MGMT 363 Exam 2 - Chapter 8

Knowledge Transfer

the exchange of knowledge between employees behavior modeling training, company messaging systems and social networking, communities of practice

Climate for transfer

involve an environment that supports the use of new skills

Communities of practice

involve informal social learning through extended periods of employee interaction

Projection bias

the faulty perception by decision makers that others think, feel, and act the same way as they do Limits our ability to develop appropriate criteria for a decision and evaluate decisions carefully Causes people to assume that everyone's criteria will be just like theirs and that everyone will react to a decision just as they would

Faulty Perceptions

selective perception, projection bias, social identity theory, stereotype, heuristics, availability bias

Heuristics

simple and efficient rules of thumb that allow one to make decision more easily

internal attribution

the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality

Continuous reinforcement

A specific consequence follows each and every occurrence of a certain behavior Learning is acquired most rapidly ex - praise

Faulty Attributions

Centers around how we explain actions and events that occur around us Internally caused vs externally caused Employee being late to work because they are lazy or because of bad traffic

Punishment, Extinction

Decrease undesired behaviors

continuance commitment

Employees with higher levels of expertise may become more highly valued commodities on the job market, thereby reducing their levels of

emotional attachment

Higher levels of job knowledge is associated with slight increase in

citizenship behavior and counterproductive behavior

Learning is less correlated with

task performance

Learning is moderately correlated with

organizational commitment

Learning is weakly related to

Goal Orientation

People learn differently according to their predispositions or attitudes towards learning and performance learning orientation, performance-prove orientation, performance-avoid orientation

external attribution

The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in; the assumption is that most people would respond the same way in that situation

Perception

The process of selecting, organizing, storing, and retrieving information about the environment Perceptions can be dangerous in decision making because we tend to make assumptions or evaluations on the basis of them

Extinction

The removal of a positive outcome following an unwanted behavior Attempts to passively eliminate an undesired behavior by withholding reinforcement Can be purposeful or accidental If you do nothing to reinforce good behavior you decrease the odds that it will be repeated Ex - getting grounded and not getting to go hang out with friends

anchoring

The tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor" on one trait or piece of information when making decisions, even when the anchor might be unreliable or irrelevant. ex - one recent study showed that initial bids for a bottle of wine in an auction could be heavily influenced by simply having subjects write down the last two digits of their social security number prior to putting a value on the bottle. those with higher two-digit numbers tended to bid 60-120 percent more for a bottle of wine than those with low numbers

Reinforcement (also known as operant conditioning)

We have a tendency to repeat behaviors that result in consequences that we like and to reduce behaviors that result in consequences that we don't like We learn by observing the link between our voluntary behavior and the consequences that follow antecedents, behaviors, and consequences

reinforcement, observation, goal orientation

What are the three methods of learning?

social learning theory, behavioral modeling

What are the two observation theories?

Satisficing

When a decision maker chooses the first acceptable alternative considered

Positive reinforcement

When a positive outcomes follows a desired behavior Attempt to actively encourage a desired behavior Pairing desired behaviors or outcomes with rewards Employees need to see a direct link between their behaviors and desired outcomes Ex - increased pay, promotions, reward, etc.

Performance-avoid orientation

a predisposition or attitude by which employees focus on on demonstrating their competence so that others will not think poorly of them

Escalation of Commitment

a common decision-making error in which the decision maker continues to follow a failing course of action "Throwing good money after bad" Becomes stronger when decision makers have invested a lot of money into the decision and when the project in question seems quite close to completion

Behavior modeling training

a formalized method of training in which employees observe and learn from employees with significant amounts of tacit knowledge

Learning orientation

a predisposition or attitude according to which building competence is deemed more important by an employee than demonstrating competence Enjoy working on new kinds of tasks, even if they fail at first View failure as a means of increasing knowledge and skills in the long run

Performance-prove orientation

a predisposition or attitude by which employees focus on demonstrating their competence so that others think favorably of them

