9 - Learning & Decision Making

Learning & Decision-Making Overview

• Instructor: Rachel Burgess

• URL: www.16personalities.com/free-test

Today's Agenda

• Why are some employees better learners than others?

• Decision-making process

• Perception

• Common cognitive errors

• Attribution

Key Mechanisms in Learning and Decision-Making

• Individual Outcomes:

  • Individual Mechanisms

  • Individual Characteristics

• Group Mechanisms

• Organizational Mechanisms

  • Organizational Culture

  • Organizational Structure

  • Teams: Processes & Communication

  • Motivation, Trust, Justice, & Ethics

  • Teams: Characteristics & Diversity

  • Ability, Personality, & Cultural Values

  • Stress

  • Leadership: Power & Negotiation, Styles & Behaviors

  • Organizational Commitment, Job Performance, Job Satisfaction

Understanding Learning

• Definition:

  • Relatively permanent changes in knowledge or skill resulting from experience.

  • Explicit Knowledge: Easily communicated (e.g., brands of bikes).

  • Tacit Knowledge: Difficult to communicate (e.g., how to ride a bike).

Learning Best Practices

• Questions to Consider: How do you learn best?

• Methods of Learning:

  • Reinforcement (Operant Conditioning Process)

  • Observation (Social Learning Theory)

  • Goal Orientation (Individual predispositions for learning)

Reinforcement Theory

• Operant Conditioning Process:

  • Ingredients:

    • Antecedent: Condition preceding behavior.

    • Behavior: Action performed by the employee.

    • Consequence: Result that occurs after behavior, such as receiving a bonus.

• Employees must see a direct link between behaviors and outcomes.

• Types of Reinforcement:

  • Positive Reinforcement

  • Extinction

  • Punishment

  • Negative Reinforcement

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Types:

  • Continuous: High reward, difficult to maintain—e.g., praise.

  • Fixed Interval: Average reward, e.g., paycheck.

  • Variable Interval: Moderately high reward, e.g., supervisor walk-bys.

  • Fixed Ratio: High reward, e.g., piece-rate pay.

  • Variable Ratio: Very high reward, e.g., commission pay.

Social Learning Theory

• People learn by observing credible and knowledgeable individuals.

• Behavior reinforced or rewarded tends to be repeated.

• Key Components:

  • Attention: Focus on critical behaviors exhibited by the model.

  • Retention: Remember behaviors after the model is gone.

  • Reproduction: Learner must have the skill set to reproduce the behavior.

  • Reinforcement: Learner receives reinforcement.

Goal Orientation in Learning

• Learning Orientation: Focus on increasing abilities/competence.

• Performance-Prove Orientation: Focus on demonstrating competence favorably.

• Performance-Avoid Orientation: Focus on avoiding demonstrating incompetence.

Decision-Making Process

• Generating & choosing from alternatives to solve problems.

Stages of Decision Making:

1. Identify the problem.

2. Recognize if it has been dealt with before.

3. Programmed Decisions vs. Nonprogrammed Decisions.

Common Decision-Making Problems

• Reasons for Poor Decisions:

  1. Limited Information

  2. Faulty Perceptions

  3. Faulty Attributions

Bounded Rationality

• Recognizes limited information and rationality in decision-making.

• Often results in:

  • Simplified problems.

  • Limited alternatives considered.

  • Inaccurate evaluations and assumptions.

Types of Cognitive Errors in Decision Making

• Selective Perception: Only perceiving consistent information.

• Projection Bias: Assuming others see what we see.

• Cognitive Heuristics: Shortcuts that simplify decision-making but may lead to bias.

  • E.g., Confirmation, Representativeness, Availability, Anchoring, Framing, Contrast, Recency.

Attribution Errors in Decision Making

• Fundamental Attribution Error: Judging others’ failures as internal factors.

• Self-serving Bias: Attributing own failures to external factors, successes to internal factors.

Summary of Key Concepts

• Reinforcement, Observation, Goal Orientation.

• Explicit vs. Tacit Knowledge.

• Decision Types: Programmed vs. Nonprogrammed.

• Common Decision-Making Problems include Limited Information, Faulty Perceptions, and Faulty Attributions.