Chapter 9 - Learning and Decision Making

Learning

• a relatively permanent change in an employee’s knowledge, skill, or behaviour that results from experience

• Expertise

• significant impact on decision making

Expertise

knowledge and skill for differences between experts and novices

Learning and Job Performance

• moderate positive effect on job performance

Learning and Organizational Commitment

• weak positive effect on organizational commitment

Types of knowledge

• explicit knowledge

• tacit knowledge

explicit knowledge

• easily communicated, available to everyone

• Big 5

• general information

Tacit knowledge

• knowledge that employees learn via experience

• know-how, know-what, skill

• personal in nature

• job specific

Methods of learning

• reinforcement

• observation

• experience

Reinforcement

• learn by observing the link between our voluntary behaviour and the consequences that follow it

• contingencies of reinforcement

• operant conditioning

Operant conditioning stages

• antecedent

• behaviour

• consequence

antecedent

• condition that precedes behaviour (goals, rules, instructions)

behaviour

• action performed by the employee

consequence

result that occurs after behaviour

contingencies of reinforcement

• 4 consequences used by organizations to modify employee behaviour

• Positive reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement

• punishment

• extinction

Positive reinforcement

• positive outcome follows a desired behaviour

• reward

• employee praised after showing up on time

Negative reinforcement

• unwanted outcome is removed following a desired behaviour

• designed to increase desired behaviours

• employee doesn’t get yelled at after showing up on time to work

Punishment

• unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behaviour

• an employee is suspended after acting in a rude manner

Extinction

• removal of a positive outcome following unwanted behaviour

• coworker attention is removed after an employee acts in a rude manner

Schedules of reinforcement

• the timing of when contingencies are applied or removed

• continuous

• fixed interval

• variable interval

• fixed ratio

• variable ratio

continuous schedule of reinforcement

• reward given following every desired behaviour

• potential level of performance is high but difficult to maintain

• praise

fixed interval schedule of reinforcement

• reward given following fixed time periods

• potential level of performance is average

• paycheque

variable interval schedule of reinforcement

• reward given following variable time periods

• potential level of performance is moderately high

• supervisor walk by

fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement

• reward given following fixed number of desired behaviours

• potential level of performance is high

• piece-rate pay

variable ratio schedule of reinforcement

• reward given following variable number of desired behaviours

• potential level of performance is very high

• commission pay

Characteristics of Continuous schedule reinforcement

• simplest schedule

• new learning is acquired most rapidly

• impractical for most jobs

• short-lived

Characteristics of fixed/variable interval schedule reinforcement

• reinforcement given based on the amount of time that passes

• fixed interval is the most common schedule

Characteristics of fixed/variable ratio schedule reinforcement

• reinforcement given after a certain number of behaviours have been exhibited

Observation

• Behaviour Modelling - employees observe the actions of others, learn from what they observe

Stages of Behaviour Modelling

• Attentional Processes → Retention Processes → Production Processes → Reinforcement

Attentional Processes

• Learner focuses attention on the critical behaviours exhibited by the model

Retention Processes

• Learner must remember the behaviours of the model once the model is no longer present

Production Processes

• Learner must have the appropriate skill set and be able to reproduce the behaviour

Reinforcement

• learner must view the model receiving reinforcement for the behaviour and then receive it himself or herself

Goal orientation flow

• Goal orientation → Learning orientation + Performance orientation → performance prove + performance avoid

Goal orientation

• the activities and goals that people prioritize

Learning orientation

• focus on building competence

• people that see failure as a means of increasing knowledge and skills

Benefits of learning orientation

• improves self confidence, feedback seeking behaviour, learning strategy development, learning performance

Performance orientation

• focus on demonstrating competence

Performance move

• focus on demonstrating competence so others think favourably of them

Performance avoid

• focus on demonstrating competence so others won’t think poorly of them

Programmed decisions

• somewhat automatic decisions because the decision maker’s knowledge allows them to recognize the situation and the course of action to be taken

• gut feeling

Non-programmed decisions

• decisions made when a problem is new, complex, or not recognized

  • rational decision making model can be used here

Rational decision making model

• 6 step approach to making decisions that is designed to maximize outcomes by examining all possible alternatives

Steps of rational decision making model

1. determine criteria for making decision

2. generate a list of alternatives

3. evaluate the alternatives against the criteria

4. choose the solution that maximizes value

5. implement the solution

6. evaluate the solution

Types of decision making problems

• limited information

• faulty perception

• faulty attribution

• escalation of commitment

Limited information

• bounded rationality

• likely to condense the problem into something easily understood, come up with new solutions, pick the first acceptable alternative

• lack of information leads to satisfice

satisfice

• decision makers select first acceptable alternative considered

Bounded rationality

• notion that people do not have the ability or resources to process all available information and alternatives when making a decision

Types of Faulty perceptions

• projection bias

• stereotypes

• availability bias

• anchoring effect

• contract effect

• recency effect

Selective prescription

• only see the environment as it effects them as it’s consistent with their expectations

Projection bias

• faulty perception by decision makers projecting that makes others think, feel, and act as they do

• i think its a good idea - coworkers must think so too

Stereotypes

• Assumptions made about others based on their social group membership

• social identity theory

• women aren’t good leaders

Social identity theory

• people identify themselves by groups they belong and perceive others by their group membership

Heuristics

• simple, efficient rules of thumb to make decisions easier

Availability bias

• tendency for people to base judgements on information that is easier to recall

• easily recalls theft in an organization, it must be common

Anchoring effect

• tendency to rely too heavily or anchor on one piece of information

• focus on last year average performance ratings when evaluating the team this year

Contrast effect

• tendency to judge things incorrectly based on a reference that is near to them

• average interviewee looks terrible after exceptional interviewee

Recency Bias

• tendency to weight recent events more than earlier events

Faulty attributions

• Attributions

• Internal attributions

• External Attributions

• attributions aren’t always correct

Attributions

• process by which causes or motives are assigned to explain people’s behaviours

Internal attributions

• blame individual factors

• ability, motivation

External Attributions

• blame environmental factors

• bad traffic

Fundamental attribution error

• tendency for people to judge others’ behaviour as due to internal factors

• sam was late for work because he is lazy

When does the Fundamental attribution error occur

• happens when we judge the behaviour of other people

• less likely to happen when we have significant experience with a person

Self serving bias

• attributing one’s own failure to external factors and success to internal factors

• i got the job because im so smart

• didn’t get the job because less connections

Consensus

Did others act the same way under similar situations?

Distinctiveness

Does the person tend to act differently in other circumstances?

Consistency

Does the person always do this when performing this task

Internal attributions and consensus, distinctiveness, consistency

• low consensus, low distinctiveness, high consistency

External attributions and consensus, distinctiveness, consistency

• high consensus, high distinctiveness, low consistency

Escalation of commitment

• Decision to continue to follow a failing course of action

• May wish to avoid looking incompetent or admitting they made a mistake

Escalation of commitment ArriveCAN

• failed to follow good management with contracting, development, and implementation

• app was eventually abandoned

Training

• systematic effort by organizations to facilitate the learning of job-related knowledge and behaviour

Communities of practice (Groups of employees who)

• share similar concerns and problems

• meet regularly to share their experiences and knowledge

• learn from each other

• identify new approaches for working and solving problems

learning is social

people learn from each other while working together on the job

Transfer of training

• occurs when employees retain and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and behaviours required for their job after training ends

climate for transfer

• organizational environment that supports the use of new skills

role congruity theory

• helps us understand how bias stems from lack of fit between stereotypes and expected requirement for a role