 Operant conditioning process

 Antecedent -> Behavior -> Consequence

 Condition that precedes behavior -> Action performed by employee -> Result
that occurs after behavior
 Manager sets specific and difficult goal -> Employee meets assigned goal ->
Employee receive a bonus

 Social learning theory (employees learn through observation)

 New behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. It states that
learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur
purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor
reproduction or direct reinforcement.

 Four contingencies of reinforcement (positive reinforcement, extinction, punishment,

negative reinforcement)
 Positive Reinforcement: occurs when a positive outcome follows a desired
behavior. It’s perhaps the most common type of reinforcement and the type we
think of when an employee receives some type of “reward.”
 Extinction: occurs when there is the removal of a consequence following an
unwanted behavior. Perhaps employees receive attention from coworkers when
they act in ways that are someone childish at work. Finding a way to remove the
attention would be a purposeful act of extinction.
 Punishment: occurs when an unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behavior.
Punishment is exactly what it sounds like.
 Negative Reinforcement: occurs when an unwanted outcome is removed
following a desired behavior. Have you ever performed a task for the specific
reason of not getting yelled at? If so, you learned to perform certain behaviors
through the use of negative reinforcement.

 Schedules of reinforcement: potential levels of performance; pros and cons of each

 Continuous reinforcement: is the simplest schedule and happens when a specific
consequence follows each and every occurrence of a desired behavior. But that
is difficult to maintain.
 Fixed Interval schedule is probably the single most common form of
reinforcement schedule. With this schedule, workers are rewarded after a
certain amount of time, and the length of time between reinforcement periods
stays the same. Like a regular paycheck every two weeks
 Variable interval schedules are designed to reinforce behavior at more random
points in time. A supervisor walking around at different points of time every day
is a good example of a variable interval schedule.
 Fixed ratio schedules reinforce behaviors after a certain number of them have
been exhibited. Like when a manufacturing plant has a piece-rate pay system in
which workers are paid according to the number of items they produce.
  Variable ratio schedules reward people after a varying number of exhibited
behaviors. Salespeople, for example, are often compensated based on
commission because they receive extra pay every time they sell an item.

Reinforcement Reward Given Potential Level of Example

Schedule Following Performance
Continuous Every desired High, but difficult to Praise
behavior maintain
Fixed Interval Fixed time periods Average Paycheck
Variable Interval Variable time Moderately high Supervisor walk-by
periods
Fixed Ratio Fixed number of High Piece-rate pay
desired behaviors
Variable Ratio Variable number of Very high Commission Pay
desired behaviors

 Made to Stick book (4 questions; I can’t give you hints or it completely gives away the
answer; we discussed each of them in class, however)
 Its easier for people to accept your solutions when they are sticky: understood,
remembered, have a lasting impact.
 Simplicity: if you say three things, you don’t say anything, no plan survives
contact with the enemy, find the core, schemas
 Unexpectedness: Breaking patterns, get attention: surprises, keep attention:
interest, common sense is your enemy, build the mystery, gap theory of
curiosity: create knowledge gaps
 Concreteness: use examples, brown eyes, blue eyes, finding a universal
language, hamburger helper: “I think of the women I met”
 Credibility: credibility is probably a bad term for this rule. It’s more about making
the idea come alive for people.
 Emotional: it’s less about emotion than getting people to care about the
message.
 Stats vs. Emotion: People who heard emotional appeal were more likely
to donate than those who only heard stats.
 Stories: Value of a story, visualizing the problem instead of the solution, stories
put knowledge into a framework that is more lifelike

 Read “Necessary Art of Persuasion” and “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion”; I discussed
most (virtually all) of this on the slides and in class; most of the content from Harnessing the
Science of Persuasion is in the “Science of Persuasion”
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw
 Reciprocity: People tend to return a favor, thus the pervasiveness of free
samples in marketing.
  Commitment and consistency: if people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea
or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment because of establishing
that idea or goal as being congruent with their self-image.
 Social proof: people will do things that they see other people are doing.
 Authority: people will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to
perform objectionable acts.
 Liking: People are easily persuaded by other people that they like.
 Scarcity: Perceived scarcity will generate demand. For example, saying offers are
available for a limited time only encourages sales.

 Essential steps of persuasion?

