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Amity Business SchoolLEARNING

How people learn behaviours andwhat management can do to shape

those behaviours?What are the various Learningtheories ?Explain the concept of reinforcement.Can it be applied in organizations?

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Amity Business SchoolLearning

Learning

Involves change

Is relatively permanent

Is acquired through experience

direct or indirect

Learning Any relatively permanent change inknowledge or observable behavior that occursas a result from practice or experience.

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Amity Business School

Learning is a continuous, automatic and often social processAlthough there are

times when individuals will deliberately and consciously learn and study, for themost part learning takes place without any necessary deliberations, nor any assessments to find out how much has been learnt. (Mullins:1996).

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Why ?

Effective managers focus on identifyingobservable employee behaviors and the

environmental conditions that affect thesebehaviors. They attempt to influence external events in order to influence the behavior/ desirable.

You can facilitate the learning process

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How learning happens? Theories of Learning

The process of learning can be examinedby understanding the following theories-

-Classical Conditioning-Operant Conditioning- Cognitive learning-Social Learning

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Amity Business SchoolTheories of Learning

Key Concepts

Unconditioned stimulus

Unconditioned response Conditioned stimulus

Conditioned response

Classical Conditioning A type of conditioning in which an individualresponds to some stimulus that would notordinarily produce such a response.

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Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning grew out of experiments to teach dogs to salivate in

response to the ringing of a bell. These experiments were conducted at the

turn of the century by a Russian

physiologist called Ivan Pavlov.

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Classical Conditioning Using these concepts we cansummarize classical conditioning. Learning a conditioned response involves

building up an association between aconditioned stimulus and an unconditionedstimulus.

When the stimuli, one compelling and theother neutral, are paired, the neutral onebecomes a conditioned stimulus and takeson the properties on the unconditioned

stimulus.

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Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning is passive. Something happens and we react in a

specific way. It is elicited in response to a specific,

identifiable event.

As such it can explain simple reflexivebehaviours.

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But most complex behaviour- behaviour of individuals in organizations is emitted(produced) rather than elicited( extracted),that is it is voluntary rather than reflexive

For example most employees choose tobe on time or late for work, choose to seek

or not to seek help with problems andchoose to or not to goof off when they arenot being watched.

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Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning argues that behaviour is a function of its

consequences [it is] a type of conditioning in which desired voluntary behaviour leads to a reward or prevents a punishment.

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Operant Conditioning What Pavlov did for classical conditioning,the Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner did

for operant conditioning. Building on earlier work in the field by

Thorndike (law of effect - behaviour as a

result of successful outcome), Skinnersresearch extensively expanded our knowledge of operant conditioning.

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B.F. Skinner Behaviour is assumed to be determined from without - that is, learned - rather than

from within - reflexive or unlearned. (Skinner) Skinner argued that creating pleasing

consequences to follow specific forms of

behaviour would increase the frequency of that behaviour.

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Operant Conditioning Behaviour modification is the term givenwhen behaviour is gradually shaped and

reinforced by rewards as the personcomes closer to the end objectives. Learning occurs incrementally with the

task divided into sub-goals each with their own reward.

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Operant Conditioning- critics Rewards are only one part of the learningprocess.

By themselves the behavioural theoriesare not able to account for the complexityof differing situations that individuals face

nor for the variety of individual responsesgiven.

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Cognitive learning From the 1930s cognitive psychologists have advanceda number of arguments with respect to the limitation of the behaviorist school.

Learning is considered as the outcome of deliberatethinking about the problem or situation both intitutivelyand based upon known facts and responding in anobjective and goal oriented manner.

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Cognition in fact , is the act of knowing an item of information and this knowledge affects the behaviour of the person so that the information provides cognitive cues towards the expected goal.

Tolmans experiments

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Cognitive Theories Individuals have goals and plans notreadily observable which might affectthe learning process.

An individuals personality, perceptionsand motivations will also influence thelearning process.

Cognitive theorists pay attention to theindividual factors influencing thelearning process.

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Social-Learning TheoryPeople can learn through observation and directexperience. It emphasis on the importance of perception in learning.

It integrates cognitive and operant

People acquire new behaviors by observing orimitating others in social setting

Albert Bandura- modelling theory

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Key Concepts

Reinforcement is required to change behavior.

Some rewards are more effective than others.

The timing of reinforcement affects learningspeed and permanence.

Shaping BehaviorSystematically reinforcing each successive step thatmoves an individual closer to the desired response.

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Reinforcement The term reinforce means to strengthen, and is used inpsychology to refer to anything stimulus whichstrengthens or increases the probability of a specificresponse.

For example, if you want your dog to sit on command,you may give him a treat every time he sits for you. Thedog will eventually come to understand that sitting whentold to will result in a treat. This treat is reinforcing

because he likes it and will result in him sitting wheninstructed to do so. This is a simple description of a reinforcer (Skinner,

1938), the treat, which increases the response, sitting.
http://allpsych.com/dictionary/r.htmlhttp://allpsych.com/dictionary/r.html

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Types of Reinforcement Positive reinforcement Negative reinforcement Punishment Extinction

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Schedules of ReinforcementThe 2 major types of reinforcement -

Continuous Reinforcement

A desired behavior is reinforced each time it isdemonstrated.

Intermittent Reinforcement

A desired behavior is reinforced often enough tomake the behavior worth repeating but not everytime it is demonstrated.It can be ratio or interval type

Ratio-fixed ratio and variable ratio

Interval fixed interval and variable interval

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Does punishment system works?

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