BF Skinner and his associates proposes reinforcement theory of motivation. It states that individual’s behavior may be a function of its consequences. It is law of effect. A person’s behavior with positive consequences tends to be repeated, but individual’s behavior with negative consequences tends to not be repeated. In simple words when a manager gives rewards to his employees for doing job up to his expectations so in that case after receiving rewards employees get highly motivated and it leads to greater outputs in futures too.
It overlooks internal state of person who is that the inner feelings and drives of people are ignored. It only focuses on what happens to an individual when some action is taken. According to Skinner, the external environment of the organization must be designed effectively and positively so on motivate the worker. This theory may be a strong tool for analyzing controlling mechanism for individual’s behavior. However, it doesn’t specialize in the causes of individual’s behavior.
Managers use following methods to control the behavior of employees:
Positive Reinforcement- It comes under driving force. Giving a positive response when a person shows positive and required behavior. For example – Immediately praising an employee for completing his assigned task before time, doing well sales or doing anything positive or good. This will increase possibility of outstanding behavior occurring again and again to get positive response from manager. Reward is a positive reinforce, but not necessarily. If and as long as the employees’ behavior improves, reward can said to be a positive reinforcing stimulus. Positive reinforcement stimulates occurrence of a behavior. It must be noted that more spontaneous is that the giving of reward, the greater reinforcement value it’s. Another example could be a parent gifting a car to his son or daughter for getting high rank job or achieving remarkable grades in final year paper. Some other examples at work place could be giving positive and healthy feedback for quality of job done, by giving good number of opportunities, respect the opinion, giving incentives on achieving given goals, awarding with bonus, Giving car to high level managers to motivate them and it will also help in creating a competition environment in firm so then employees will put more efforts in work because everybody needs rewards.
Negative Reinforcement- It comes under driving force. IT suggests rewarding an employee by removing negative / undesirable consequences. Both positive and negative reinforcement are often used for increasing desirable / required behavior. It is also a driving force in eyes of employee it also gives sense of motivation according to theory perspective. Motivated employee is a bonus for manager and firm both. Some examples can be removing weekly meetings, reduce random testing of work. In this case we can say it can be used to reduce tension on employees if they do good work for suppose manager gave a particular task to an employee and he successfully do that so manager will reduce tension from his end so in near future an employee needs any relaxation so he will follow same footsteps.
Punishment- It comes under restraining force. It implies removing positive consequences so on lower the probability of repeating undesirable behavior in future. In other words, punishment means applying undesirable consequence for showing undesirable behavior. For instance – Suspending an employee for breaking the organizational rules. Punishment are often equalized by positive reinforcement from alternative source. It spread de motivation in employees because he is getting punished and no body likes to be punished even if he is wrong, he expects another chance without being punished. For example, accountant was expected to submit reports by Saturday but he failed to do so and his manger scolds him and cuts his incentives or bonus, another example could be an employee who always comes late to office even after several warnings so HR manager deducts some part of his salary. Although manager is doing what he is expected to do and that’s right too but still it will give de motivation vibes to employee.
Extinction- It comes under restraining force. It implies absence of reinforcements. In other words, extinction implies lowering the probability of undesired behavior by removing reward for that sort of behavior. For instance – if an employee not receives praise and admiration for his good work, he may feel that his behavior is generating no fruitful consequence. Extinction may unintentionally lower desirable behavior.
Example:
A local company recently implemented a replacement strategy to switch their issues with employee engagement and absenteeism. The new program’s goal was to resolve both issues. The company brief the program, which allowed employees to earn a star for weekly perfect attendance and community service. There would even be a star for the whole department whenever they reached their weekly production goals. At the top of every quarter, the workers with the foremost stars were ready to compete for a present card. Some competitions were cricket, volleyball, Table Tennis. However, if an employee receive any disciplinary strike during the particular time period, they were not eligible to participate in the program.
Within the primary year of the program’s implementation, the absenteeism was substantially reduced and therefore the employees began to use gathering stars as a contest. Some employees were beginning to encourage one another to volunteer so as to urge more stars. This meant that everybody was following the principles that were implemented and positively achieving goals within the corporate so as to receive more stars. Managers constantly praised their employees and their employee turnover was nearly zero. It is now their third year with this program and that they have said it’s even as effective now as it was once in starting years.
On the other hand, if we consider this theory on us it works in a same manner. My parents always appreciate me whenever I score good or do any work which can bring some good to our society or family which is basically positive reinforcement. Whenever I feel too much tension and pressure and I consult it with my father like previously I was having tough time so after discussing my father reduced office work for me and extended my work deadlines so I consider that as negative reinforcement. If I talk about the punishment that is very common whenever I do something which is not good in my parents view I have to face some sort of punishments like they restrict me from going out for some time or they take car keys away from me. Whenever I am unable to complete my office task my father reduce my benefits which he usually gives me in form of relaxation or money so this is what I consider as Extinctions.
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