Rational decision-making model

a step-by-step approach to making decisions that is designed to maximize outcomes by examining all available alternatives 1. Identify the criteria that are important in making the decision, taking into account all involved parties 2. Generate a list of all available alternatives that might be potential solutions to the problem 3. Evaluation of alternatives against the criteria laid out in step 1 4. Select the alternative that results in the best outcome 5. Implement the alternative

Training

a systematic effort by organizations to facilitate the learning of job related knowledge and behavior

Social identity theory

a theory that people identify themselves based on the various groups to which they belong and judge others based on the groups they associate with Could be based on demographic information, occupational information, where they work, country of origin, or any other subgroup

Intuition

an emotional judgement based on quick, unconscious, gut feelings Largely a function of learning - tacit knowledge gained through reinforcement, observation, and experience allows a decision to be more quicker and more confidently

Negative Reinforcement

an unwanted outcome is removed following a desired behavior Attempt to encourage a desired behavior Negative refers to removal of a negative situation when the desired behavior occurs Sometimes called avoidance because it allows escape from an undesirable consequence if the correct behavior is exhibited Ex - "I'm going to do what my boss wants me to do so I don't get yelled at"

Crisis situation

an urgent problem that must be addressed immediately Here is what we face Here is what we should do Here is why Here's what we should keep our eye on Now talk to me

Stereotype

assumptions made about others based on their social group membership We sometimes make inaccurate generalizations

consensus, distinctiveness, consistency

attribution process consists of three things ...

Variable ratio schedules

behaviors are reinforced after a varying number of them have been exhibited Ex - commission pay

bounded rationality says we are likely to

boil down the problem to something that is easily understood come up with a few solutions that trend to be straightforward, familiar, and similar to what is currently being done evaluate each alternative as soon as we think of it use distorted and inaccurate information during the evaluation process pick the first acceptable alternative (satisfice)

Antecedents

conditions that precede behavior typically goals, rules, instructions, or other types of information that help show employees what is expected of them

Non-programmed decisions

decisions made by employees when a problem is new, complex, or not recognized As employees move up the corporate ladder, a larger portion of their decisions become less and less programmed

Programmed decisions

decisions that are somewhat automatic because the decision makers knowledge allows him or her to recognize the situation and the course of action to be taken If someone has dealt with a problem before it triggers a programmed decision thats implemented Experience and knowledge allows them to see the problems more easily and recognize and implement solutions more quickly

consensus

did others act the same way under similar situations?

Consistency

does this person always do this when performing this task?

Distinctiveness

does this person tend to act differently in other circumstances?

Contingencies of Reinforcement

four specific consequences used by organizations to modify employee behavior

What rational decision makers should do

identify the problem by throughly examining the situation and considering all interested parties develop an exhaustive list of alternatives to consider as solutions evaluate all alternatives simultaneously use accurate information to evaluate alternatives pick the alternative that maximizes value

Positive reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement

increase desired behaviors

Tacit knowledge

knowledge that employees can only learn through experience More difficult to communicate Separates experts from common people Ex - having the ability to do something but not to explain it, "how do you drive a car?" "how do you walk?"

Explicit knowledge

knowledge that is easily communicated and available to everyone A large part of what companies teach during training sessions Ex - someone sitting down at a desk to learn, information that Siri or Alexa could tell you, the information you could find in a textbook or manual

attentional processes

learner focuses attention on the critical behaviors exhibited by the model

production processes

learner must have the appropriate skill set and be able to reproduce the behavior

retention processes

learner must remember the behaviors of the model once the model is no longer present

reinforcement

learner must view the model receiving reinforcement for the behavior and then receive it themself

Transfer of training

occurs when employees retain and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required for their job after training ends

Consequences

primarily drive behavior

Expertise

refers to the knowledge and skills that distinguish experts from novices and less experienced people why some employees learn to make better decisions than others We can tell when people have learned by observing the changes in their behavior True learning only occurs when changes in behavior become relatively permanent and are repeated over time

Decision making

refers to the process of generating and choosing from a set of alternatives to solve a problem The more knowledge and skills employees possess, the more likely they are to make accurate and sound decisions

