Unformatted Attachment Preview
Organizational Behavior
Modification
For most of the first half of the 1900s, the dominant paradigm
about managing individual behavior was behaviorism, which
argues that a good theory should rely exclusively on behavior
and the environment and ignore nonobservable cognitions and
emotions.48 Although behaviorists don't deny the existence of
human thoughts and attitudes, they view them as unobservable
and, therefore, irrelevant to scientific study. A variation of this
paradigm, called organizational behavior modification (OB
Mod), eventually entered organizational studies of motivation
and learning. 49
Exhibit 5.6 A-B-Cs of Organizational Behavior Modification
Antecedents
What happens before
the behavior
Behavior
What the person
says or does
Consequences
What happens after
the behavior
Exampie
Your phone makes a
distinctive sound
You check your phone
for a new message
You learn useful
information from the new
message on your phone
Sources: Adapted from T.K. Connellan, How to Improve Human Performance (New York:
Harper & Row, 1978), 50; F. Luthans and R. Kreitner, Organizational Behavior Modification and
Beyond (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1985), 85-88.
A-B-Cs of OB Mod The core elements of OB Mod are
depicted in the A-B-C model shown in Exhibit 5.6. Essentially,
OB Mod attempts to change behavior (B) by managing its
antecedents (A) and consequences (C).50 Consequences are
events following a particular behavior that influence its future
occurrence, such as new information you receive from an incom-
ing text message on your smartphone, or congratulatory notes
from coworkers for helping them complete a difficult task. Con-
sequences also include no outcome at all, such as when no one
says anything about how well you have been serving customers.
Antecedents are events preceding the behavior, informing
employees that a particular action will produce specific conse-
quences. An antecedent may be a sound from your smartphone
signaling that a text message has arrived. Or it might be your
supervisor's request to complete a specific task by tomorrow.
Notice that antecedents do not cause behavior. The sound from
your smartphone doesn't cause us to open the text message.
Rather, the sound (antecedent) is a cue telling us that if we
check the message list on our phone (behavior), we are certain
to find a new message with (potentially) useful information
(consequence).
OB Mod identifies four types of consequences (called the
contingencies of reinforcement).' Positive reinforcement occurs
when the introduction of a consequence increases or maintains
the frequency or future probability of a specific behavior. An
example of this is receiving praise after completing a project.
Punishment occurs when a consequence decreases the frequency
or future probability of a specific behavior occurring. Most of us
would consider being demoted or being criticized by our cowork-
ers as forms of punishment. A third type of consequence is
extinction. This consequence occurs when the target behavior
decreases because no consequence follows it. For instance,
research suggests that performance tends to decline when man-
agers stop congratulating employees for their good work. 52
The fourth consequence in OB Mod, called negative rein-
avoidance of a consequence increases
cation
or maintains the frequency or future
probability of a specific behavior. For
Consequences
example, managers apply negative
What happens after
reinforcement when they stop criticiz-
the behavior
ing employees whose substandard
performance has improved.
Which of these four consequences
works best? In most situations, posi-
tive reinforcement should follow
You learn useful
information from the new
desired behaviors, and extinction (do
message on your phone nothing) should follow undesirable
behaviors. This approach is preferred
because punishment and negative
ormance (New York:
Behavior Modification and
reinforcement generate negative emo-
tions and attitudes toward the punisher
(e.g., supervisor) and organization.
However, some form of punishment
(dismissal, suspension, demotion, etc.) may be necessary for
extreme behaviors, such as deliberately hurting a coworker or steal-
s ing inventory. Indeed, research suggests that, under certain condi-
-
tions, punishment maintains a sense of fairness.53
-
Along with the four consequences, OB Mod considers the
frequency and timing of these reinforcers (called the schedules
5 of reinforcement). 54 The most effective reinforcement schedule
social cognitive
theory a theory that
explains how learning
for learning new tasks is con-
and motivation occur
by observing and
tinuous reinforcement—provid-
modeling others as well ing positive reinforcement after
as by anticipating the
every occurrence of the desired
consequences of our
behavior. The best schedule for
behavior
motivating employees is a vari-
able ratio schedule in which
employee behavior is reinforced
after a variable number of times. Salespeople experience vari-
able ratio reinforcement because they make a successful sale
(the reinforcer) after a varying number of client calls. The vari-
able ratio schedule makes behavior
highly resistant to extinction because
the reinforcer is never expected at a
OB Mod an
particular time or after a fixed num-
ber of accomplishments.
cognitive th
hot nanir