 Credibility (trust): two sources: expertise and relationships. How can you
establish expertise if you don’t have it? – outside sources (statistics, other
experts in the company), pilot projects, add credibility to the team
 Establishing relationship credibility: meet one-on-one with the key
people you plan to persuade. Why? This is not the time to persuade, this
is information gathering. At its core, relationship credibility is about trust.
 Common Ground: Even if your credibility is high, your position must still appeal
strongly to the people you are trying to persuade. It’s not deception to point out
what people stand to gain.
 If the message is about the benefit to you, why do I care?
 If your plan does not have clear benefits for the people you are
persuading: figure out what matters to them, change your plan.
 Evidence: Effective persuades supplement numerical data with examples,
stories, metaphors, and analogies to make their positions come alive. In other
word, they create sticky messages.
 Emotional Connection: Find the right balance, too much and you lose your
audience, too little and you lose your audience.

 How do you establish credibility?

 (See above credibility)

 Know the principles of persuasion from “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion” and “The
Science of Persuasion” (they are the same principles in both)
 Principle of liking: People like those who like them
 Principle of Reciprocity: People repay in kind
 Principle of Social Proof: People follow the lead of similar others
 Principle of Consistency: People align with their clear commitments
 Principle of Authority: People defer to experts
 Principle of Scarcity: People want what they can’t have

 What is a team?
 Team: two or more people who work interdependently over some time period in
order to accomplish common goals related to some task-oriented purpose
 Know the differences between these team types: work, management, parallel, project
Type of Team Purpose and Life Span Member Specific
Activities Involvement Examples
Work Team Production Long High Self-managed
focused, work team.
relatively Production
permanent team.
Maintenance
Team. Sales
team.
Management Decision Long Moderate Top
Team making tasks, Management
relatively team
permanent
Parallel team Decision Varies Low Quality circle
making about Advisory
particular issue, council
short-term Committee
team
Project team Production Varies Varies Product design
focused, varied team
time Research group
commitment Planning team
Action team Perform Varies Varies Surgical team
complex tasks Musical group
that vary in Expedition
duration and team
take place in Sports team
highly visible or
challenging
circumstances

 Steps of linear team development; does it always work that way?

 Forming: Understand team boundaries and what is expected of team members
 Storming: committed to ideas you brought to the team; unwilling to
accommodate ideas of others, which leads to conflict
 Norming: Realize need to work together (cooperation); norms & expectations
develop
 Performing: Comfortable working in roles; team is now making progress toward
goal
 Adjourning: Members feel anxiety as they disengage and separate
 Model of non-linear team development; what is “punctuated equilibrium”?
 Most social systems exist in an extended period of stasis, which are later
punctuated by sudden shifts in radical change.

 What are the 3 ways team members are linked together? (hint: got interdependence?)
 Goal Interdependence
 Outcome Interdependence
 Task interdependence

 Four types of task interdependence: what are examples of these types of teams; which require
more coordination?
 Pooled task interdependence
 Sequential task interdependence
 Reciprocal task interdependence
 Comprehensive task interdependence

 Know the three buckets of member roles (team task; team building; individualistic)
 Team task roles: directly facilitate accomplishing tasks, initiator-contributor,
coordinator, devil’s advocate
 Team building roles: increase quality of social climate, encourager, harmonizer,
compromiser
 Individualistic roles: benefit individual at expense of the team, blocker, slacker,
recognition seeker

 Potential pros and cons of member diversity on teams

 +: value in diversity problem-solving. Diversity can be beneficial because: larger
knowledge pool, more perspectives offered
 -: similarity attraction. Diversity can be harmful because: people tend to avoid
interacting with dissimilar people to avoid conflict.
 Diversity brings with it different perspectives and knowledge, which can
complement one another.
 Surface level diversity: race, ethnicity, age, gender
 Deep-level diversity: attitudes, values, personality, interests, knowledge,
skills

 Disjunctive, conjunctive, additive member abilities

 Disjunctive: Tasks with objective “best solution”
 Member with the highest ability = most influence
 Conjunctive: team performance depends on the “weakest link”
 Additive: Contributions of all members “add up” to determine performance

 Nominal group technique (Chapter 12 of teams reading PDF)

 Different culture types based on solidarity and sociability levels
 Observable artifacts, espoused values, basic underlying assumptions
 Socialization process
 Attraction-Selection-Attrition
 Realistic job previews
 Pros/cons of a strong culture
 Keys to delivering performance feedback
 When delivering feedback, know why it is important to be fair, frequent, developmental, and
nice