Learning

reflects a relatively permanent change in an employees knowledge or skill that results from experience The more employees learn, the more they bring to the table when they come to work

fixed-interval schedule

reinforcement occurs at fixed time periods Ex - paycheck, having a quiz every friday

Variable interval schedules

reinforcement occurs at random points in time Ex - having a quiz about every 2 to 3 weeks, but not really sure when

Fixed ratio schedules

reinforcement occurs following a fixed number of desired behaviors Ex - your professor asks the class a few questions, if the class gets them right, we move on to the next subject, if the class gets them wrong, we have a pop quiz

Bounded Rationality

the notion that people do not have the ability or resources to process all available information and alternatives when making a decision 1. People have to filter and simplify information to make sense of their complex environment and the myriad of potential choices they face 2. Because people cannot possibly consider every single alternative, they satisfice

Availability bias

the tendency for people to base their judgements on information that's easier to recall Ex - why people are more afraid to fly than statistics would support, because every plane crash gets put on the news and is more memorable than every successful plane landing

Fundamental attribution error

the tendency for people to judge others behaviors as being due to internal factors, such as ability, motivation, or attitudes

Selective perception

the tendency for people to see their environment only as it affects them as as it is consistent with their expectations Affects our ability to identify problems, generate and evaluate alternatives, and judge outcomes

representativeness

the tendency to assess the likelihood of an event by comparing it to a similar event and assuming it will be similar ex - because a flipped coin has come up heads 10 times in a row, some assume the likelihood that it will come up tails is greater than 50-50. This is sometimes referred to as the "gambler's fallacy"

Ratio Bias Effect

the tendency to judge the same probability of an unlikely event as lower when the probability is presented in the form of a ratio of smaller rather than of larger numbers ex - when offered and opportunity to win $1 if they drew a red jelly bean, people frequently elected to draw from a bowl that contained a greater number but a smaller proportion of red beans. Participants knew the probabilities were against them, but "felt" they had a better chance when there were more red beans

contrast

the tendency to judge things erroneously based on a reference that is near to them ex - if you were to take your hand out of a bowl of hot water and place it in a bowl of lukewarm water, you would describe that water as cold. If someone else were to take their hand out of a bowl of extremely cold water and place it in the same bowl of lukewarm water, they would describe the water as hot

framing

the tendency to make different decisions based on how a question or situation is phrased ex - why do gas stations (or any retailer) give out discounts for paying cash as opposed to adding a surcharge for using a credit card? The discount is seen as a gain, while the surcharge is seen as a loss. Because humans are loss adverse, we're more likely to give up the discount (the gain) than accept the surcharge (the loss)

recency

the tendency to weigh recent events more than earlier events ex - a manager tends to weight ratings in performance evaluations based on an employees behavior during the prior month as opposed to his or her behavior over the entire evaluation period

Schedules of Reinforcement

the timing of when contingencies are applied or removed continuous, fixed interval, variable interval, fixed ratio, variable ratio

Social learning theory

theory that argues that people in organizations learn by observing others

limited information, faulty perceptions, faulty attributions, escalation of commitment

what are some problems in decision making?

programmed decisions, intuition, crisis situation, nonprogrammer decisions

what are the methods of decision making?

explicit and tacit

what are the two types of knowledge?

Punishment

when an unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behavior Attempt to actively eliminate undesirable behaviors An unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behavior - Ex - suspending an employee for showing up late to work Can create secondary consequences such as stress Less predictable and less permanent - Ex - speeding ticket won't make you permanently stop speeding Negative attitudes toward the administrator of punishment Ex - "screw that cop" May suppress behaviors but not eliminate it May be offset by positive reinforcement from peers - Ex - getting attention for doing something your not supposed to do, class clown

Behavioral modeling

when employees observe the actions of others, learn from what they observe, and then repeat the observed behavior attentional processes, retention processes, production processes, reinforcement

Self-serving bias

when one attributes one's own failures to external factors and success to internal factors