Skinner labeled unlearned reflexes or stimulus-response connections as

238 PART 1 Individual Behavior

6.6 REINFORCEMENT AND CONSEQUENCES

MAJOR QUESTION

How can I use reinforcement and consequences to improve performance?

THE BIGGER PICTURE

In this section, you’ll learn about three especially effective and practical means for influenc-

ing your behavior and that of others: (1) the law of effect and the way it relates to respondent

and operant conditioning; (2) common types of reinforcement; and (3) the way managers can

increase the effectiveness of reinforcement using a variety of reinforcement schedules.

Providing consequences is the last stage of the performance management process. Do managers always get it right? Consider these scenarios:

• You stop making suggestions on how to improve your department because your boss never acts on your ideas.

• Your colleague, the ultimate political animal in your office, gets a great promotion, while her more skilled coworkers (like you) scratch their heads and gossip about the injustice.

In the first instance, a productive behavior faded away for lack of encouragement. In the second. unproductive behavior was unwittingly rewarded. The way rewards, and con- sequences more generally, are administered can make or break performance management efforts. Effective use of these OB tools is particularly important given that pay raises and promotions are often powerful career outcomes in the Organizing Framework. They often influence subsequent perceptions of fairness, intentions of quitting, emotions, and a range of behaviors at work.

The pioneering work of Edward L. Thorndike, B. F. Skinner, and many others since have outlined behavior modification and reinforcement techniques. These techniques help managers achieve the desired effect when providing feedback and granting rewards.

The Law of Effect—Linking Consequences and Behaviors During the early 1900s, psychologist Edward L. Thorndike observed in his lab that a cat would behave randomly when placed in a small box with a secret trip lever that opened a door. However, once the cat had accidentally tripped the lever and escaped, it would go straight to the lever when placed back in the box. Hence, Thorndike formulated his famous law of effect,  which says behavior with favorable consequences tends to be re- peated, while behavior with unfavorable consequences tends to disappear.91 This was a dramatic departure from previous notions that behavior was the product of instincts.

Using Reinforcement to Condition Behavior B. F. Skinner refined Thorndike’s conclusion that behavior is controlled by its conse- quences. Skinner’s field of work became known as behaviorism because he dealt strictly with observable behavior. He believed it was pointless to explain behavior in terms of unobservable inner states, such as needs, drives, attitudes, or thought processes.92 He

239Performance Management CHAPTER 6

instead drew an important distinction between two types of behavior: respondent and operant behavior.93

Skinner labeled unlearned reflexes or stimulus–response (S–R) connections respondent behavior. This category of behavior describes a very small proportion of adult human behavior, like shedding tears while peeling onions and reflexively withdraw- ing your hand from a hot stove.94

Skinner attached the label operant behavior  to behavior learned when we “oper- ate on” the environment to produce desired consequences. Some call this view the response–stimulus (R–S) model. Years of controlled experiments with pigeons in “Skinner boxes” led to the development of a sophisticated technology of behavior control, or operant conditioning.

For example, Skinner taught pigeons how to pace figure eights and how to bowl by reinforcing the underweight (and thus hungry) birds with food whenever they more closely approximated target behaviors. Skinner’s work has significant implications for OB because the vast majority of organizational behavior falls into the operant category.95

Contingent Consequences According to Skinner’s operant theory, contingent consequences control behavior in one of four ways:

1. Positive reinforcement 2. Negative reinforcement 3. Punishment 4. Extinction

The term contingent here means there is a purposeful if-then link between the target behavior and the consequence. So you should first think of the target behavior and whether you want to increase or decrease it, and then choose the appropriate consequence (see Figure 6.4). We next look more closely at the four behavioral controls.

Increase Desired Behaviors Positive reinforcement  is the process of strength- ening a behavior by contingently presenting something pleasing. A behavior is strengthened when it increases in frequency and weakened when it decreases in fre- quency. For instance, in the wake of the BP oil spill in 2010, newly appointed CEO Bob Dudley based 100 percent of employees’ variable pay (bonuses) on safety for the fourth quarter of 2010.96 This was a reward or reinforcer for safe behaviors.

