency of preferred behaviors and decrease undesirable
behaviors. Mr. Joe must use Social learning theory for making an effective
strategy to achieve his organization goals which includes providing
opportunities to observe the organization rewarding desired workplace behaviors
and punishing inappropriate behaviors
There are
training ways where Joe can boost the company by applying them within the
company for instance. Using Social Learning Theory in
Training
It is effective to apply principles
of social learning theory to workplace training in order to encourage
instructors and employees to include anecdotal stories and demonstration videos
or play-acting exercises to support concepts of good and bad workplace behavior.
Social learning theory supports the concept that classroom training
effectiveness improves when students admire the instructor. Trainers can take
advantage of this predisposition by having guest lectures from successful
employees.
( Barbara)
The next way can be Management
Implications to be applied in Joe’s company
It is so important in the workplace
that all managers apply good performance of past experience and show that all
the staff learns great social behaviors by observing, listening or watching the
way that other employees behave in various situations.
Managers must be consistent in their expectations of employee's social
behavior and not give favorite staff or higher-ranking staff special treatment.
Social learning theory reinforces the concept that managers must provide role
models of good behavior. Managers can create social learning opportunities
through individual rewards or praise given in public settings, for instance,
staff meetings. Conversely, inappropriate social behavior, such as harassment,
should be punished uniformly across the workplace in order to create the
correct social context to modify behavior.
( Barbara)
Social
learning theory sets forth the premise that people tend to unavoidably learn
things they see or experience in a hands-on way. Behavior modeling in the
workplace, a component of social learning theory, is the act of showing
employees how to do something and guiding them through the process of imitating
the modeled behavior. Behavior modeling has practical applications for daily
work tasks as well as deeper applications for developing company culture.
Work Tasks
The president of the company Mr Joe has
to make sure that the managers at his company use the most basic application of
behavior modeling in the workplace. They need to sit down with employees and
physically show them the proper ways to perform work tasks. Rather than simply
telling employees how to do the things they need to do, or furnishing them with
an instructional guide, take the time to perform the work yourself in front of
them or pair them with experienced employees. Modeling behavior in this way
allows employees to ask questions and gain insights from those with first-hand
experience.
Work Ethic
Employees take cues from a range of
behaviors displayed by management, both consciously and subconsciously.
Managers' work ethic can have far-reaching effects on the culture of their
companies. Employees model the behavior of their managers when it comes to
being early for work, leaving late, taking reasonable breaks and seeing
projects through to completion. If an executive consistently leaves the office
an hour early, for example, it is very likely that other employees will take
opportunities to sneak out early, as well, which can decrease the company's
output. (David)
Communication
Mr. Joe needs to apply a great
communication training system and apply it within the company from top
management level to lower management levels. Their subordinates, creating
another opportunity to strategically influence company culture, often model
communication styles of managers. When managers speak courteously and
professionally at all times, especially in conflict situations, employees are
more likely to model this behavior, treating customers and each other with
respect at all times. (David)
Honesty
Mr Joe needs to apply social learning
theory towards honesty within the company and that to start from him self.
Managers' commitment to honesty in the
workplace provides a behavior model for all employees to see. If managers' and
executives' actions are always in line with their words by following ethical
guidelines, fulfilling promises made to employees, admitting their mistakes and
coming to others for advice when they need it, employees are more likely to do
the same in response. (David)
Politics
Workplace
politics are highly influenced by social learning theory, giving employees cues
as to what they need to do to fit in the social hierarchy of the company.
Managers who display a firm commitment to equity and refuse to play office politics
can inspire other employees to focus on professionalism and performance rather
than political maneuvering in the office. (David)
Determine how Joe could leverage an understanding of the
value of self-efficacy to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople.
Joe could
effectively understand the value of self-efficacy to ensure he hires the most
successful salespeople by first outlining his business plans, strategies and
principles. In sales he would hires self-driven, motivated and enthusiastic people
with outstanding skills. If a
candidate’s profile does not match the principles and have low self-efficacy
he/she may not be accepted or given any jobs with the company. Potential high
self efficacy candidate who have great skills, high ability of work performance
and capable of doing missions and given tasks in a good manner that would
nothing avoid them to stop the given task or projects would definitely accepted
and given the chance to stay with the company. That is why Mr Joe hires
employees with a high self-efficacy, which is necessary for the success of the
company, and he keeps all the high self-efficacy employees to learn and accept
company selling tactics, rules and policies to help exceed expectations of the
company. Briefly I would say that he hires people according to three things. He sees clearly to make a good sales hire (someone that
meets or exceeds expectation of the company: Job Clarity, Personal Attributes,
and Corporate Culture. (James)
I believe Self-efficacy means performing
a specific task successfully. Research indicates that the belief that we can
perform something is a good predictor of whether we can actually do it.
Self-efficacy is different from other personality traits. You may have high
self-efficacy in being successful academically, but low self-efficacy in
relation to your ability to fix your car. At the same time, people have a
certain level of generalized self-efficacy, and they have the belief that
whatever task or hobby they tackle, they are likely to be successful in it. (Frank,
Keith, Douglas & Eli)
Based on my
research about Mr. Joe’s success, I found out that he considers that
self-efficacy at work is related to job performance. I think it is probably
because people with high self-efficacy actually set higher goals for themselves
and are more committed to their goals, whereas people with low self-efficacy
tend to procrastinate. He is successful also because he hires qualified people
with high self efficacy who are capable of doing the required job tasks,
training people to increase their self efficacy which may be very effective and
also he values verbal encouragement and incentive pays by showing the employees
to believe that they can be successful and effectively play the role of leader,
manager and are able to increase self efficacy beliefs and also he empowers
people and give them opportunities to test their skills so that he can see what
he/she is capable of.
Abstract
Joe Salatino, president of Great
Northern American has been a unique leader where he keeps his staff and whole
employees exceptionally motivated and determined to provide excellent customer
service by the amount of money he is paying them others (Hellriegel &
Slocum Jr., 2012).. He always tries to encourage and support his employees
through either the large amount of incentives or pay, where the employees are
recognized.
The perception, stereotype, and
attributions that are perceived from people externally could cause the company
to get a terrible reputation on how companies hast to keep their staff happy
and satisfied.
The best learning theory that would be
very productive for Joe’s company would be the Social Learning Theory. This
theory refers to the knowledge acquisition through the mental processing of
information by observing and imitating others (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr.,
2012). Joe has great accountably and authority to effectively comprehend the
value of self-efficacy to make sure he hires the best and the most successful
salespeople by first outlining his business agenda, policies, strategies and
plan and then figuring out what type of people is fit for the position.
References
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A
Social Learning Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura,
A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.
