Question

• Management and Organizations

1. In a brief essay, discuss how managers can use rewards to shape team behavior

2. in a short essay explain how managers can shape behavior using positive and negative reinforcement

Answer 1

Question 1

Every company is having a strategic reward system for employees which may addresses these four areas like compensation, benefits, recognition and appreciation.

A good winning system should recognize and reward two types of employee activity; performance and behavior

Rewarding certain specific behaviors that made a difference to your company is more challenging than any rewarding performance,

One of the main purposes of providing   reward  to the employee in an organization is to shape their behavior. The key to ensure that reward has the major impact on shaping the employee’s behavior is knowing what behavior to reward, when to reward it and how to reward it. Rewards that are contingent upon certain behavior are critical in shaping

The employee behavior can be shaped in one of the four methods like positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment.

1. Positive reinforcement

The process of strengthening a behavior (increasing its frequency) by contingently presenting something pleasurable is called the positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement encourages or promotes the employee in having the good and beneficial behavior.

2. Negative reinforcement

Negative reinforcement is the process of strengthening a behavior (increasing its frequency) by contingently reducing or eliminating which something displeasing. Negative reinforcement shapes the behavior of an employee by encouraging him to remove the non-beneficial behavior.

3. Positive punishment

The process of weakening a behavior (decreasing its frequency) by contingently presenting with something that is displeasing is called as positive punishment. An example is making an employee to re-write a blog post that  was already submitted but with an error.

4. Negative punishment

Negative punishment is the process of weakening a behavior (decreasing its frequency) by contingently reducing or eliminating that is something pleasing. An example of this is suspending a problem employee without paying any reward.

Question 2

Positive reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is the most powerful tool that shapes behavior. It is the process of recognizing and rewarding a desired behavior in an effort to encourage its continuance.

An example of this is that after a successful and winning sale, the  managers stops being rude and yelling at him.

Employees should be recognized for the good work and for their good customer service skills. We all need positive reinforcement and like to be acknowledged for our contributions.

An example of this is an employee who works overtime due to praise and recognition from the manager.

Principles of Positive Reinforcement

The managers should be aware of and use the following principles of positive reinforcement:

• Once behavior is established, a relatively small amount of reinforcement will usually maintain that behavior.
• The more immediate the reinforcement, the more powerful it will be.
• It is important to reinforce both excellence and progress of employee.
• Reinforcement should be very specific.
• It is more important to use reinforcement to help people link service behavior with service results.

Negative reinforcement

It occurs when a certain stimulus (usually an aversive stimulus) is removed after a particular behavior is exhibited. The likelihood of the particular behavior occurring again in the future is decreased because of negative reinforcements.

Negative reinforcement can’t be considered  as a punishment procedure. With negative reinforcement, you are increasing a behavior, whereas with punishment, you are decreasing a behavior.