Chap008 Detailed

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Copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Chapter

Copyri ght 2011 by the McGraw-H il l Companies, Inc. Al l r ights reserved.McGraw-Hill/Irwin

8Learning

and Decision

Making


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Learning Goals

What is learning, and how does it affectdecision making?

What types of knowledge can employees gain

as they learn and build expertise?

What are the methods by which employees

learn in organizations?

What two methods can employees use to makedecisions?


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Learning Goals, Contd

What decision-making problems can prevent

employees from translating their learning into

accurate decisions?

How does learning affect job performance and

organizational commitment?

What steps can organizations take to foster

learning?


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Learning and Decision Making

Learningreflects relatively permanent changes in anemployees knowledge or skill that result fromexperience.The more employees learn, the more they bring to the table

when they come to work.

Decision makingrefers to the process of generatingand choosing from a set of alternatives to solve aproblem.The more knowledge and skills employees possess, the

more likely they are to make accurate and sound decisions. Expertiserefers to the knowledge and skills that

distinguish experts from novices and less experiencedpeople.


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Discussion Questions

What does the term expert mean to you?

What exactly do experts do that novicesdont?


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Types of Knowledge

Explicit knowledgeis the kind of informationyou are likely to think about when you picturesomeone sitting down at a desk to learn.

Relatively easily communicated. Tacit knowledge is what employees can

typically learn only through experience.

Up to 90 percent of the knowledge contained inorganizations occurs in tacit form.


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Characteristics of Explicit and Tacit

Knowledge

Table

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Methods of Learning

We learn through reinforcement (rewards and

punishment), observation, and experience.

Operant conditioning says that we learn by

observing the link between our voluntary behaviorand the consequences that follow it.

Figure8

-1


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Contingencies of Reinforcement

Two contingencies used to increase desiredbehaviors:

Positive reinforcementoccurs when a positive

outcome follows a desired behavior.Most common type of reinforcement

Increased pay, promotion

Negative reinforcementoccurs when an

unwanted outcome is removed following a desiredbehavior.

Perform a task to not get yelled at


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Contingencies of Reinforcement, Contd

Two contingencies used to decrease undesiredbehaviors:

Punishmentoccurs when an unwanted outcome followsan unwanted behavior.Suspension, firing

Extinctionoccurs when there is the removal of aconsequence following an unwanted behavior.Stop laughing at off-color jokes

Positive reinforcement and extinction should be the

most common forms of reinforcement used by

managers to create learning among their employees.


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Contingencies of Reinforcement, Contd

Figure8

-2


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Schedules of Reinforcement

Continuous reinforcementis the simplest

schedule of reinforcement and happens when

a specific consequence follows each and every

occurrence of a desired behavior.

Fixed interval scheduleis whereworkers arerewarded after a certain amount of time, and

the length of time between reinforcementperiods stays the same.


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Variable interval schedulesare designed toreinforce behavior at more random points intime.

Fixed ratio schedulesreinforce behaviors aftera certain number of them have beenexhibited.

Variable ratio schedulesreward people after avarying number of exhibited behaviors.

Schedules of Reinforcement, Contd


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Schedules of Reinforcement

Table

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Learning Through Observation

Social learning theoryargues that people inorganizations have the ability to learn throughthe observation of others.

Behavioral modeling happens when employeesobserve the actions of others, learn from whatthey observe, and then repeat the observedbehavior.

OB on ScreenHarry Potter and the

Order of the Phoenix


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The Modeling Process

Figure8

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Goal Orientation

Learning orientation- where building competence isdeemed more important than demonstratingcompetence.Enjoy working on new kinds of tasks, even if they fail

during their early experiences.View failure in positive termsas a means of increasing

knowledge and skills in the long run.

Performance-prove orientationfocus ondemonstrating their competence so that others

think favorably of them. Performance-avoid orientationfocus on

demonstrating competence so that others will notthink poorly of them.


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Methods of Decision Making

Programmed decisionsare decisions thatbecome somewhat automatic because a personsknowledge allows him or her to recognize andidentify a situation and the course of action that

needs to be taken.Intuitioncan be described as emotionally charged

judgments that arise through quick, nonconscious,and holistic associations.

Intuitive decision making is perhaps never moreimportant than it is during a crisis.A crisis situationis a changewhether sudden or evolving

that results in an urgent problem that must be addressedimmediately.


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Methods of Decision Making, Contd

When a situation arises that is new, complex and notrecognized, it calls for a nonprogrammed decisiononthe part of the employee.As employees move up the corporate ladder, a larger

percentage of their decisions become less and lessprogrammed.

Rational decision-making modeloffers a step-by-step approach to making decisions that maximizeoutcomes by examining all available alternatives.


