This week review the textbook and lecture material on learning theory (also, reinforcement, operant conditioning, social learning theory). Learning theories suggest that an individual’s behavior in the future is a function of consequences the individual receives (or received) from current or past behavior. For example:

• An employee is late to work (current behavior); the supervisor reprimands the employee (the consequence); as a result, the employee stops being late to work (the future behavior).

• An employee does a nice job handling an upset customer (current behavior); the supervisor praises the employee for the way that she handled the customer (the consequence of handling the problem well); as a result, the employee performs a similar behavior next time a customer is upset (the future behavior).

• An employee puts in extra work on a difficult project and completes it on time (current behavior); the supervisor gives the employee another difficult project (the consequence); as a result, the employee stops working so hard to accomplish difficult projects (the future behavior).

• An employee is late to work (current behavior); the supervisor fails to reprimand the employee (the consequence); as a result, the employee continues being late to work (the future behavior).

This view of behavior suggests that a manager’s responsibility is to ‘shape’ an employee’s future behavior by applying positive or negative consequences to the employee’s current behavior. In the first example and the third example above your authors would call these "punishment" because in both cases the manager "added" a consequence that led to the behavior NOT being repeated in the future; the second example and the fourth example would be called "positive reinforcement" because the manager "added" a consequence that led to the behavior being repeated in the future. The key is not whether the behavior is good or bad, it is how the person responds to the consequence.

Test your ability to apply the concepts to real situations by doing the following:

• Explain the "cause" of the behavior you observe in a friend, relative, or co-worker using reinforcement theory logic/concepts. Use the terms/labels of the theory in your explanation.

• Describe a specific situation/person in your personal or professional life and how you could shape the person's behavior using learning theory principles. Be specific; though names are not needed.

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You do not need to submit anything written for these Individual Activities.  These activities are designed for you to obtain information and insight on your own personal characteristics and to provide an opportunity for you to think about how material from your readings applies in different situations.  NOTE: You may be asked to apply or discuss the information from these Individual Activities in quizzes or exams.