Steelcase’s implementation of teams has made workers 45 percent more productive than their competitors’ workers.
JACK HOLLINGSWORTH/PHOTODISC/GETTY IMAGES
Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy is the individual’s estimate of his or her own ability to perform a specific task in a particular situation.26 The greater the employee’s perceived ability to perform the task, the higher the employee’s self-efficacy. Employees with high self-efficacy believe
that (1) they have the ability needed, (2) they are capable of the effort required, and (3) no outside events will keep them from performing at a high level. If employees have low self-efficacy, they believe that no matter how hard they try, something will happen to prevent them from reaching the desired level of performance. Self-efficacy influences people’s choices of tasks and how long they will spend trying to reach their goals.27 For example, a novice golfer who has taken only a few lessons might shoot a good round. Under such circumstances, the golfer might attribute the score to
“beginner’s luck” and not to ability. But, after many lessons and hours of practice, an individual with low self-efficacy who still can’t break 100 may decide that the demands of the game are too great to justify spending any more time on it. However, a high self-efficacy individual will try even harder to improve her game. This effort might include taking more lessons, watching videotapes of the individual’s own swing, and practicing even harder and longer.
Self-efficacy has an impact on learning in three ways:
It influences the activities and goals that individuals choose for themselves
• . In a sales
contest at Pioneer Telephone Cooperative in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, employees with low self-efficacy didn’t set challenging, or “stretch,” goals. These people weren’t lazy; they simply thought that they would fail to achieve a lofty goal. The high self-efficacy employees thought that they were capable of achieving high- performance goals—and did so.
It influences the effort that individuals exert on the job.
• Individuals with high self-
efficacy work hard to learn new tasks and are confident that their efforts will be rewarded. Low self-efficacy individuals lack confidence in their ability to succeed and see their extra effort as futile because they are likely to fail anyway.
It affects the persistence with which an individual stays with a complex task.
• Because high
self-efficacy people are confident that they will perform well, they are likely to persist in spite of obstacles or in the face of temporary setbacks. At IBM, low-performing employees were more likely than high-performing employees to dwell on obstacles hindering their ability to do assigned tasks. When people believe that they aren’t capable of doing the required work, their motivation to do a task will be low.
To determine your self-efficacy, turn to the Experiential Exercise on page 154 at the end of this chapter.
Insights for Leaders
Leaders (and fellow team members) can use social learning theory to help employees learn to believe in themselves. Past experience is the most powerful influence on behav- ior. At work, the challenge is to create situations in which the employee may respond successfully to the task(s) required. A leader’s expectations for a subordinate’s perfor- mance—as well as the expectations of peers—also can affect a person’s self-efficacy.
If a leader holds high expectations for an employee and provides proper training and suggestions, the individual’s self-efficacy is likely to increase. Small successes boost self-efficacy and lead to more substantial accomplishments later. If a leader holds low expectations for an employee and gives little constructive advice, the employee is likely to form an impression that he can’t achieve the goal and, as a result, perform poorly.
Guidelines for using social learning theory to influence employee behavior in organizations include the following28:
Identify the behaviors that will lead to improved performance.
•
Select the appropriate model for employees to observe.
•
Be sure that employees are capable of meeting the technical skills required by the
•
new behaviors.
Create a positive learning situation to increase the likelihood that employees will
•
learn the new behaviors and act accordingly.
Provide positive consequences (praise, raises, or bonuses) to employees who
•
perform as desired.
Develop organizational practices that maintain the newly learned behaviors.
•
The effective use of self-control in learning requires that several conditions be met. First, the individual must engage in behaviors that she wouldn’t normally want to perform. This distinguishes performing activities that the individual enjoys from those involving self-control. Second, the individual must be able to use self-reinforcers, which are rewards that individuals give themselves. Some self-reinforcers include buy- ing oneself a present, going out to a nice restaurant, playing a round of golf at a resort course, and the like. Self-reinforcers come simply from a feeling of accomplishment or achievement. Third, the individual must set goals that determine when self-reinforcers are to be applied. An individual high in self-control doesn’t randomly reward himself, but sets goals that determine when to self-reinforce. In doing so, the individual relies on his own past performance, the performance of others on similar kinds of tasks, or some standard set by others. For example, one of the authors of this book is an accomplished golfer with a single-digit handicap. After playing a round in the 70s, he frequently buys himself a golf shirt as a self-reinforcer for a good round. Finally, the individual must administer the self-reinforcer only when the goal is achieved: The author buys himself a golf shirt only when he shoots a round in the 70s.
Chapter Summary
Classical conditioning began with Pavlov’s work. He started a metronome (conditioned stimulus) at the same time food was placed in a dog’s mouth (unconditioned stimu- lus). Quickly the sound of the metronome alone caused the dog to salivate. Operant conditioning focuses on the effects of reinforcement on desirable and undesirable behaviors. Changes in behavior result from the consequences of previous behavior.
People tend to repeat a behavior that leads to a pleasant result and not to repeat a behavior that leads to an unpleasant result. In short, when a behavior is reinforced, it is repeated; when it is punished or not reinforced, it is not repeated.
The two types of reinforcement are (1) positive reinforcement, which increases a desirable behavior because the individual is provided with a pleasurable outcome after the behavior has occurred; and (2) negative reinforcement, which also maintains the desirable behavior by presenting an unpleasant event before the behavior occurs and stopping the event when the behavior occurs. Both positive and negative reinforce- ment increase the frequency of a desirable behavior. Conversely, extinction and pun- ishment reduce the frequency of an undesirable behavior. Extinction involves stopping everything that reinforces the behavior. A punisher is an unpleasant event that follows the behavior and reduces the probability that the behavior will be repeated.
There are four schedules of reinforcement. In the fixed interval schedule, the reward is given on a fixed time basis (e.g., a weekly or monthly paycheck). It is effective for maintaining a level of behavior. In the variable interval schedule, the reward is given around some average time during a specific period of time (e.g., the plant leader walking through the plant an average of five times every week). This schedule of rein- forcement can maintain a high level of performance because employees don’t know when the reinforcer will be delivered. The fixed ratio schedule ties rewards to certain outputs (e.g., a piece-rate system). This schedule maintains a steady level of behav- ior once the individual has earned the reinforcer. In the variable ratio schedule, the reward is given around some mean, but the number of behaviors varies (e.g., a payoff from a slot machine). This schedule is the most powerful because both the number of desired behaviors and their frequency change.
1. Explain the role of classical and operant conditioning in fostering learning.
2. Describe the contingencies of reinforcement that influence behavior.
3. Explain how positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction affect an individual’s performance.