Chapter 5 | Learning
Learning theory affects many areas of management practice:
- Induction of new recruits
- Design and delivery of job training and development
- Design of payment systems
- How supervisors evaluate employee performance and provide feedback
- Methods for modifying employee behaviour
- Creating a learning organization
- Design and operation of knowledge management systems
Learning = process of acquiring knowledge through experience which leads to a lasting change in
behaviour
Behaviour can be changed by for example:
- Learning
- Maturation (in children)
- Ageing (in adults)
- Drugs
- Fatigue
➔ Our interest: lasting behaviour change
Manual skills learning curve
➔ Learning is not a smooth process, but
changes in pace over time, until a stable peak
performance is eventually reached
➔ Learner’s ability develops slowly at first, then
accelerates and develops more quickly, before
finally reaching a plateau
2 approaches to learning: behaviour and cognitive
Behaviourist, stimulus-response Cognitive, information processing
- Studies mental processes
- Studies observable behaviour
- Behaviour determined by memory,
- Behaviour determined by learned
mental processes, and expectations
sequences of muscle movements
- We learn cognitive structures
- We learn habits
- We solve problems with insight and
- We solve problems by trial and error
understanding
- Routine, mechanistic, open to direct
- Rich, complex, studied using indirect
research
methods
1. Behaviours psychology / ‘stimulus response’
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,= argues that what we learn are chains of muscle movements; mental processes are not observable,
and are not valid issues for study.
- John. B. Watson, 1913
- Relationship between visible stimuli and visible responses
- Believes in mechanism between the stimulus and response
- Actions experienced together tend to be associated with each other (e.g. touching a flame >
pain)
- We use knowledge of past behaviour to do better in future (e.g. don’t touch flames)
- We can’t learn without feedback
Feedback = information about the outcomes of our behaviour
Positive reinforcement = encourage desirable behaviours by introducing positive consequences
when the desired behaviour occurs
Negative reinforcement = encourage desirable behaviours by withdrawing negative consequences
when the desired behaviour occurs
Punishment = discourage undesirable behaviours through the application of negative consequences,
or by withholding a positive consequence, following the undesirable behaviour
Extinction = eliminate undesirable behaviours by attaching no consequences, positive or negative,
such as indifference and silence
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,Procedure Operationalization Behavioural effect
Positive Manager praises employee each time work is completed Increases desired work
reinforcement on schedule behaviour
Negative Unpaid overtime continues to be mandatory until work is Increases desired work
reinforcement completed on schedule, then overtime is rewarded behaviour
Punishment Manager asks employee to stay late when work is not Eliminates or decreases
handed in on time undesired behaviour
Extinction Manager ignores the employee when work is handed in Eliminates or decreases
late undesired behaviour
Development of associations between stimuli and responses occurs in 2 ways:
• Pavlovian conditioning (classical/respondent conditioning)
o Technique for associating an established response or behaviour with new stimulus
▪ E.g dog and meat. If you show meat to the dog, it will produce saliva. Meat =
unconditioned stimulus, saliva = unconditioned response (=reflex). Now: ring
a bell before we show the meat. Do this often enough, and dog will associate
bell with the meat. → salivate at the sound of the bell, without food being
present. = linking good behaviour to neutral stimulus so that the stimulus
can now evoke the behaviour
• Behavioural change due to an association between existing
behaviour and a stimulus/consequence
• Skinnerian conditioning (instrumental/operant conditioning)
o Technique for associating a response or behaviour with its consequence
▪ E.g. rat in box with a lever which, when pressed, gave to animal food. Rat is
not taught to press the lever, however the rat eventually moves the lever by
for example sitting on it or pushing it. This random behaviour is reinforced
with food, so it is likely to happen again.
o Instrumental conditioning, because concerns getting some material rewards
• Linking behaviour to a positive outcome so that the behaviour will be
repeated = tell a dog to sit down and give a piece of candy
Shaping = selective reinforcement of chosen behaviours in a manner that progressively established a
desired behaviour pattern
Intermittent reinforcement = procedure in which a reward is provided only occasionally following
correct responses, and not for every correct response
Schedule of reinforcement = the pattern and frequency of rewards contingent on the display of
desirable behaviour
2. cognitive approach to learning
Feedback not only reinforces behaviour, but also reinforces psychological constructs as values,
beliefs and motives.
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, - Socialization = value system, norms and required behaviour are adjusted to conform to the
social environment (society, group and organization)
o Socialization = process through which individual behaviours, values, attitudes and
motives are influenced to conform with those seen as desirable in a given social or
organizational setting (= cognitive approach)
▪ Formal: corporate videos, mentoring
▪ Informal: praise, encouragement, watching colleagues
▪ ‘natural’ process. Takes place anyway, planned or not
- Behaviour modelling = learning by observing and copying the behaviour of others
o If behaviour that we copy is successful, we are more likely to continue to act that
way
Punishment can be effective if it meets following conditions:
- Quick and short
- Administered immediately after undesirable behaviour
- Limited in its intensity
- Specifically related to behaviour, not character traits
- Restricted to the context in which undesirable behaviour occurs
- Shouldn’t send ‘mixed messages’ about what is acceptable behaviour
- Penalties should take form of withdrawal of rewards, not physical pain
Fogg’s 5 rules for designing automated persuasion:
1. Target a simple behaviour
2. Understand what is preventing the target behaviour
3. Choose the right technology channel
4. Start small and fast
5. Build on small successes
2. Cognitive psychology / ‘information processing’
= argues that what we learn are mental structures; mental processes can be studied by inference,
although they cannot be observed directly
- Nobert Wiener
- Consider states of mind concerning perception and motivation
- Reinforcement is always knowledge about the success of past behaviours
Cybernetic analogy = explanation of the learning process based on the components and operation of
a feedback control system
- Control of systems performance through feedback
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