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Programmed and

Nonprogrammed

Decisions

Figure8-4


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Discussion Questions

Do you consider yourself a rational decision

maker?

For what types of decisions are youdetermined to be the most rational?

What types of decisions are likely to cause you

to behave irrationally?


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Decision-Making Problems

Limited Information

Bounded rationalityis the notion that decision makerssimply do not have the ability or resources to process allavailable information and alternatives to make an optimal

decision. Satisficingresults when decision makers select the first

acceptable alternative considered.

Faulty Perceptions

Selective perceptionis the tendency for people to seetheir environment only as it affects them and as it isconsistent with their expectations.


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Rational Decision Making vs. Bounded

Rationality

Table

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Decision-Making Problems, Contd

Faulty Perceptions, Contd

Projection biasis the belief that others think, feel,and act the same way they do.

Social identity theoryholds that people identifythemselves by the groups to which they belongand perceive and judge others by their groupmemberships.

Stereotypeoccurs when people makeassumptions about others on the basis of theirmembership in a social group.


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When confronted with situations of

uncertainty that require a decision on our

part, we often use heuristicssimple,

efficient, rules of thumb that allow us to makedecisions more easily.

The availability biasis the tendency for people to

base their judgments on information that is easierto recall.


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Decision-

Making

Biases

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Faulty Attributions

Thefundamental attribution errorargues that

people have a tendency to judge others behaviors

as due to internal factors.The self-serving biasoccurs when we attribute

our own failures to external factors and our own

successes to internal factors.


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Attribution Process

Consensus: Did others act the same way undersimilar situations?

Distinctiveness: Does this person tend to actdifferently in other circumstances?

Consistency: Does this person always do this whenperforming this task?

An internal attribution will occur if there is lowconsensus, low distinctiveness, and high consistency.

An external attribution will occur if there is highconsensus, high distinctiveness, and low consistency.


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Consensus, Distinctiveness, and

Consistency

Figure8

-5


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Escalation of commitmentrefers to the

decision to continue to follow a failing course

of action.

People have a tendency, when presented with a

series of decisions, to escalate their commitment

to previous decisions, even in the face of obvious

failures.

United Airlines baggage handling


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Why Do Some

Employees Learn

to MakeDecisions Better

than Others?

Figure8

-6


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Learning

Learning does influence job performance.

It is moderately correlated with job performance.

Learning is only weakly related to

organizational commitment.

Having higher levels of job knowledge is

associated with slight increases in emotional

attachment to the firm.


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Effects of Learning on Performance and

Commitment

Figure8

-7


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Application: Training

Trainingrepresents a systematic effort by

organizations to facilitate the learning of job-

related knowledge and behavior.

Organizations spent $134.39 billion on employee

learning and development in 2007, or $1,103 per

employee.

Knowledge transferis the transfer of knowledgefrom older, experienced workers to younger

employees.


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Knowledge Transfer

Behavior modeling trainingensures that employees have theability to observe and learn from those in the company withsignificant amounts of tacit knowledge.

Communities of practiceare groups of employees who worktogether and learn from one another by collaborating over an

extended period of time.

Transfer of trainingoccurs when the knowledge, skills, andbehaviors used on the job are maintained by the learner oncetraining ends and generalized to the workplace once the

learner returns to the job. Transfer of training can be fostered if organizations create a climate for

transferan environment that can support the use of new skills.


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Takeaways

Learning is a relatively permanent change in anemployees knowledge or skill that results from

experience. Decision making refers to the process of

generating and choosing from a set of alternatives to

solve a problem. Learning allows employees to makebetter decisions by making those decisions more quickly

and by being able to generate a better set of alternatives.

Employees gain both explicit and tacit knowledge as they

build expertise. Explicit knowledge is easilycommunicated and available to everyone. Tacit

knowledge, however, is something employees can only

learn through experience.


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Takeaways, Contd

Employees learn new knowledge through reinforcement andobservation of others. That learning also depends on whetherthe employees are learning-oriented or performance-oriented.

Programmed decisions are decisions that become somewhatautomatic because a persons knowledge allows him or her torecognize and identify a situation and the course of actionthat needs to be taken. Many task-related decisions made byexperts are programmed decisions. Nonprogrammed

decisions are made when a problem is new, complex, or notrecognized. Ideally, such decisions are made by following thesteps in the rational decision-making model.


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Takeaways, Contd

Employees are less able to translate their learninginto accurate decisions when they struggle withlimited information, faulty perceptions, faultyattributions, and escalation of commitment.

Learning has a moderate positive relationship withjob performance and a weak positive relationshipwith organizational commitment.

Through various forms of training, companies cangive employees more knowledge and a wider array ofexperiences that they can use to make decisions.

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Chap008 Detailed