Organizational Behavior Exam 2 Ch 6

continuous reinforcement

. If every instance of a target behavior is reinforced then a continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedule is in effect. For instance, if you get paid every time you make a sale, then this is a CRF schedule. The sale is the desired behavior, and payment is the reinforcement. CRF is useful for making early links between desired behaviors and outcomes, but they are susceptible to perceptions of entitlement and rapid extinction if the link is broken.

Sources of Feedback

1. Others 2. Task 3. Self - Self-serving bias may contaminate this source

A performance goal

A performance goal targets a specific end result, and a learning goal involves enhancing your knowledge or skill.

Role of Exit Interviews

Can provide feedback that uncovers the true reasons employees quit jobs Provides insight as to what the organization needs to improve and what it does well Can uncover serious misconduct that needs to be addressed urgently

Coaching - Turning Feedback into Change

Coaching is a customized process between two or more people with the intent of enhancing learning and motivating change

Total Rewards

Compensation -Base pay, merit pay, incentives, promotions, pay increases Benefits -Health and wellness, paid time off, retirement Personal Growth -Training, career development, performance management

Contingent Consequences

Contingent consequences, according to Skinner's operant theory, control behavior by responding to a target behavior in one of four ways: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. The term Contingent means there is a purposeful if-then linkage between the target behavior and the consequence. Positive reinforcement is the process of strengthening a behavior by contingently presenting something pleasing. (Importantly, a behavior is strengthened when it increases in frequency and weakened when it decreases in frequency.) Negative reinforcement also strengthens a desired behavior by contingently withdrawing something displeasing. Punishment is the process of weakening behavior through either the contingent presentation of something displeasing or the contingent withdrawal of something positive. Weakening a behavior by ignoring it or making sure it is not reinforced is referred to as extinction. The bottom line: Knowing the difference between these various forms of contingent consequences provides you with a number of powerful tools with which to manage yourself and others

Types of Rewards

Extrinsic rewards: -Financial, material, social -Come from the environment Intrinsic rewards: -Psychic rewards -Are self-granted

Perception and Negative Feedback

Feedback itself is simply information, neither positive nor negative. It only becomes positive or negative when you compare it to a goal or expectation. Such comparisons are the basis for improvement. Generally, people tend to perceive and recall positive feedback more accurately than they do negative feedback. But negative feedback (e.g., being told your performance is below average) can have a positive motivational effect. Nonetheless, feedback with a negative message or threatening content needs to be administered carefully to avoid creating insecurity and defensiveness. Put another way, perception matters. Both negative and positive feedback need to provide clear guidance to improve performance. Feedback is most likely to be perceived accurately, and thus more likely to be acted on, when it is seen as instrumental to an important or valued outcome. Self-efficacy also can be damaged by negative feedback. To facilitate the development of strong efficacy beliefs, managers should be careful about the provision of negative feedback. Destructive criticism by managers which attributes the cause of poor performance to internal factors reduces both the beliefs of self-efficacy and the self-set goals of recipients. One therefore needs to be careful when delivering feedback, due to the effect of feedback on goals.

Common Perceptual Errors ******

Halo Leniency Central Tendency Recency Effects Contrast Effects

What is feedback?

Information about individual or collective performance shared with those in a position to improve the situation Effective feedback is only information, not an evaluation . Feedback enables you to learn how your performance compares to the goal, which you can then use to modify your behaviors and efforts.

Functions of performance management processes

Making employee-related decisions Guide employee development Send strong signals to employees

Monitoring Performance

Monitoring performance involves measuring, tracking, or otherwise verifying progress and ultimate performance. You use the information gathered through monitoring to identify problems (and successes) and opportunities to enhance performance during the pursuit of a goal, and your final outcomes.

What Goes Wrong with Performance Management

PM practices are impractical. They don't fit the situation and don't motivate the appropriate behaviors and outcomes. Such PM practices therefore are reduced to "chores" that involve little more than checking boxes. Second, many experts also argue that the pitfalls of performance management frequently are due to focusing on only one part of the process, such as rating tools themselves (filling out the annual review form is the most common example) and only using measures that are available rather than measuring what is appropriate. These shortcomings can result in employees and managers perceiving the whole process as simply administrative and one that doesn't accurately measure actual performance.