FIGURE 6.4 CONTINGENT CONSEQUENCES IN OPERANT CONDITIONING

Nature of Consequence

Positive or Pleasing Negative or Displeasing

B eh

av io

r– C

on se

qu en

ce R

el at

io ns

hi p

Contingent Presentation

Contingent Withdrawal

Positive Reinforcement Behavioral outcome:

Target behavior occurs more often

Punishment Behavioral outcome:

Target behavior occurs less often

Punishment (response cost) Behavioral outcome:

Target behavior occurs less often

Negative Reinforcement Behavioral outcome:

Target behavior occurs more often

(no contingent consequence) Extinction

Behavioral outcome: Target behavior occurs less often

240 PART 1 Individual Behavior

Negative reinforcement  also strengthens a desired behavior by contingently withdrawing something displeasing. For example, many probationary periods for new hires are applications of negative reinforcement. During probation periods (often your first 30, 60, or 90 days on a new job) you need to have weekly meetings with your boss or have somebody sign off on your work. Once you’ve demonstrated your skill, these re- quirements are removed.

It’s easy to confuse negative reinforcement with negative feedback, which is a form of punishment. Negative reinforcement, as the word reinforcement indicates, strengthens a behavior because it provides relief from something undesirable (paperwork, meetings, or yelling).

Decrease Undesired Behaviors Punishment  is the process of weakening be- havior through either the contingent presentation of something displeasing or the contingent withdrawal of something positive. The U.S. Department of Transportation now fines airlines up to $27,500 per passenger for planes left on the tarmac for more than three hours. This policy reduced reported cases from 535 to 12 in the first year it was implemented.97

And while approximately 69 percent of companies have employee health and well- ness programs, and 75 percent of these use incentives,98 some companies are now punish- ing employees for unhealthy behaviors. CVS Caremark, for instance, now requires its employees to participate in health screenings or pay an extra $600 for their health care premiums.99

This practice is supported by research at the University of Pennsylvania. The admin- istrators offered different cash incentives for employee participation in “step programs,” with a goal that every employee should walk 7,000 steps per day. The incentives did not affect goal achievement any better than having no incentives. However, participants who would have been penalized for not walking 7,000 steps reached the goal 55 percent of the time. A related study produced similar results. Participants who were at risk of losing their $550 health insurance premium incentive for noncompliance with healthy behaviors were more successful than those that were rewarded for doing so.100

Weakening a behavior by ignoring it or making sure it is not reinforced is re- ferred to as extinction.  Discouraging a former boyfriend or girlfriend by blocking phone calls or texts or unfriending the person on Facebook is an extinction strategy.

A good analogy for extinction is the fate of your houseplants if you stopped watering them. Like a plant without water, a behavior without occasional reinforcement eventually dies. Although they are very different processes, both punishment and extinction have the same weakening effect on behavior.

The bottom line: Knowing the difference between these various forms of contingent consequences provides you with a number of powerful tools with which to manage your- self and others. Put another way, you just learned four tools for influencing behavior. Most people think of and use only two—positive reinforcement and punishment (negative feedback). Apply your knowledge and get ahead!

Positive Reinforcement Schedules You can supercharge or at least enhance the effectiveness of positive reinforcement (re- wards) by managing the timing or schedule of reinforcement. Continuous and intermit- tent reinforcement schedules are two common means for timing the administration of reinforcers.

Continuous Reinforcement If every instance of a target behavior is reinforced, then a continuous reinforcement  (CRF) schedule is in effect. For instance, if you get paid every time you make a sale, this is a CRF schedule. The sale is the desired behavior and payment is the reinforcement. CRF is especially useful for making early links be- tween desired behaviors and outcomes, but they are susceptible to perceptions of entitle- ment and rapid extinction if the link is broken.

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Just as you train your dog to do a new trick by providing a reward each time he or she does it successfully, CRF schedules are especially useful when employees learn a new task or skill. For example, assume you are asked to conduct an analysis of the indi- vidual purchasing patterns of your employer’s largest customers. Your manager could help you develop this skill by giving you feedback as you complete the analysis for each cus- tomer. This feedback and recognition rein- force your performance on this new task. However, you can see that while this rein- forcement is especially helpful and appreci- ated for the first few customer analyses, it likely loses its effect after the 10th, 20th, and 30th customer. Enough already!

One way to help guard against the fading benefit of reinforcers is to use intermittent schedules.

