Performance Management: Changing Behavior That Drives Organizational Effectiveness (part 24)

TOP STORIES

Search Results

A Review Of The Ohio River Plan ORSANCO Is Floating

WVXU-Apr 4, 2019

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) is considering a new plan on water quality for the Ohio River. A previous plan ...

Nucor Plans $1.35 Billion Ohio River Plate Mill

The Waterways Journal-15 hours ago

Nucor Corporation announced March 27 that it will build a new state of the art steel plate mill in Brandenburg, Ky., along the Ohio River ...

Guidelines for Arranging for The Effective Delivery of Reinforcers

by

Charles Lamson

For convenience of language in the following section, we refer to you as the person who is defining and delivering reinforcers. What you do or say is not a reinforcer unless it increases the likelihood that the behavior you are trying to reinforce occurs again. While reading this section on selecting and delivering those things you intend to be reinforcing, remember that reinforcers are defined by the behavior of the performer, not by the deliverer. Look at the data to know if you are effective. It is important to establish a contingent relationship between behavior and reinforcers if the end is to be what you want.

1. Personalize your reinforcers.

Your reinforcers should reflect your own style. When you use tangible or social reinforcers with which you are not comfortable, they typically do not come across as reinforcing. In addition, when telling employees you appreciate their effort or accomplishment, express your praise in terms of how you feel, not in terms of the company or management. For example, use "I appreciate..." rather than "We at company XYZ..." or "We, the management, appreciate...." Above all, avoid form letters. Your reinforcers should reflect not only some knowledge of the performance, but some thought as well. For example, when you send a memo or tell people face-to-face that they did a good job, don't just say, "Thanks, great job." Describe in a few well-chosen words what performers did that you like and why you like it. Most important, the next time you reinforce, say something different. If you are delivering reinforcers to several people, vary the things you say so that each person receives a new message.

When a person receives a tangible reinforcer, it should be immediately apparent that it was meant just for her/him. To do this, you must know the person's reinforcers - a requirement of effective mangement.

2. Reinforce immediately.

The best time to reinforce is when you catch people in the act. Reinforce while they are doing what you want. The longer the delay between the behavior and the reinforcer, the less impact the reinforcer will have on the behavior.

Because of the way organizations are being structured in the global economy, an increasing number of supervisors and managers do not see the people they manage every day. Some may see employees less than once a month. How can they reinforce effectively? The best thing to do is ask the performer to relive the accomplishment. Ask, "How did you do that?" Answering this question will give people an opportunity to tell you how difficult the accomplishment was, how clever they were, how long they worked, and so on. This question is appropriate any time you see results but were not present to see the behavior that produced them.

3. Reinforce specific behavior.

We may need to reiterate here that you do not reinforce people, but their behavior. This means that you cannot reinforce a person or a group, but rather the behavior of the individual performer and the teamwork behavior of the individual team members.

When good feedback systems are in place, it is not always necessary to be specific. Good feedback systems are based on the fact that the employer knows the specific behaviors that drive the graphed results. Therefore, while referring to a graph, a general statement like "You're doing super" can still be effective.

4. Reinforce with sincerity.

The apparent sincerity of your reinforcers are extremely important, and this applies both to what you say and how you say it. If either is insincere, it is unlikely to be reinforcing. If your comments appear insincere, even though they are sincere, they are also unlikely to be reinforcing.

As discussed previously, an important aid to being sincere is using specific data while expressing your appreciation. People generally regard specific reinforcement as sincere.

Another good idea is to use tangible reinforcers from time to time along with your social reinforcers, a point mentioned earlier. The fact that you would spend the time, money, and effort required to select a meaningful reinforcer helps communicate sincerity.

When giving tangible reinforcers, you should give the social reinforcer first. This increases the likelihood that the person will hear your words and will more fully experience the impact and sincerity of your social reinforcer. When you present people with an object, all the attention tends to be observed in the visual stimulation of the item, or in determining how much they like the reinforcer you chose. Give the tangible almost like an afterthought - after the social sinks in.

5. Reinforce frequently.

Generally speaking, the more frequently an employee is reinforced for desired performance, the stronger that performance will be. How much is enough? The answer to this question involves many factors, but to give you a perspective consider the following. In The Technology of Teaching, B.F. Skinner (1968) states that to teach students to be competent in basic mathematical concepts requires in excess of 50,000 contingencies. This is not to suggest that a similar number is needed to teach adults job-related skills and habits, but the amount of reinforcement that is needed is generally much more than most people think.

A useful guide for the amount of reinforcement one should deliver relative to the consequences is the 4:1 ratio. The most effective teachers, coaches, and managers have a ratio of positive to negative interactions that exceeds 4:1. A helpful tip for managers who need to improve their ratios is for every time they apply a negative consequence, they should find at least four opportunities somewhere in the workplace to reinforce a desired performance. Of course, according to this ratio, if you never delivered any negative consequences, you would never deliver any positives. But in the real world this rarely happens. They should actively look for desired behaviors.

6. Don't reinforce and punish at the same time.

Frequently, while delivering reinforcers, people are tempted to express both what they did and did not like about the performance. This causes several problems and is a bad practice. First, it tends to make people suspicious. If intended reinforcers are frequently followed by a negative, then attempts at reinforcement eventually become an antecedent for punishment. The reaction to intended reinforcers soon becomes "What have I done wrong now?"

If, however, you establish employee relationships that include lots of reinforcement, the employees will actually ask for corrective feedback because they know that improvement in their performance will increase their opportunities for positive reinforcement. With this practice, the formal performance appraisal becomes a time to simply summarize progress and make plans for future reinforcement by dealing with and correcting deficiencies.

7. Don't mix goal setting and reinforcement.

Sometimes when we reinforce a behavior, we ask the performer for something more. For example, "Your report gave me the exact information I needed, Sandy. Thanks. But next time it would help if you get it to me earlier." "Dick, you met your sub-goal this week, but you realize you still have a long way to go."

Many managers see themselves as positive reinforcers while their employees do not. Often managers say, "I believe in positive reinforcement. This is the way I've always managed." Yet when the employees of these managers are asked how often they are reinforced, they often respond, "Never." One of the reasons for this response is that these managers violate the no-but rule. It's not that they don't say things that are positive. They do. However, they spoil it by adding "but...," which not only cancels the reinforcer, but often creates negative feelings.

Watch yourself to see if you violate the rule of no but in your reinforcement attempts. It may take more than four positive reinforcers to offset the effect of this error. 

*SOURCE: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: CHANGING BEHAVIOR THAT DRIVES ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS, 4TH ED., 2004, PGS. 216-226*

end