Pay for Performance

Popular term for monetary incentives linking at least some portion of pay directly to results or accomplishments: -Above and beyond basic wages and salary -Incentive or variable pay -Merit pay, bonuses, and profit sharing

Distribution Criteria

Results. -Tangible outcomes such as individual, group, or organizational performance; quantity; and quality. These are commonly some type of accounting measure—sales, profit, or error rate. Increasingly these may also include customer satisfaction. Behavior and actions. -Such as teamwork, cooperation, risk taking, and creativity. Nonperformance considerations. -Customary or contractual, where the type of job, nature of the work, equity, tenure, level in hierarchy, etc., are rewarded.

Factors affecting perceptions of feedback

Self-Serving Bias Fundamental Attribution Bias Accuracy Credibility of the Sources Fairness of the System Performance-Reward Expectancies Reasonableness of Goals and Standards

What is effective feedback?

Subjective assessments such as, "You're lazy" or "You have a bad attitude," do not qualify as effective feedback. But hard data such as units sold, days absent, dollars saved, projects completed, customers satisfied, and quality rejects are all candidates for effective feedback programs.

Evaluating Performance

The process of comparing performance at some point in time to a previously established expectation or goal Needs to be relevant and accurate

law of effect

Thorndike formulated his famous law of effect, which says behavior with favorable consequences tends to be repeated, while behavior with unfavorable consequences tends to disappear.

Why are goals important?

When people have goals to guide them, they are happier and achieve more Goals provide focus Goals enhance productivity Goals bolster self-esteem Goals increase commitment

Send strong signals to employees

about what they are supposed to do and how to advance their careers within a given organization

Guide Employee Development

by assisting in identifying your strengths and weaknesses and highlighting your training and development needs.

Contingency Approach

holds that there are no universal management theories and that the most effective management theory or idea depends on the kinds of problems or situations that managers are facing at a particular time and place

Functions of Feedback

instructional and motivational Feedback motivates when it serves as a reward or promises a reward. Hearing the boss say, "You've completed the project ahead of schedule, take the rest of the day off," is a pleasant reward for hard work, but many employees also appreciate the attention and interest expressed by the very act of providing feedback, regardless of content.

intermittent reinforcement

occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time

Performance Management

set of processes and managerial behaviors that involve defining, monitoring, measuring, evaluating, and providing consequences for performance expectations

learning goals

set targets to create the knowledge and skills required for performance

The most effective reinforcement schedules are variable ratio and variable interval.

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Making employee related decisions

your performance can be used to justify a pay raise, a promotion, and new assignments. PM can also generate documentation and help justify termination and reduce the chances of a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

Overcoming Bias with 360-Degree Feedback

In 360-degree feedback individuals compare perceptions of their own performance with behaviorally specific (and usually anonymous) performance information from their manager, subordinates, and peers. Even outsiders, such as customers or suppliers, may be involved. Collecting performance information from multiple sources helps a person being evaluated to get a broad view of his/her performance. The comparison of ratings across different raters also enables one to see if any potential biases and perceptual errors are occurring. Finally, it also makes it much more difficult for managers to unfairly favor or punish particular employees.

four steps of implementing a goal setting program

Step A: Set Goals. Whether goals are imposed or set participatively, via a free exchange with your manager, they should be "SMART." SMART applied to goals is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented, and time. Step B: Promote Goal Commitment. Goal commitment is important because employees are more motivated to pursue goals they view as personally relevant, obtainable, and fair. Step C: Provide Support and Feedback. This step is about helping employees achieve their goals. Practical guidelines include the following: • Make sure each employee has the necessary skills and information to reach his or her goals. Provide training if necessary, as it can boost one's expectancy • Pay attention to employees' expectations about the movement from effort to performance, their perceived self-efficacy and their reward preferences, and adjust accordingly. • Be supportive and helpful. Empower employees as they grow. • Give employees timely and task-specific feedback (knowledge of results) about what they are doing right and wrong. • Provide monetary and nonmonetary incentives and reward meaningful progress too, and not just goal accomplishment. Step D: Create Action Plans. What good is a goal without a plan for realizing it.

Types of measurement for performance evaluation

Timeliness. Was the work completed on time? Quality. How well was the work done? Quantity. How much? Financial metrics. What were the profits, returns, or other relevant accounting-financial outcomes?

Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

We emphasize the importance of monitoring and evaluating both progress toward the final goal and the ultimate level of goal achievement, as doing so improves final outcomes. Therefore, accurately and appropriately monitoring and evaluating both progress and outcomes are critical components of effective performance management and your personal effectiveness.