Intermittent Reinforcement Unlike CRF schedules, intermittent reinforcement  consists of reinforcement of some but not all instances of a target behavior. There are four subcategories of intermittent schedules. Table 6.9 shows them along with examples.

Like dogs, humans respond to reinforcement. To make this work for you, identify a behavior you want somebody to perform, and when they do be sure to shower them with praise, recognition, or some other form of reward they value and tell them it is because of what they did. The behavior will likely happen again. © Huntstock/Getty Images RF

TABLE 6.9 REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES, EXAMPLES, ADVANTAGES, AND DISADVANTAGES

Reinforcement Schedule

Examples

Advantages

Disadvantages

Fixed ratio Piece-rate pay; bonuses tied to the sale of a fixed number of units

Clear and predictable link between the behavior and the reinforcer

Costly to monitor performance and administer reinforcers (like money); reinforcers lose effect over time

Variable ratio Slot machines that pay after a variable number of pulls; lotteries that pay after a variable number of tickets sold

Strong motivation to continue until reinforcer is received; less costly than fixed ratio

Some desired behaviors will not be rewarded; potentially long periods between reinforcers (such as payouts)

Fixed interval Paychecks (every two weeks or once a month); annual bonuses; probationary periods

Clear and predictable link between the behavior and reinforcer; less costly than fixed ratio

Inconsistent effort and performance over the interval (majority of effort/ performance occurs near reinforcer)

Variable interval Random supervisor “pats on the back”; spot rewards; random audits (financial); random drug tests of athletes and employees; pop quizzes

Consistent and strong motivation to perform over time; least costly schedule due to relatively little monitoring and administration

Some desired behaviors will not be reinforced; potentially long periods between reinforcers (payouts)

242 PART 1 Individual Behavior

Work Organizations Typically Rely on the Weakest Schedule Generally, variable ratio and variable interval schedules of reinforcement produce the strongest behaviors that are most resistant to extinction. As gamblers will attest, variable schedules hold the promise of reinforcement after the next roll of the dice, spin of the wheel, or pull of the lever. In contrast, continuous and fixed schedules are the least likely to elicit the desired response over time. Nevertheless, the majority of work organizations rely on fixed intervals of reinforcement, such as hourly wages and annual reviews and raises.

Reinforcement Schedules and Performance Figure 6.5 illustrates the relative effect of the schedules on performance over time. Consider three professors who teach different sections of the same OB course. Assume their students are essentially equal in age, experience, and GPAs across the three sections. This is the scenario:

• Professor Blue bases student grades solely on short quizzes given at the beginning of every class (continuous reinforcement).

• Professor Black bases grades on a midterm and final exams of equal weight (fixed interval).

• Professor Red uses a number of unannounced or pop quizzes (variable interval).

We expect the level of preparation for each class and overall academic performance (preparation and learning) to follow the patterns in Figure 6.5. Professor Blue’s students will start fast and prepare diligently for each class. However, they will then settle into a routine and a common level of preparation. Over time they will figure out what is re- quired and do less. Some may even quit preparing once they have a clear sense of what their overall grade will be.

The pattern for Professor Black’s students is all too common. They start slowly, knowing there is plenty of time before the midterm. When it grows near, the intensity of their preparation increases and some begin cramming. Once the midterm passes, they disconnect for a while until they ramp up again for the final.

In contrast, Professor Red’s students will likely maintain a higher average level of preparation throughout the course, because there is a chance they will have a pop quiz and be graded in every session.

FIGURE 6.5 REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES AND PERFORMANCE

Midterm Exam 30 Days

Time:

Pe rf

or m

an ce

Final Exam 60 Days

Variable Avg PerformanceVariable

Fixed

Avg PerformanceFixed

Continuous

Avg PerformanceContinuous

SOURCE: © 2014 Mel Fugate.

243Performance Management CHAPTER 6

The bottom line: Students generally don’t like unannounced or pop quizzes. However, if the professor’s goal is increased student preparation and learning, then variable-interval grading is one means for generating a higher average level of performance.

These same patterns and results apply in business settings too. For instance, many sales and professional service jobs such as accounting and law have monthly numbers to meet, like sales or billable hours. This often means employees get far more work done in the last few days of the month than in the beginning (see Figure 6.5).

