Learning and Decision Making

A set of vocabulary flashcards focused on essential terms related to learning and decision making in organizational behavior.

Learning

Relatively permanent changes in an employee’s knowledge or skills attained from experience.

Explicit Knowledge

Information-based knowledge that is relatively easily communicated, necessary to perform well, and often found in manuals or books.

Tacit Knowledge

Experience-based knowledge that is tough to communicate; includes social skills and intuition, and is often a key contributor to learning.

Decision Making

The process of generating and choosing from a set of alternatives to solve a problem.

Reinforcement

A method of learning where behavior is shaped by rewards or punishments following an action.

Positive Reinforcement

A positive outcome that follows a desirable behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

A negative outcome that is removed following a desired behavior.

Punishment

A negative outcome that follows an undesirable behavior.

Extinction

The removal of a positive outcome following an undesirable behavior.

Programmed Decisions

Automatic, experience-based decisions that are recognized and identified quickly.

Intuition

Emotionally charged judgment arising through quick, nonconscious, and holistic associations.

Nonprogrammed Decisions

Decisions made in response to new, complex, or unrecognized problems using a rational decision-making model.

Bounded Rationality

The concept that decision makers do not have the ability or resources to process all available information for good decision making.

Heuristics

Simple, efficient rules of thumb that allow for quicker decision-making.

Availability Bias

The tendency to base judgments on information that is easier to recall.

Fundamental Attribution Error

A tendency to judge others' behaviors as due to internal factors such as ability or attitude.

Self-Serving Bias

Attributing one's failures to external factors while attributing successes to internal factors.

Learning Goal Orientation

Prioritizing building competence over demonstrating it.

Performance-Prove Orientation

Focus on demonstrating competence to gain favorable judgments from others.

Performance-Avoid Orientation

Focus on demonstrating competence to avoid negative judgments from others.