Reinforcement Theory for Business Managers

Abstract

Theories explain how workers select behavioral actions to meet their needs and determine their choices. Most motivation theories are concerned with explaining "why" people do things in terms of satisfying needs, resolving felt inequities, evaluating expectancies, and pursuing task goals. Reinforcement theory, in contrast, views human behavior as determined by its environmental consequences. It is based on the belief that rewards and success in achieving predefining goals act as positive incentives which, in turn, reinforce positive behaviors, increasing the likelihood of desired behaviors being repeated the next time a similar need arises. Instead of looking within the individual to explain motivation, this theory focuses on the external environment and its consequences. This paper will compare two different approaches of reinforcement theory tools for business managers. It will outline how managers can effectively use this theory to shape behaviors.

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Reinforcement Theory for Business Managers

Motivation

Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge (Cherry, 2012).

According to researcher Carla Valencia, employee motivation has always been a central problem for leaders and managers. Unmotivated employees are likely to spend little or no effort in their jobs, avoid the workplace as much as possible, exit the organization if given the opportunity and produce low quality work. On the other hand, employees who feel motivated to work are likely to be persistent, creative and productive, turning out high quality work that they willingly undertake. There has been a lot of research done on motivation by many scholars, but the behavior of groups of people to try to find out why it is that every employee of a company does not perform at their best has been comparatively un-researched. Many things can be said to answer this question; the reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated. Employers need to get to know their employees very well and use different tactics to motivate each of them based on their personal wants and needs.

The dictionary Webster's defines motivation as something inside people that drives them to action. This motivation varies in different people. We can also say that motivation is the willingness to work at a certain level of effort. Motivation emerges, in current theories, out of needs, values, goals, intentions, and expectation. Because motivation comes from within, managers need to cultivate and direct the motivation that their employees already have.

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Motivation comes from within us such as thoughts, beliefs, ambitions, and goals. The people who are most interested in motivation studies are managers of people because they may provide insights into why people perform at work as they do, and as a result provide managers with techniques to improve worker productivity (Valencia, 2012).

Reinforcement theories have two main components: Contingency, where the occurrence of the reinforce depends on the occurrence of the learner's response and rate of responding where the reinforce serves to increase the learner's rate of responding. This abstract will attempt to compare some thoughts and beliefs of three authors.

Overview of Both Articles

In Sebhendu Garud's article, Reinforcement Theory of Motivation, he reinforces B.F. Skinner's theory by expounding on the schedules of reinforcement. He explains that schedules of reinforcement are the precise rules that are used to present (or to remove) reinforces (or punishers) following a specified operant behavior. These rules are defined in terms of the time and/or the number of responses required in order to present (or to remove) a reinforce (or a punisher). Different schedules of reinforcement produce distinctive effects on operant behavior.

On the other hand, the researcher and author, Meredyth Glass, who in her article, How Can Managers Use Reinforcement Theory to Motivate Employees?" delves into B.F. Skinner's observation of targeted behaviors both positive and negative and whether they eventually foster resentment more so than a punitive approach.

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Main Issues of Both Articles

Garud's key point in his article is that managers who are trying to motivate their employees must ensure that they do not reward their employees simultaneously. They must tell the employees what they are not doing correct and must tell the employees how they can achieve positive reinforcement. He stresses that both positive and negative reinforcement strengthen a response and increase the probability of repetition and both punishment and extinction weaken behavior or tend to decrease its frequency.

He defines the schedules of reinforcement as being the speed in which learning takes place and the permanence of its effects will be determined by the timing of reinforcement. The major types of reinforcement schedules are continuous and intermittent. A continuous reinforcement schedule reinforces the desired behavior each and every time it is demonstrated. For example, an employee who has historically had trouble arriving to work on time, every time he is not late his manager might compliment him on his desirable behavior. This may not be practical in an organizational setting. Therefore, intermittent schedules are usually employed. In an intermittent schedule, not every instance of the desirable behavior is reinforced, but reinforcement is given often enough to make the behavior worth repeating (Garud, 2012).

Glass' approach to B.F. Skinner's reinforcement theory asks, "What would happen if you rewarded on-time behavior and ignored late arrivals instead of punishing them? She claims he suggests that on-time arrivals would significantly increase and late arrivals would become very rare (Glass, 2012).

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Implied / Factual

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