Management - Theory Management Theory

Management - Theory Management Theory How can managers shape employee behavior? In behavior-consequence relationships that influence work behavior, behaviors that have positive payoffs are repeated. Behaviors may be verbal or physical and if the consequences are successful and get the person acting what they want, they will do it again. This is a positive-positive (positive behavior reaps positive rewards) action. Behavior that avoids negative experience is also repeated. This is a negative-negative-positive (negative behavior that is not done reaps positive rewards) action.

Criticism from the boss about what one does is negative, so to avoid it, one does the job as the boss wants it done. Doing a project that is thrown out after doing much hard work on it will make the employee do the project the way others want it next time. And appearing to be stupid is not good either, so one tries to know the answers to the questions that will be asked the next time around. Behaviors that lead immediately to negative experiences are usually not repeated.

This is a positive-negative or a negative-negative (negative or positive behavior that reaps negative consequences). When one does something wrong, one is disciplined for acting incorrectly. When one does something wrong in public, others notice, and the one doing the incorrect action is embarrassed and vows never to do it again. However, if one is only rewarded with another job because one is very quick to complete the assignment, one will not work fast any more.

These related behavior-consequences also work on reinforcing bad behavior on the part of the manager. When employees allow a manager to yell or threaten them and do their jobs quicker or better because he or she is acting negatively, they are reinforcing those negative actions on the part of the manager, and he or she is likely to do the same thing next time (Pounds, 2006). Discuss the three components of an attitude. Secord and Backman referred to three components of an attitude, the cognitive, affective and behavioral components.

An attitude is one's given and consistent way of acting towards the attitude object. The Cognitive component is made up of knowledge, ideas, beliefs and opinions. These ideas need not be actually based on truth or be correct interpretations of facts. The affective component is defined by how the person feels about the object or issue, whether it is favorable or not favorable. Even unfavorable affectations range from annoyance to downright hostility.

The behavioral component is a tendency to act or react to the object in particular ways (saying or doing something about the object) (Secord, p. 91). Attitudes may be based on facts, or distorted facts or a misunderstanding of the facts (cognitive). Feelings about or toward something are often hard to change, even if facts are finally righted or changed that should change one's feelings about the object of the attitude (affect). This affective or "feeling" component of the three is the one most resistant to change.

The behavioral component may change easily, but that doesn't mean that that the feelings or perceived knowledge about the object of the attitude has changed, it just means that the person with the attitude is not going to show how they feel. How is bounded rationality related to decision making? Bounded rationality is the property of an agent that behaves in a manner nearly optimal to its goals as its resources will allow.

Simon suggests that researchers not just look at the surface answers in their research, but look to the reasons why something acts like it does (Simon, p. 50). Decision-making can benefit by following this rule. If one looks at the basis for a negative attitude that one wants to change, one might be more successful in changing that attitude forever.

And if one decides to get rid of an obstacle in a field, one might want to investigate how that obstacle came to be there or whether it has more components than immediately present themselves. If the obstacle in the field is a tree, if one does not dig up the roots, the tree will grow again and remain an obstacle.

If it is a rock, one might want to see if it came from a mountainside that will drop other rocks onto the field even after the one rock obstacle has been removed. In the case of deciding about whether to move a person from one position to another, one might want to investigate the person one is moving to see if the person has the basic requirements for the job.

What is a quality circle? A quality circle is "a group of employees who perform similar duties and meet at periodic intervals, often with management, to discuss work-related issues and to offer suggestions and ideas for improvements, as in production methods or quality control." This a management technique that uses others to solve problems related.