Practical Implications for Using the Strongest Schedule In general, any type of consequence—whether reward or punishment—is more effective when ad- ministered in proximity to the behavior. Effectiveness wears off as time passes.101 You are unlikely to change your professor’s grading format or the timing of your employer’s pay and bonus schedules. However, there are many ways you can put your knowledge of positive reinforcement schedules to use within the confines of existing practices.

Spot Rewards. At work, spot rewards are highly effective. If your coworker has worked hard to make your project a success, recognize her efforts via an e-mail to the entire team including your manager. Your manager, in turn, may decide to give Friday off to those who complete their current work satisfactorily and ahead of schedule.

Variable Rewards/Bonuses. Entrepreneurs can especially benefit from apply- ing knowledge of reinforcement schedules. Assume you started your own business and, like many new businesses owners, you are short on cash. You would like to provide regular bonuses and pay raises, but you can afford monetary rewards only when your company secures a new customer or a big order. The variable nature of these rewards not only recognizes employees’ efforts and success, but it also moti- vates them to work hard in the future because they know that such efforts are recog- nized and reinforced.

Celebrations. When it comes to school, we advocate celebrating and thus reinforc- ing “victories,” such as completing a paper, achieving a good score on an exam, and end- ing a semester in which you worked hard and performed well. Scattering these reinforcers throughout the semester can help motivate and reenergize you to work hard in the future, especially if you make these rewards contingent on good behavior.

All three of these examples apply variable schedules. Think of your own examples and consider their effectiveness. Reinforcement schedules, like the larger process of per- formance management, are often limited only by your creativity and willingness to apply your knowledge. Use the knowledge of PM you gained in this chapter to better under- stand existing practices and improve those you control.

244 PART 1 Individual Behavior

In our coverage of performance management, you learned how you can use goals, feedback, re- wards, and reinforcement to boost effectiveness. Reinforce your learning with the Key Points below. Consolidate it using the Organizing Framework. Then challenge your mastery of the material by answering the Major Questions in your own words.

Key Points for Understanding Chapter 6 You learned the following key points.

6.1 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

• Effective performance management (PM) is a process of defining, monitoring, reviewing, and providing consequences.

• PM is often used for employee-related deci- sions and development. It also is a powerful means for signaling what is wanted or not.

• Employee perceptions of the value and effec- tiveness of PM are often very low.

• Managers and leaders are critical to the per- ceived and actual success of PM.

6.2 STEP 1: DEFINE PERFORMANCE— EXPECTATIONS AND GOALS

• Goal setting is critical to effective PM. • Both learning and performance goals can be

used. • SMART goals are more likely to be achieved. • Goal commitment, support and feedback, and

action plans foster goal achievement. • PM can be improved using behavioral, objec-

tive, and task/project goals.

6.3 STEP 2: PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND EVALUATION

• Monitoring performance requires making effec- tive measurements of progress and/or outcomes, such as of the timeliness, quality, or quantity.

• Evaluation requires comparing performance measures to expectations or goals.

• Performance evaluation is often hampered by perceptual errors.

• Multi-rater or 360-degree feedback can make performance evaluation more accurate.

6.4 STEP 3: PERFORMANCE REVIEW, FEEDBACK, AND COACHING

• Two basic functions of feedback are to in- struct and motivate.

• Sources of feedback include others, the task, and yourself.

• Leaders and managers often don’t receive useful feedback, yet both are critical in ensur- ing that others do receive it.

• The effectiveness of positive and negative feedback is greatly influenced by the receiv- er’s perceptions.

• Coaching helps translate feedback into de- sired change.

6.5 STEP 4: PROVIDING REWARDS AND OTHER CONSEQUENCES

• Rewards can be extrinsic or intrinsic. • Results, behavior, and nonperformance con-

siderations are common criteria by which re- wards are distributed.

• Rewards are tools to help achieve desired outcomes, such as to attract, motivate, retain, develop, and engage employees.

• Alternate rewards practices increasingly com- mon today are total rewards, noncash, and pay for performance.

6.6 REINFORCEMENT AND CONSEQUENCES

• According to the law of effect, behaviors are either repeated or diminished depending on the desirability of the consequences to which they are linked.

• Providing contingent consequences is funda- mental to effective reinforcement.

What Did I Learn?